Free pattern - The (Almost) No-Sew Fairy Skirt

What you'll need:

• One yard of each of four different colors of tulle or netting (finer works better - don't make more than one of the colors out of the really stiff stuff, or it'll be too itchy). This will make a skirt that's about 18" long - if you want it longer, just double the length of skirt you want, and buy that many inches of each color tulle.
• One 10-yard spool of each of two different colors of 1/4" ribbon
• A piece of 1-inch non-roll elastic that's large enough to fit the waist of the child snugly with about 1" of overlap at the ends

What to do:

1. Overlap the ends of the elastic by about an inch, making sure you don't have the elastic twisted. Machine- or hand-sew the edges together through the overlap. If you think you may have to make the skirt larger in the future, use thread that's easy to see, and don't overlap your stitches much or it will be a pain to take out.
2. Cut the tulle or netting into strips that are 36" long by about 4" wide. I do this by folding it in quarters and using a ruler and a rolling cutter, but you could use scissors if you had to.
3. Cut the ribbon into pieces between 30" and 36" long (shorter for older kids, so you can get more pieces out of the spool).
4. Fold one piece of tulle in half and put it under the elastic so that the fold is in the middle of the elastic circle and is toward your right. It isn't essential to have the ends of the tulle exactly even - in fact, it probably looks better if you don't.
5. Use the tulle to make a slipknot around the elastic - bring the ends of the tulle up over the elastic and tuck them through the loop in the tulle, then pull the ends back to your left to tighten it around the elastic. You want it snug but not so tight that it rolls the elastic.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the remaining tulle and ribbon, alternating colors in whatever order you choose. Use enough strips to cover the elastic, but don't pack them in there so tightly that it starts getting weird looking. You should end up with a waistband that looks like this:
7. Now comes the annoying part. In order to keep the slipknots from, well, slipping, you need to tie the tails together. To do this, take one tail from color A and tie it to one tail of color B. It doesn't matter if you use a square knot or a granny knot or some fancy thing you learned in Girl Scouts 20 years ago - just tie the suckers together. Then take the other tail of color B and tie it to one tail of Color C. Take the second C tail and tie it to a D, etc. You'll end up with each color tied to the color on either side of it. This will give you a waistband that looks like this:
8. If you want, tie bells to the ends of some of the ribbons (or sew them to the elastic waist), or glue on fake flowers or sequins or whatever suits your fancy. The more sparkly and crusty it gets, the more the kid is going to like it ... and the less washable it will be, so use your judgement about how fancy it needs to get. Oh, and you may want to spray the skirt with Static Guard every once in a while - otherwise, the skirt tends to climb up the kid's body, eventually engulfing their mouth and asphyxiating them. Well, not really, but it IS sorta annoying to have the top layer of tulle stuck to you.

Please note that this pattern is for personal use ONLY and may not be reproduced except for your own use. If you wish to make these to sell, please contact me to secure permission. I'll probably give it to you, if you ask nicely and send me cookies (and a check).

I hope you enjoy this project - and that you send me lots of pictures of kids wearing your finished creations! I'd love to start a group on flickr, if we get enough fairies out there :)