I have seen tiered skirts all over Pinterest and magazines. I love the look, and I wanted to create a tiered skirt with Ellie and Mac patterns. The Trendsetter Skirt was perfect to create my pinspiration of a one tiered skirt. If you want to sew this skirt this is the hack for you! For this tutorial a little bit of math is necessary, but I will explain step by step. 
- Let’s start with measuring total desired length of the skirt. I wanted my skirt to be right above my knee. I measured total length desired (from waist to top of the knee for me) I got a total of 22 inches. The waistband on the skirt pattern is 2 ½ inches so I subtracted that from the total length. It was equal to 19 ½ inches. I wanted the skirt to be about 80% of the measurement and the ruffle to be about 20% of the total length. These are very rough calculations guys! I decided to make the total skirt length 14” and the ruffle to be about 5.5” and to double-check I put the tape measurement starting at my waist and I looked where 14” hit on my leg and I was happy with the length.
- To cut the skirt I took the front and the back pattern pieces of the skirt and marked where it will measure 14” and I cut my front and back pieces to that length.
Then I cut the waistband to my measurement on the pattern - Now to create the ruffle I measured the total width of the skirt at the 14” length.
It was 14.5 “ inches folded so the total was 29 inches in width. Then I measured about 80% of the 29 inches of the skirt width and it was roughly 49”. My ruffle pieces were 49” width and 5.5” length. I cut 2 ruffles with those measurements. - After cutting I had 1 front 1 back skirt pieces, 1 waistband, and 2 ruffle pieces (49” x 5.5”)
Now, these are the steps on how to sew the skirt:
I did the construction of this skirt a little different to gather and add the ruffle on the skirt with my serger all in one step.
- I hemmed the bottom of the 2 ruffle pieces with ½” seam allowance.
- Using my serger’s gathering foot (I have the brother 1034D)
I gathered the ruffle and at the same time I stitched it to the front and back of the skirt (remember front and back of the skirt has not been stitched at the side seams yet!)
Gathering this way sewing friends is a game changer I encourage you to try it ! It saves a lot of time and gathering stitches will be even!
- Now stitch the skirt at the side seams right sides together carefully to match the ruffle pieces on the side of the skirt.
- For the last step, we need to attach the waistband following the tutorial for the Trendsetter Skirt Pattern. Gather the skirt (I used the dental floss method for this part) and once is gathered carefully sew the waistband to the skirt.
You are done! Don’t forget to share on the Ellie and Mac Facebook page or Instagram if you recreate this tutorial and tag me on Instagram @queenbeesew We will love to see!!! Happy sewing!
(written by Erika Jessen Pin)
