My Basic Method For Emily's Three Tiered Skirt.....

Briefly, here is how I made it:

Emily wanted three tiers and she wanted it approx. 20" long (finished)

So I divided 20" by 3 (tiers) and came up with 6.5" for the depth of each tier (minus seam allowances, elastic casing, and hem)

Her waist measurement is 22"

1st tier - 22" (waist) x 1.5 (fullness factor) = 33" wide

2nd tier - 22" (waist) x 3 (fullness factor) = 66" wide

3rd tier - 22" (waist) x 6 (fullness factor) = 132" wide

The fabric was 44" wide...so I had to piece the 2nd and 3rd panels together to get the proper widths.

After I added the elastic casing allowance for waist, seam allowances, and hem allowance, the final pieces were around the following dimensions:

1st tier - 8 1/4" x 33" (has allowance for 3/4" wide elastic waistband casing plus 1/2" seam allowance for bottom of tier)

2nd tier - 7 1/2" x 66" (has 1/2" seam allowances for both top and bottom of tier)

3rd tier - 8 1/2" x 132" (has 1/2" seam allowance for top of tier and 1 1/2" for hem)

Then all that is left to do is sew it up:

The top of the waistband gets turned under 1/4" and then another 1" and is stitched to create the casing. Then 3/4" wide elastic is pulled through the casing and sewn to fit the waist. Gather the top of tier 2 to fit the bottom of tier 1. Gather the top of tier 3 to fit the bottom of tier 2. For the hem on tier 3, turn under 1/2" then another 1" and hem. (For something like this I pull out my blind hem foot and hem it by machine.)

Now for your child you will need to have their waist measurement and also find out how many tiers they want and how long they want the finished skirt to be.

Hopefully I've explained it clearly enough...but if I haven't please feel free to ask any questions. And if your calculator can't be found, you can send me the three essential pieces of information (# of tiers, length, and waist measurement) and I'll work it up for you. See how easy that is???