For “Me-Made May,” during which I work on completing things I made by myself, I finally finished a sewing project from almost five years ago, this ruffly underskirt from Otome no Sewing volume 16, which was published in 2021. I have no idea why I started it, as I don’t have any dresses or skirts that expose the underskirt, and certainly not in bright white (the original skirt in the book was black and worn under two styles of qi-lolita dresses+.) I must have been bored or had a project or dress in mind. Anyway, I had the fabrics cut for years, but never got around to finishing it because hemming and ruffling takes forever. However this month, I made it a priority goal to finish at least one sewing WIP so I can clear out my shelves (and instead fill my closet?) in my craft room/office.
What I am starting with, from five years ago…
- A base skirt sewn of white cotton muslin from the entire width (instead of the narrower width indicated)
- 2 strips of the bottom ruffle, hemmed
- 3 strips of middle ruffles, hemmed
- half of a waist band the width of the skirt
What I needed to complete…
- the other half of the waist band
- 1 more strip of middle ruffle, hemmed and joined
- the top ruffle, hemmed and joined (since I had a shorter width of muslin, I joined 4 strips together)
- elastic
I tore strips of the ruffle from white cotton muslin leftover from cosplays. Then I used the hemming foot to hem the top ruffle. I did not possess my Bernette when I started this project years ago, so the previous hems were folded over twice, so for the middle ruffle, I folded over twice to match and sewed down. I debated cutting the waistband and thought about folding over the top to make a casing, but I decided to follow the directions for once to see if it provided a better result. I also zig-zag stitched the top edges of the ruffles, then used the gathering foot to slightly gather the ruffles instead of the usual home sewing method of two lines of long basting stitching. As mentioned before the ruffler/gathering foot does a 1.5/2 times ruffle, whereas I probably needed a 2.5 times ruffle, but I just pinned the ruffle on in eighths on the base, and then adjusted the ruffles manually as I sewed. I sewed the bottom ruffle to the bottom edge of the skirt, then top stitched. I attached two rows of ruffles above that bottom ruffle. Then I basted the top ruffle to the waist edge of skirt, sewed the waistband right sides on top of the whole shebang, then folded over and top-stitched down on the edge and in the middle of the band, leaving a gap in the side to insert 2 rows of elastic. I used soft half-inch elastic from Daiso, but I should have used thicker sturdier elastic because the opening was small and the elastic likely twisted on itself being forced through so many layers of fabric.
Now here’s what I did different, besides making a wider skirt because the width indicated would not fit over my hips lol, and using the ruffle and hem foot that came with my sewing machine. First off, I used the selvedge edges to skip finishing as much as possible, but on other edges I used a French seam to avoid having to zigzag the unfinished side edges. Next, instead of sewing the middle ruffles straight down on the skirt as indicated, I decided to flip the middle ruffles upside down and sewed right sides together onto the skirt, then let the ruffles fall back down. This way the messy zig-zag stitched top edge is hidden by the ruffle itself, and I feel it provides more lift and volume.
Here is the skirt after I finished sewing. Notice that due to the various methods of hemming and my sewing the ruffles upside down, my calculations are off and the second ruffle doesn’t cover the top edge of the third ruffle. Technically the third ruffle doesn’t cover the top of the fourth ruffle at some points but it doesn’t look as bad. My advice if you are making this skirt, is to make the ruffles all the same way and mark on the skirt with erasable pen exactly where to sew down each ruffle, making sure each ruffle overlaps the ruffle below it by at least half an inch so it looks neat when worn.
How did I fix this? Obviously I was not taking off the ruffles and sewing it back on because the ruffle length is fixed. I decided that the smartest solution is to make the distance of skirt between the second and third ruffle shorter, so the bottom of the second ruffle covers top of the third ruffle fully. I did this by making a half-inch pin tuck on the base skirt underneath the top edge of the second ruffle, facing towards the inside. Not only does this fix the exposed ruffle edge problem, it also adds a line of reinforced stiffness all around the skirt, so it doesn’t deflate as quickly under its immense weight. And this is the finished skirt over a petticoat! Much better, and as a bonus, a tiny bit shorter so it complements my short stature that much more.
Ease of sewing: 10/10, super easy, all rectangles, diagrams are clear, directions barely need translating, you just have to be precise and not careless like me
Overall wearability: 9/10, meant for an underskirt, but looks adorable as a regular skirt for lolita, maybe fantasy or other cute girly fashion styles. I guess it could be a petticoat on its own?
Amount of fabric and thread and time used: a whole lot. I went through 2 whole bobbins and I didn’t even overcast every edge or use 2 lines of gathering stitches, although I guess I did mess up a stretch of stitching twice and had to unpick and resew. Be prepared to spend hours hemming and ruffling and top-stitching. However, you can get away with piecing together fabric strips for the ruffles and move the stitch lines around so they don’t show in the center front, which is what I did for the top ruffle.
While I love wearing this floofy flouncy skirt, I don’t know what I would wear it with since my wardrobe is mostly beige/ivory classic or black gothic. Guess I’ll have to buy or sew an overskirt or bustle dress to wear over it! Oh darn!