How to make a patchwork skirt?

Question

I love, love, love those fabulous hippy patchwork skirts for the summer and have several- but they are pretty expensive to buy. I would love to learn how to sew them myself- the tiered variety, or the kind with long panels, elastic or drawstring waist. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I just want to make some for myself & my daughter.

Answer 1

My mother made me and my sister some the last time they were in fashion.
Try to get several kinds of fabric that are the same weight and the same material (all cotton or all polyester or all the same mix of materials.) Or use any piece of fabric at hand and accept that the skirt will not be perfect, (ours did deteriorate in different speeds.)

Use any pattern for a skirt you like, cut it in many smaller parts, (two vertical cuts for each panel and two or three horizontal cuts in each strip will do nicely) and cut each next bit of pattern in a different material. First sew the bits together again in strips, than the strips in panels, which you then sew as if it where whole-cloth panels.

For the tiered skirts, If you know how to rimpel the edge of a piece of fabric, you do not even need a pattern. (I find it hard to describe, but I am sure they tell you in each pattern for tiered skirts.)
For the top part you take the fabric a little wider than your (daughters) hips, the next halve that again (or more) and the same amount for each next.
You can do as few as 2 tiers, stitched to waist panel, or as many as 6, so each strip of fabric should be 1/2 or 1/6 or whatever you want of the length of the completed skirt.
Make a wide seem at the top, for your drawstring or elastic, or sew to a wide elastic band. (Clothes kind!)

Have a good look at the skirts you have, to see how they are made!!

Success and enjoy them, (I did then, as did my sister.)

Answer 2

find the fabrics you want, cut squares the size you want, sew them together in strips, sew the strips together to make fabric the size you need for each layer, then gather up and sew, at the top cut elastic to fit your waist, lap the ends over and sew securely, then put your skirt through it, and fold over the elastic so that it creates a casing, and sew down this hem like area , be careful not to catch the elastic in the stitches. just push the fabric up on the elastic till you get all the way around. you want the top layer of your skirt to be at least two yards, if you dont like it really full, then the second layer should be 4 yards long and the bottom layer should be 6 yards long, the strips would usually be less than a foot deep to make a floor length skirt . but you will use up space when you make the seam at each layer, then the hem on the bottom and the turned over space at the waist. i made a gypsy skirt that was 5 yards at the top, ten yards in the middle and 15 yards at the hem, it made a huge circle, it was for my bellydance group.

Answer 3

Just cut squares and sew them together in rows, then sew the rows side by side until you get a few yards all sewn together, then use that as fabric for your skirt. http://www.butterick.com/item/B4805.htm?tab=skirts_pants&page=2

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