All You Need is LOVE: The Malibu Barbie Skirt Tutorial

When I emailed the photo of this skirt to my sister she said " I love it! It reminds me of the beach and Barbie clothes." So here it is "The Malibu Barbie Skirt" Tutorial!:

This is a SUPER easy skirt and takes under an hour to make!

Supplies:

All you need-Fabric, lining fabric, 2" elastic, scissors or a rotary cutter, measuring tape, a giant safety pin, and pins!

First thing you need to do is measure yourself ( or whomever you are sewing for :). I wanted the skirt to sit right above my hip bones, so I measured around my waist at that point. Write down this measurement. Now decide how long you want the skirt to be.. I wanted mine to be about 15 inches when worn.

Now it is time to cut! The width of your fabric will be 1.5 x your waist measurement.

For the length you need to do a little more math- aren't you excited! We are using 2" elastic and making a bottom hem. So we will add those to the desired length. Here is my math

15" (desired length) + 2.5" (elastic casing) + 2" ( bottom hem) = 19.5".

Cut out a rectangle in your fabric and lining per these measurements. Mine were 19.5" by 51".

Next you will need to sew the short ends of each rectangle together. Fold the width in half (hamburger style for all you 80's ladies :) right sides together and sew. If you have been blessed by the Serger Fairy-- good for you! If not you will have to do what I did and use an overcasting or zigzag stitch! You should end up with 2 tubes.

Next you will add the lining to the fabric. You do this by putting the fabric tube inside the lining tube. Making one tube with the lining on the outside.

Now you will want to pin them together. Line them up by matching the seams and pinning. Be sure to put your pins in the middle, as we will leave them in while hemming and making the elastic casing.

If one of your tubes in bigger then the other (like mine were :) do not fear! Separate them, lay them on top of one another and cut the larger one even with the smaller tube. Be sure to leave a 1/4" for your seam. You will need to sew and finish a new seam' and Viola two equal tubes!!!

If your tubes were perfect from the get go, then you are a true superstar and you can disregard this info :)!!

Next we will be hemming the bottom of the skirt. To do so fold the bottom under 1", and then fold it under 1" again. This makes it so no unfinished edge is exposed! If you like to iron (which I do not!) you could iron this down. If your like me and spend far to much money on Downey Wrinkle Release.. then you can use pins :)!! Sew up your hem. I chose to sew two lines, one at 1/4" and one at 1/2"' just to make it more interesting. You could do one line, or even a blind hem, whatever you fancy!

The last step is to make the casing for our elastic. Fold the top of the skirt down 2.5 inches and pin. I measured at four spots and marked them and then folded while lining up the marks. Again.. iron or pins, your choice! You want to sew about 1/4' up from the bottom of the fold, and be sure to leave an opening for the elastic. Keep in mind it is BIG elastic so leave a good size opening.

Now this was the toughest part for me. I wanted the elastic to fit snugly into the casing so it would not move around. This makes it a little difficult to get the elastic all the way through. I found that a giant safety pin and a lot of patience were the key! Once you have both ends of the elastic at an even length, you will want to sew them together. (Just a tip- if your elastic is twisted, you didn't sew the right sides of the elastic together and will need to take them apart and turn one side around!)