Rabbit Chain Skirt DIY

Looking for a quick and easy sew? How about making a cute skirt for your little one! I whipped this one up just before Easter, and my daughter absolutely LOVED it. The rabbit chain skirt DIY can be customized with any easy animal head or shape, so that it is sure to please the little girl in your life. Sew along using the step-by-step instructions below, including a free skirt size chart for kids ages 12 months thru 8 years.

And be sure to see below the DIY, for the absolutely adorable gif of my daughter dancing in her new skirt :). You know they love it when they break out in spontaneous dancing!

Rabbit Chain Skirt DIY.

MATERIALS:

Cotton Fabric as listed below for main skirt
Coordinating Color Cotton Fabric, for paper-doll peeps hem
Wonder Under
1.5” Elastic
Pen / Marker
Scissors / Rotary Cutter Optional
Coordinating Thread
Other Basic Sewing Essentials

SIZE CHART:

*Please note, for best fit measure your child and cut dimensions as desired. This is a basic guide to follow. Furthermore, for ease of making the simplest skirt possible – we kept the fullness of the skirt to a minimum. Feel free to cut wider panels and sew a gathering line along the top of the skirt.

Cut the following, (1) fabric panel for ‘Main Skirt’ pattern piece.

12 months = 7.75”L x 18”W
2T = 8.75”L x 19”W
3T = 9.25”L x 20”W
4T = 10”L x 21”W
5T = 11”L x 22”W
6yr = 13.25”L x 22”W
7yr = 14”L x 23”W
8yr = 14.75”L x 24”W

Cut the following, (1) for Elastic Waistband.

12 months = 17.5”
2T = 18”
3T = 18.5”
4T = 19”
5T = 19.5”
6yr = 20”
7yr = 21”
8yr = 21.75”

HOW TO:

Step One: Cut (1) fabric panel as suggested above for Main Skirt pattern piece. In order to optimize the ‘easy’ factor of this DIY, this is not a full skirt. Feel free to cut wider panels, and sew a gathering stitch along the top edge in later steps.

Step Two: Cut (1) coordinating fabric panel the same width as your skirt x 5”L. Repeat for Wonder Under.

Step Three: Following the instructions on the Wonder Under packaging, iron onto the wrong side of your coordinating fabric panel.

Step Four: Fold your coordinating fabric panel accordion style.

Step Five: Using a pen or marker, draw a sketch of a bunny head on the wrong side of the fabric on the top panel. Make sure the bunny head touches on BOTH sides of the accordion panel. This is essentially the same process as cutting paper-chain dolls. *Be creative, you can make any shape you want so that this skirt is appropriate all year long!

Step Six: Using heavy duty scissors, carefully cut out your bunny head shape. Unfold.

Step Seven: Remove the Wonder Under paper backing, and iron the paper-chain bunny heads onto the bottom of your main skirt panel, on the right side. *Optional, edge stitch around the top of the bunny’s face and ears for additional security.

Step Eight: Fold skirt panel right sides together, matching up side seams. Pin and sew. Finish seam with either a serger, zig zag stitch, or pinking shears. Press open. This will be your BACK center seam.

Step Nine: Finish the top raw edge of your skirt with either a zig zag stitch, serger, or pinking shears. Hem the bottom of your skirt by folding ½” towards the wrong side and pressing. Fold again ½”, press, and sew.

Step Ten: Fold elastic in half, matching up the raw side edges. Pin in place and sew.

Step Eleven: Press elastic seam open, and sew around the seam in a rectangle shape to secure down.

Step Twelve: Slip elastic over the top of the skirt waist, right sides together, matching up the back skirt center seam and the elastic seam. Pin in 4 places, the back, front and 2 sides. *If wider skirt panels were desired, THIS is when you would want to sew a gathering stitch along the top of your skirt, prior to pinning on the elastic. Gather the skirt fabric until the skirt is about ¼ larger than the elastic waistband in width.

Step Thirteen: Sew around, stretching the elastic as you sew so that it is the same width as your skirt.