The Madison Skirt is such a quick sew that you can whip up quite a few in one afternoon. But how about changing up the look just a bit to get a few style variations?
This blog post will show you how to make these two additional Madison Skirt styles with just a simple hack.
STYLE 1 - HEM RUFFLE
This style adds ruffle to the skirt hem and it is super quick and easy! Let's begin -
ADJUSTING YOUR SKIRT PATTERN
To achieve this look, measure the full length of your skirt pattern. Divide that figure by 4. Shorten the pattern by that figure. Say for example your skirt length is 12” . 20/4 =3 . You will remove 3” from your skirt pattern. In the photo below (taken from the Projector file) the orange lines depict the skirt divided into 4 quarters, the last section will be cut off and the purple section will become your new skirt length.
Next, use this new pattern piece to cut out the front and back of the skirt.
CALCULATING YOUR RUFFLE PIECES
Measure the hem of the new skirt pattern piece. Mine is 28”. You will double this figure to get the fullness of your ruffle. For the ruffle height, cut your fabric 4” (The 4” is the 3” that you cut off the main skirt piece +1” for seam allowance. This will make the skirt the original length as the original pattern).
You should now have the skirt front and back, your two ruffle pieces, and waistband cut out and ready to start sewing.
(Note you can also add the shorts but it is not shown in this tutorial).
ASSEMBLE THE SKIRT
With the right sides together, sew the front and back skirt pieces together at the side seams. I placed a pin/clip at the waist of the skirt so I won't mix up which end is the waist and which is the hem.
Divide the skirt hem into quarters.
ASSEMBLE AND SEW THE RUFFLE
Pin the two ruffle strips right sides together and sew at both short ends.
Hem the ruffle by folding it wrong sides together by ½” and sew around the entire piece.
Divide the ruffle into quarters and mark. Run a basting stitch at the top of the ruffle.
COMPLETING THE SKIRT
Gather the ruffle until it is the same width as the skirt hem.
With the right sides together, pin and sew the ruffle to the skirt hem.
Sew the waistband as per pattern instruction and attach it to the skirt.
STYLE 2 - VERTICAL RUFFLE
For this style, cut your front and back skirt pieces as per the instructions.
Measure the hem of your skirt and divide the figure by 1/3. In this example, the width of my hem is 14”.
As shown below, the 1/3rd line in this example is approximately 4 ½”. I will mark this measurement at the hem, starting from the skirt side seam. From the 4.5" mark, draw a straight line up to the waist using a fabric marker (and ruler as a guide).
Ruffle Length :
Measure this straight line and multiply that measurement by 1.5.
In my example I got 15” for the skirt length. Multiplied by 1.50, the ruffle length will be 22 ½, and then add 2” for extra seam allowance.
Ruffle Width :
Cut the width of the ruffle as follows:
- 2” if you plan to leave the edges of the ruffle unhemmed or,
- 3” if you plan to hem the edges. (Hem the ruffles by folding over ½” on either side at this point).
Using a fabric marker, draw a line down the center of the ruffle piece, and sew a basting stitch along the entire length of the ruffle using the line as a guide. Leave long tails to help you in gathering the ruffle.
With the wrong side of the ruffle against the right side of the skirt, gather the ruffle to fit the skirt, leaving the last 1” of the ruffle without gathers (as this will be folded into the skirt hem). Place the top of the ruffle on the skirt front so that the line on the skirt and the basting stitch line are on top of each other.
Rearrange your gathers to make sure they are even, pin them in place and sew directly on top of the basting stitch line to secure the gathers to the skirt.
Proceed to make the skirt as per the pattern instructions.
And there you have it, two super cute and easy mods to add variety to your Madison skirt.
I hope you will share your make in the PDF Ellie and Mac Facebook Group so we can all see.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you grab the Madison Skirt and make and share your skirts in the Facebook Group so we can all see how cute they are.
(Written by: Debbie Groves)
