Sew a Simple Summer Skirt with your little one!
Some fabric found at a local charity shop for £1:99 (This fabric has gone a long way. So far, it has made two peasant blouses, one head scarf, a paneled dress for Emmy and this skirt... and there's still more left over!!!)
First we measured out the fabric. Bujana is an average sized 5 year old. We measured out 38 inches for the width and 14 inches for the length. These measurements took account of all seam allowances and too be fair they were pretty unscientific, as in they just "kinda looked right lol"
I would say the width would probably have to be increased somewhat for a longer length of skirt though.
We pinned and hemmed both the top and bottom of the skirt ( turning the fabric over twice to enclose the raw edges)When we sewed the top of the skirt we left about a 1/2 inch gap between the top of the fold and the stitching so that the elastic would be able to work it's way around easily.
We hooked the elastic onto the end of a safety pin and carefully drew it through the 1/2 inch gap we left in our seam,
Here is Bujana pulling the elastic through the folded seam at the top of the skirt. She liked watching how the elastic ruffled the fabric up as she inched it through! Tilly seemed interested for a little while too. Peter rabbit was less bothered it has to be said :)
We doubled over the side seams too to hide raw edges, also called a french seam, although if you are very clever (with a very clever machine unlike my "vintage" cheap as chips, slightly clapped out old singer) you might serger them, which would probably make them feel less weighty.
Now for the homeschool bit...
Here is Bujana drawing out the instructions so that she'll remember what to do next time :0)
This was a simple, fun sewing project for Boo. She was so excited that she was actually making something that she would actually be able to wear!
All in all the skirt took around 40 minutes to sew up, Boo on the machine (with a little guidance) me on the pedal. And it incorporated so many different skills...Measuring, visual, spatial skills, hand eye co-ordination, creativity, putting a set of instructions into an order of semblance...plus it was a lot of fun with a pretty summery skirt to twirl around the garden in at the end of it all.