It’s made from gingham seersucker.  Does that make it a tablecloth skirt?

Nah, it’s actually called a tablecloth skirt because that is what Shams called it in her excellent tutorial! I came across this tutorial less than two weeks ago and couldn’t wait to give this pattern a try. I love the way that the folds fall.

It’s essentially a square with a circle cut out of the middle, an elasticised waistband attached, and four rectangles sewn on to each of the sides of the square. Clever Shams figured it all out!

The fabric came from Spotlight about a year ago. I’ve been dying to use it but hadn’t been sure what it would work best in. I think that this is a great pairing! I used the marvellous circle skirt instructions in Nicole Mallalieu‘s book You Sew Girl for the elasticised waistband.

I did alter the measurements.  I’m 5’2″ (158cm) tall, so made the centre 42″ square and the side rectangles 12″ by 42″.  The radius of the centre circle was 5.5″ for my relatively thick waist, and the waistband was cut wide enough to encase the elastic and be long enough to get over my hips.  It fitted onto the waist hole perfectly.  This skirt is just made for twirling! It would be interesting made in a stripe as well.

And wow, if I ever needed a boost to my ego, you’ve all provided it in the comments you left on my last post! Thanks so much to each and every one of you – I’ll go back and read all of them again whenever I am feeling a little bit blue. I was really just curious as to why you read my blog, and didn’t realise that I was pretty much just asking you to flatter me! Thank you. If you want to enter to win a copy of Modern Blocks just pop over and leave a comment – there’s still a few days left of the giveaway.