Rainbow Circle Skirt and Rainbow Applique

Remember my post about these pretty sleeves?

I promised you that I would show the whole Birthday outfit, once it came together. The birthday party was so much fun, as you can see we had a rainbow theme, and everything looked great. I will write about the party soon, but here is a tutorial on how to make the rainbow skirt:

I made this skirt for Littleheart using scraps of lightweight cotton fabric, since it is still pretty hot here. I made it big so she can wear it next year too. Since many of you are slowly going into your colder seasons, I bet it would work really nicely with thicker materials too (like different colors of corduroy). 

So do you want to learn how to make the rainbow circle skirt? Read on…

What you will need:

• Scraps of rainbow colored lightweight cotton fabric (or other materials if you are making a skirt for the winter)
• Piping (either bought or homemade). I used white but you can use a different color
• Wide elastic
• Circle skirt pattern (I recommend using this template)

I recommend using the circle skirt pattern template from this site here. The reason is that when you print it out and cut it to the right size, you have the lines on it in one inch distances. This makes it easier to make all your pieces for the rainbow skirt. 

1. Cut your pattern to the size you need it. Then count the amount of lines you have (I have 22) and divide those into the number of colors you want to use. Since I had 7 colors, each color got 3 lines (and my bottom one got 4, but that one got extra for the hem).

2. Cut your pattern into the individual stripes.

3. Now cut each stripe out of a different color. I used rainbow colors, but you could do a different combination, like red white and blue for the 4th of July. 

You are going to cut out each piece four times out of the same material. Don't forget to add seam allowance (1/2") all around the pieces like this:

You should now have four groups that look like this:

4. First you are going to sew each quarter skirt individually and then you will connect them to a circle. 

Take your top two pieces and pin them right sides together. Pin the top of the second piece to the bottom of the first piece. Sew them together along the curve, using a serger or a normal sewing machine (your should finish the edges with zigzag if you use a normal sewing machine).

5. Keep on doing this until you get to the bottom strip. Do this for all four skirt quarters.

6. Iron your pieces flat. If you want you can topstitch across all the seams (I didn't).

Now make 4 strips of piping as long as the length of your skirt (or cut your readymade piping to the length of your skirt)

Sew together all four skirt pieces sandwiching in the piping. It is best to use a zipper foot and sew as close to the cord as you can. Make sure your cord is facing in, so it will be on the right side of the skirt.

You should now have a doughnut that looks like this:

Now hem your skirt. Fold over the bottom of your skirt, around 1/4 inch and press. Sew along the hem with a double needle. If you are not using a double needle, fold the hem over twice and then sew along the hem.

Now put in your elastic. I will not explain how because Dana from MADE has a wonderful tutorial, so just hop over there and learn how.

Put your skirt on your little girl and have her twirl and twirl….

For the applique, I sewed strips of the same rainbow material together to make one rainbow piece:

Then I just made a regular applique using heat n' bond and sewed it on with a zigzag stitch.

I will be back soon with some pictures of the rainbow birthday party! Bye for now...

I will be linking up to some of the link parties on this page .