Irish Lassie Pleated Skirt

Dear Monica,

I had a nice piece of tweed in my stash that was just the right size to make a skirt for Natalie.  And to me tweed just begs to be pleated, so I made a cute little pleated skirt for Natalie.  I made it up as I went along and I love how it turned out.

This morning at church a very nice lady told her that she loved her cable sweater and tweed skirt and asked where she got them.  She said her parents are Irish and still live in Ireland and that Natalie looked very traditional.  Sam didn't know I had made the skirt.

It was a very easy skirt to make.  I cut 2 rectangles that were about 8 inches wider than Natalie's waist measurement (20 in) and as long as I could with the fabric I had.  So they were 28"X 14".  Then I cut 2  smaller waistband rectangles that were 28" X 4.5".  

Then I pleated the front of the skirt.  With a chalk pencil I marked every inch and starting at one side I matched up every other pleat and pinned them in place.  I also made sure to match up the plaid pattern of the tweed.  Then I top stitched the edge of each pleat.   

I added some interfacing to one of the waistband pieces and attached it to the pleated front panel.  And sewed the other front panel (with no interfacing) to the back panel. Then I sewed the front and back panels together.  

I serged the top edge of the waistband (or you could press it over 1/4") and then folded the waistband in half and pressed.  I only sewed the back waist band down to make a casing and threaded it with elastic and stitched the elastic in place.  

Then I folded the front waist band over, pinned it in place, and top stitched it at the bottom and top of the waist band piece.  I made an extra wide hem so that it can be let down next fall (or even this fall since she is growing like a weed).

The skirt looks especially cute with the hand-me-down sweater of Caroline's!

I can't believe she is going to be 3 in two weeks!!  Where has that time gone?!?  *sniff sniff*

XOXO

Emily