by Wispen Lee

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: November 16, 2008

Introduction:Despite the changing nature of toys and children, some toys remain classic favourites. Dolls have always been popular toys and little girls around the world always dream of fluffy skirts, ruffles and lace. What better way to teach your child hand-eye coordination and let them learn basic sewing skills than to let them make a skirt for their favourite dolls.

The skirt here is going to be an elastic band flared skirt, or a skirt that is secured by drawstring ribbon. The design here was based loosely off a Lolita-inspired skirt, which is a style that prefers frills, ruffles and lace, which would definitely enchant young girls. I tried it myself, and made a skirt for a plush-toy rabbit that ended up being quite pretty. I was so satisfied with the skirt that I ended up making a blouse and hair bows for my rabbit. Hope that you similarly enjoy this skirt! Items you'd need:

-Half a meter of fabric (Or more if you have a bigger sized doll or plush toy)

-Thread, of a colour that matches the main colour of your fabric

-A needle, for younger children, round-tipped safety needles could be used

-A couple of pins, maybe 10-20 pins

-Ribbon or string elastic

-Lace, beads, ribbon to decorate the skirt

1)
First, measure the vital statistics of the doll in question. The most important areas to measure would be the waist of the doll and the length from the doll's waist to the dolls knees (to determine how long the skirt will be). Its best to use a measuring tape to get these measurements, but if you don't have a measuring tape or if your doll's waist is too tiny to use a measuring tape on, then you could also use a string and mark out the approximate length of the doll's waist and the length of the skirt. You can then put the string to a ruler and get the measurements.

2)
Take your fabric, or cloth, and cut out a rectangle that has a length that is 3 times the length of waist and a width that is the ideal length of the skirt plus an extra length for the waist band. (or you could use the length from the waist to knee).

The reason why the length is 3 times the length of the waist is so that your skirt will be flared and flouncy. It is best to have an extra 4 centimetres (cm) for the width of the rectangle, so that a waistband can be made later. This extra length for the waistband should be adjusted based on the size of your doll.

3)
Fold the fabric down at the top by a length half of the extra length you included for the waistband. Pin down this length of fabric, with the pins closer

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