Skirting the Issue with the Playground Skirt!

This month at Simple Simon & Co and Project Run & Play the theme is Skirting the Issue.  The fabulous girls at those two blogs are heading up an amazing campaign to make and donate as many skirts as possible to local foster care girls. The whole month of July they are highlighting skirt tutorials on both of their blogs to get you (and me!) excited about sewing for this cause.  Foster care is near and dear to my heart.  I am blessed to know quite a few foster care kids through friends and family.  In fact, I have two nephews and a niece adopted through foster care. I’m so honored and grateful that I was asked to participate in Skirting the Issue.  What a great, fun cause for some really great, deserving kids! 

For my contribution, I made what I’m calling the Playground Skirt I actually based it off of one of my favorite skirts, with a simple jersey knit drape and a yoga-style waistband.

It’s a great style for all ages, from toddler to adult.  But to make it more playground-friendly, I’ll show you how to throw in a built-in pair of shorts that hide underneath.

Even with the added layer, these are still super quick and easy skirts to whip up.  If you have a serger, you don’t even need to pull out your sewing machine at all.   I have two patterns available for downloading.  One is a girls’-size pattern in sizes 6-12, and comes with the shorts pattern.  The other pattern is a juniors’-sized pattern in small, medium and large, with no shorts pattern (though you could add your own using the tutorial below).  The biggest need currently is for clothing for the tween-teen sizes, so I wanted something that could easily work within that wide range.

So let’s make a…

 

Material:
1 yard of jersey knit
*if you want the under-shorts to contrast, you only need .5 yard each of both the skirt and the short fabric*

If you’ve never worked with knit fabrics before, and are using a sewing machine, here are some helpful tips.  Sergers require no special instructions for working with knits, and that’s what I used.

 

SHORTS
Right sides together, fold each short piece matching center crotch points

Sew up the inner leg seamsTurn one leg right side outAnd place inside the still wrong side out leg, matching all raw edges and inner seamSew down and around the curve of the center crotchTurn shorts right side out and set aside


SKIRTLay skirt pieces right sides together, matching all raw edgesSew side seamsCOMBINING SHORTS AND SKIRT

Place the above-completed shorts inside the skirt, right sides of shorts facing wrong side of skirt.  Match center seams of shorts with center of skirt, and the raw edges of both tops

Sew the tops of the shorts to the tops of the skirt

 

WAISTBAND

Take waistband strip and fold in half, right sides facing.  Sew up short side seam

Turn right side out and you now have a loop of fabricFold the loop in on itself, so that the waistband becomes self-facingPlace the waistband on the skirt/short at the top, matching the finished top seam of the skirt with the unfinished seams of the waistbandSew all around, catching all layers of fabric: shorts, skirt, waistbandBecause the fabric is jersey knit, and doesn’t fray, you can finish the hems of the skirt and the under-shorts as you want, if at all:  serge, zig-zag, turn and top stitch, or leave as-is.

*If making without the shorts, as in the junior sizes, just make the skirt and then skip straight to adding the waistband. *

And that’s it.  Super simple.  Super comfortable.  Super cute

And super coverage!

Don’t forget to continue to keep up with Simple Simon & Co and Project Run & Play  as they continue Skirting the Issue this month.  I hope you’ll sew along and make a few skirts to donate to girls in your area.  Check out the Simple Simon & Co and Project Run & Play  for information on where to send your skirts!