Make a Pretty Princess Dress

What You Need:

• A long flowing skirt with light fabric that drapes easily, rather than heavy weight fabric
• Fabric scissors
• Chalk
• Sewing pins
• Measuring tape
• Long shoelace or yard of ribbon for a drawstring
• Sewing thread and needle or sewing machine

What You Do:

1. Lay your skirt flat on the ground. Measure an even amount below the waistband and cut the waistband off the skirt evenly.
2. Turn the skirt inside out.
3. Fold the new waist line down by two inches on all sides and pin in place.
4. Iron the fabric so that the new waistline stays. It’s okay if there are wrinkles where you’ve pinned it. You’ll have a drawstring so that it pulls tight and has lots of wrinkles and ruffles at the waist. (Note: in this tutorial, you are putting the drawstring inside so that it doesn’t show. If you want a bow or other decorative drawstring, you can also do this on the right side of the fabric, the side that shows.)
5. Next pull the pins out again and fold the unraveled edge of fabric under, so that you’ve created a tube where your drawstring will go.
6. Sew the waistline shut, but leave a two-inch gap so you can insert the drawstring.
7. Attach your ribbon or string to a safety pin, and insert the safety pin into your drawstring tube. Pull it all the way through so that the ribbon is coming out both sides and can be pulled tight.
8. Try the skirt on your little princess and make sure that it works around her waist.
9. Measure from the waist to her ankles or wherever you want the hem of the skirt to fall. Mark the hem using chalk. If you want to let the hem unravel, you can simply cut at this marking. Otherwise, measure a half inch out from this marking and cut there, in order to leave a half-inch seam allowance.
10. If you want to hem the skirt, roll the hem in so that your unraveled edge is tucked under. Sew it shut by hand or on a sewing machine.
11. Try it on your princess and let her wear it around the house.