Pattern 1122 - Girls need tulle, too!

I'm happy to say that the tulle skirt pattern I designed for adults last year has sold well enough, that Simplicity asked for a similar pattern for big and little girls!

They thought the knee length version with the extra ruffle would kind of overwhelm a child, so this pattern has the basic multi layer shirt in two lengths and one with a hem that slants from short in the front to long in the back.

My first job was to figure out how many layers for each size and how many panels of tulle for each. Here is my first set of mock ups. Cute, even in beige!

I'm going to talk about cutting in this blog.  Just like the adult version, the underskirt is cut in a circle, to allow for a lot of fulness at the bottom and very little bulk at the waist.

These skirts are made up of many layers that all look the same after cutting and before sewing.  I made up a numbering system that I could safety pin to the different layers after cutting.

Whenever possible, I cut tulle as it comes off the bolt, folded in fourths. It is so much easier to work with like this instead of being opened up flat. And, a rotary cutter makes all the edges really smooth and straight.

And, you can see, I have safety pinned a number on these pile of cut tulle to keep things organized.

But, for this view since the pieces are not perfect rectangles, the tulle will have to be opened up ... sigh.

It is nice to have a big table to do this. The tulle is 54" wide. I have doubled it in order to cut the left and right sides of the skirt at the same time.

I take the top end of my length of tulle and bring it to the bottom end to double it for cutting. I will be less likely to waste any that way. But, this leaves the rest of the tulle (waiting it's turn to be cut) in kind of a jumble.

I know some of you will end up using the floor to spread this fabric out and let me warn you that tulle is the most amazing lint and dust magnet!  And all the stuff that sticks to tulle can be easily seen. This is especially frustrating when bits of this and that are stuck between the very, very full layers and you can't tell if it's between layer 2 and 3 or layer 3 and 4.


I've learned this the hard way.

so ... SWEEP!! ... first

Actually sweep anyway, no matter where you are cutting.  That tulle is just going to pick up whatever it can. And maybe invest in a can of "Static Guard".

So, back to cutting the skirt with the uneven hem. The pieces need to be cut with the fabric opened out like this.

I like to use weights instead of pins, especially for something like this.

So, here are all four photo samples cut and ready to sew. Which I will talk about next time.

One more thing.
I, also, decided to make labels that say inner and outer to make sure I didn't mix up the layers that get sewn to the bottom edge inner yoke with the layers that get sewn to the upper edge of the inner yoke which is then sewn to the waist band. The inner layers are shorter than the outer ones.

This skirt is constructed the same way as the original one for adults with an inner yoke which keeps excess bulk away from the waist.

I wrote a blog just explaining that clearly ... this entire sentence is a link to that blog posting.