Layered Skirt

I few weeks ago someone on sewing mamas posted a picture of a skirt hoping there was a tutorial for something similar.  Now of course there are tutorials for something similar as there are really only so many ways to make a skirt but the skirt stuck in my head just the same.  It didn't help that its a Lands End skirt and since we buy a decent amount of stuff from them it kept showing up on my side bar adds but oh well.  I decided to make my own version and attempt another tutorial.  Its a little math heavy but that's just bc I'm a math person so that's how I do things.

Looking at the pictures I decided that the key elements that I wanted to replicate were the contrast bias trim and the proportions of the three ruffles.  I decided to gather the bottom two ruffles to a lining and then have the top ruffle start at the top of the lining.  This was to reduce bulk just a bit and because I wasn't sure if I had enough fabric.  This meant I needed to cut 5 pieces:  three ruffles, a lining piece, and a waistband.  I'm going to tell you how I calculated their size and what size the ended up bring for Emily who has a 21 in hip measurement and is 13in from the waist to the knee.

Waist band = hip measurement (or waist which ever is larger) + 3in ease + 1in seam allowance
For Emily W=25in  I choose to make it 3in wide

Length of all three tiers together = waist to knee-waist band width-1in seam allowance
For Emily this was 11 but I used 12 since that makes the math so much easier.

Tier width is waist band width times 1.5 so 37.5 for Emily plus .5 seam allowance 

Tier 1 is 2/3s of the total tier length so in our case 8in plus seam allowance which so I cut it 8.5 wide 

Lining= (tier 1 length not including seam allowance)-2in  You will need to add 1 in seam allowance when your cut.  For Emily this was 6in+1in seam=7in

bottom Tier = (total skirt length)-(lining length not including seam allowance) +0.5seam allowance
For Emily 12-6=6in+.5in=6.5in

Middle Tier=(bottom tier not including seam allowance)-2in +0.5in  For Emily 4.5in
OK still with my I hope.  You'll also need to either buy or make some bias binding.  I'm sure there are some tutorials out there for that but I'm not going to cover it here.  All the math is really pretty simple the seam allowances are just a little odd bc some pieces are sewn on both sides and some are only sewn on one.  I used a 0.5in seam allowance for all my seams and cut my bias binding 2in wide.

Sew all three tiers into big rings and bind the bottom of each tier with your bias binding.

Gather the bottom two tiers together and sew them to the bottom of the lining.

Gather the top ruffle and sew it to the right side of the lining.

Then sew the waist band to the skirt with right sides together.

Add elastic and finish the waist band then your good to go.

I hope that all made pretty good sense. I just wanted to add that if I were using lighter weight fabric I might make the ruffles twice as wide instead of 1.5 times. Also if you want to cut the ruffles in two pieces so that you have two side seams instead of just one that is fine just remember to add the seam allowences for the extra side seam.