pretty in pink

It's finished! Woohoo! All that pink it sewn into a finished product! I have been admiring these fun fluffy pettiskirts found here, here, and here for at least a year. $80 for dress up clothes seemed like a big splurge so I looked and enjoyed from afar.

On Monday I was pursing my blog feeds (google reader!) and came across this post from the amazing site Grosgrain. Her post made me think, hey.... I bet I could make one of these!

After making one, I am thinking $80 is a BARGAIN for the amount of time it takes to sew one of these together. But, if you like a challenge.....

So I ordered a slew of pink, hot pink, and blue fabric from afc-express and gathered up all the other supplies from Martha's instruction list and video. Martha's supply list is a little off. Get 1/4 yard satin charmuese and 1/4 yard interfacing. She says to get 3 yards of chiffon, I used 6 for just one skirt. The girl on Grosgrain also used 6 for hers. Also, be sure to get regular thread to match your fabric. I used a full spool of light pink and most of a spool of dark pink. I also found instructions here, although I didn't use them... they seemed very detailed and easy to understand.

Some valuable tips I'll pass on in addition to the resources I have linked.
1. Hand wind the elastic thread on the bobbin. Elastic thread can be found at Hobby Lobby but not Jo-anns for you locals. I used a full 30 yards for one skirt.
2. I precut all the fabric has directed, but ended up cutting much more especially for the ruffle at the bottom. I would say the measurements for fabric are guidelines, don't be surprised if you have to had length to one tier and shorten another. For example, I got really carried away and used quadruple the amount of fluff (light pink) than the directions called for since I made such tight ruffles.
3. I built mine from the base up so I could sew a straight piece to a ruffle piece. I think this made it much easier, and I may have given up altogether if I hadn't done the hardest part first. For me the hardest part was sewing 198 feet of fluff on to 50 feet of hot pink. It went much faster after that. :)
4. I used 3 full yards for the light fluff, if I had made the ruffles a little looser it would have been easier to sew on and I would have used much less. I like how fluffy it is, but it was a challenge dealing with it! The fluff was very easy to sew, just go as fast as you can while holding the fabric taught. Elastic thread maybe my new favorite crafting thing!
5. I had to add fabric and a row to get the skirt to narrow, having extra fabric was really nice!
5. This is not hard, just time consuming. I think I spent about 10 hours making Ella Bella's. I have a very basic machine and no ruffle foot and I don't really see how it would go a whole lot faster for a first time sewing one.

I want to see you creations if you try this craft out! Also let me know if you are local and placing an order, I will split shipping with you! I have an idea for a simpler version of this but need more fabric.