First, let’s start off with the obvious: if you count the time it’ll take you to sew a petticoat with tremendous gathering and ruffles and rolled hems, your time investment is going to bring the cost at least a few hundred dollars. As someone who always wants to DIY everything, I feel like that’s important to mention! But, if you keep an eye out for deals, you can easily gather enough cotton to cover the material cost to make the ruffled petticoat of your cottagecore dreams for less than $25!
What will you need?
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- 4 yards of 108″ wide cotton (I used quilting cotton from Jo-Ann in the shade ‘Parchment.’ It’s regularly priced at $9.99/yd, so I waited and snagged it when there was a ‘50% off a regularly priced item’ coupon. One cut of fabric counts as one item, so I got four yards for $19.98)!
- notions, like coordinating thread, straight pins and a tape measure
- cutting mat, ruler, and rotary cutter (Optional, but highly recommended since you’re going to be cutting a lot of straight lines with this project. Getting my rotary cutter last Christmas changed my sewing game completely).
- a rolled hem foot (Again, optional – and I actually enjoy rolling hems by hand – but it will make your life much easier)
Putting everything together.
Cut out your fabric.
The skirt of your petticoat will be constructed of two panels, each 108″ (or 3 yards) wide. The length of my skirt panels was 39″, as I am around 5’3″ and wanted them to sweep the ground. I’d recommend grabbing your yardstick or tape measure and checking your waist-to-floor measurement to see if you’d like to lengthen or shorten your petticoat skirt.
You will have two ruffles in your skirt according to this guide. The top ruffle will be 6″ long, and the bottom will be 8″ long. You will need four 108″ wide strips of each length to allow for a nice, moderate amount of gathering on your ruffles. Below is a diagram illustrating the cutting layout of my petticoat skirt with ruffles:
Sew the skirt panels together along one side seam.
If you’re using the cutting layout above, your side seam will be on the selvedge of the fabric and won’t come unravelled, so a simple straight stitch will suffice. If you want something a bit neater and more durable, I recommend French seams.
Leave one side seam undone for now.
Give your ruffled petticoat its ruffles.
Spread out your skirt. At this point, you should have a long rectangle that’s 39″ x 216.” We have a lot of gathering ahead of us! First, though, we want to hem the bottom edge of the skirt – all six yards of it. Again, I use a narrow rolled hem. This is where the rolled hem foot on your sewing machine will start to earn its keep.
Join your ruffle pieces into long strips along the short edge. Your top ruffle, once joined, will be 6″ x 12 yards, and your bottom ruffle will be 8″ by 12 yards. Hem both ruffles.
At this point, you will probably begin to curse the day you ever decided to make something that requires so much hemming. Persevere, friend! You can do it!
Pin the middle seam of your ruffle to the middle seam of your skirt, approximately 10″ from the skirt bottom. The hem of your ruffle should be towards the waistband of the skirt. This is so that the rough, unhemmed gathering will be hidden beneath the ruffle when everything is finished. Pin each fourth of your ruffle to the corresponding fourth of your base skirt. Here’s a little illustration that will hopefully make that easier to follow:
You’ll run a gathering stitch through each section of ruffle. Leave the ends of your gathering thread long, and pin and readjust your ruffles as needed as you go. Don’t try to do one tremendously-long gathering stitch; I recommend going in fourths. Stitch down your gathers to secure them (either on your machine or with a sturdy backstitch, if you want to go by hand. When you’re done, it will look like this:
Got it? Great! Now, just move up a couple of inches and do it all over again with your top ruffle.
Turn your ruffles down and pin the edges of each ruffle to the edges of the skirt, then join the skirt side seams. Leave about 5″ unsewn at the top of the seam; you want a little wiggle room to get your skirt over your hips once you’ve added the waistband. You’ll now have a massive, ruffle-covered tube of fabric that will be many times the size of your waist. That means it’s time for more gathering!
Run another gathering stitch around the top of the skirt.
Tighten your gathers until the top of the skirt is equal to your waist measurement.
Use some of your scrap fabric to cut a rectangle that’s [your waist measurement] + 1″ wide by 4″ long. Fold each end of your waistband inwards by 1/2″ and press. Pin to your skirt top, right sides together, and stitch down. Fold the waistband over and secure the other edge to the inside of your skirt, making sure that all gathers and gathering stitches are covered by the waistband material.
At this point, you could run a cord through the waistband to fasten your petticoat skirt, or you can use a button! I chose to add two little vintage-looking buttons and some loops made from satin ribbon.
Congrats! You and your ruffled petticoat are ready to go frolicking through the fields!
You can see the skirt in motion over on my Instagram @raineinthecity!
