Placemats turned Toddler skirt

                                            

I saw these at Dollar Tree, and had to have them for my girls.  They screamed Spring...skirt...to me. :)  I'll show you how I did it!

You need two placemats for each skirt you want to make (that's $2.00 for each skirt!). 

1. Take a seam ripper to the manufacturer seam on all 4 short-sides of the placemats.

                                             

2. Since these are dollar store materials, the lines are going to be pretty wonky, so square up the raw edges that you just exposed. 

3. Now, line up the two placemats, wrong sides together, and sew the edges together, using a 1/4" allowance.  (Yes, I did say wrong sides together - you'll see why in the next steps!) Repeat on the other side. 

4. Trim to within 1/8 of sewn seam.

5. Iron the sewn edge to one common side. Do not press the seam open.

6. Take the tube of fabric, and turn it inside out.  Fold on the newly created seam.  Pull the seam tight, and sew just outside the edge of the bump created by the stitches on the other side. You now have a french seam that hides the exposed raw edge of fabric.  Repeat on the other seam.     

7. Fold the top of the fabric down 1-1/4", wrong sides together.  Sew almost all the way around the perimeter of the skirt, leaving a 2" opening to put in your elastic. 

8. Thread one end of elastic onto a large safety pin, and feed it through the skirt and out the other end.  (I used about 18 inches of 3/4" elastic).

9. Sew the elastic ends together, and then sew your opening shut.

You're done! Try them on your little one(s) and see how happy they are with their new skirt!

And if you made a third one that is just a tiny bit too short for 6 year old sister, give it away as a gift! (I still owe you Andrea!)

I'm linking March 25th...even though it's not quite a house decoration...:) It counts, right?