Playdate skirt tutorial

Pick Your Fabric and Cut Out Your Pieces

For the waistband fabric, you need something stretchy. I used jersey knit. Your skirt fabric can be whatever you want. I love the softness of jersey knit fabric so two out of the three skirts I made were 100% made from that.

My measurements were for an 17 lb, 8 month old girl. You probably need to adjust your measurements depending on the size of the baby. For example, if I were making this for a 3 month old, I’d shorten the waist to 14×6 and the skirt to 13×31 or something like that. The most accurate way to make sure it fits is to measure your baby. I got my measurements simply by wrapping the fabric around her waist.

Assemble Your Waistband

Fold your waistband fabric in half (hotdog style), and then in half again (hamburger style). Sew a simple stitch down the side with the raw edges.

Create the  Ruffles

If you’re a perfectionist, you aren’t going to like my directions. But the beauty of making ruffles is that they are very forgiving.

Fold your skirt fabric in half (hotdog style) and start at one end of the waist with your pinning. As you can see in the picture below, simply take about 1/2 to 1 inch of your fabric and fold it over itself and pin it down. Continue to do this the entire length of the waist. I made my folds about an inch apart.

You need to make sure you didn’t get too ambitious with your ruffling and use up too much fabric. Double check by folding your skirt in half like it will eventually be sewn. Line up your waist band with the waist of your skirt. Are they pretty close to lining up? One isn’t way longer or shorter than the other?

If you find that your skirt doesn’t line up well with your waist band, adjust your ruffle folds accordingly. So, if your skirt is smaller than your waist, you need to shorten some of your folds to allow for more fabric. If your skirt is too big, then make your ruffle folds a little bigger.

Assemble Your Skirt

With your skirt fabric folded in half, sew the raw edges of your skirt together. Just leave the pins in the waist while you do this. When your seam is done, flip the skirt right side out. (Your seam should be on the inside of your skirt now.)

Attach Your Waistband

The first time I made one of these, I got it backwards so pay close attention! Your skirt should be RIGHT side out. In other words, it has the pretty side facing you. No ugly seam should be visible.
Your waistband should be WRONG side out. You should see the seam. Line up your seams and then slip your waist band over the top of your skirt and pin in place. This takes a little finagling to get it in place but do your best to line up those seams and pin.

Set your machine to a zig zag stitch. This stitch allows for a little extra stretch so that your little gal won’t bust a seam with a full belly.

Now just sew along the top, being sure to back stitch when you start and finish. When your done, flip up your waistband and admire your new, adorable skirt!

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The Maxi Skirt

You need:

2 yards of knit/stretchy fabric (more depending on your height/size)
elastic thread for your bobbin
thread to match your fabric

Step 1: Cut the skirt portion. Make sure to check which way the fabric stretches. Think of this as just 2 big triangles. The width of the waist can be exactly your waist measurement (include 1/4 " on each side for s.a), or an inch or so less, depending on how snug you want it around your waist. Ether way, it's stretchy fabric and will be pretty forgivable. (mine was 17" when pregnant so both were 17")


The length of my skirt was 37 1/2 " long (I added 1/4" s.a to the top and 3/4" to the bottom of my desired finished length.

The bottom width of the skirt was 37" wide, so it had a nice big flare. Instead of having the bottom of my skirt go straight across, I gave it a slight curve. To get an even curve, fold your skirt in half long way when cutting it, that way it is equal on both sides.


Step 2: Cut out your waistbands. I knew I wanted a really thick waistband because I wanted it to fold over like a yoga pant. My waistbands were 17" wide and 10" long (keep in mind 1/4" s.a. on all sides). To visualize how thick the waistband will be, fold it in half width wise. I wanted my waistband to be about 5", so that is why I needed a 10" piece.

Step 3: Lay your waistband pieces right sides together and stitch up the sides with 1/4" s.a (meaning 10" long sides). You will want some stretch in this stitch, so I would use the zig zag stitch. A straight stitch would make it lay funny.

Iron your seams flat so that it will hang right when turned right-side out.

Step 4: Fold your waistband (now one big tube)in half all around, so that there is a fold on one end and the 2 salvage ends on the other side.


Step 5: With right-sides together, stitch up the sides of your skirt with 1/4" s.a. Use the straight stitch.

Step 6: Now it's time to attach your waistband to the top of your skirt. Here is where the elastic thread come into play.

Slide the top of the skirt up through the waistband with the salvage ends of the waistband pointing up. Match all the side-seams and the salvage ends at the top. Notice how the folded side of the waistband is pointing down.

Now when you open it up (it should still be inside-out), iron the seams down.


Flip your skirt right-side out. The waistband will now be able to be flipped down like a yoga pant. Now all you have to do is hem.


Try on your skirt before hemming. Pin up to where you want it and hem.

There it is! Very comfortable. Love it!