Hawaii Bob-O!

We recently purchased some bright yellow SpongeBob/Patrick fabric fro $3.33/yd at le Wal Marche. I originally intended to make Heather a dress. Heather pulled out two patterns from her "to be sewn" box and insisted that I make the top from Butterick 3860 and the handkerchief looking skirt from McCall's 5091 (already out of print) from the Sassy Girl collection.








McCall's Pattern Description
Girls Tops, Skirts & Armbands

Fabric
Sponge Bob and Patrick themed cotton






Features of Handkerchief Looking Skirt
*Three tiers of fabric
*Elastic casing at waist
*Be prepared for lots of hem pressing and stitching!
*Still easy to construct


Amazing Trace
I decided to start with creating the skirt, which consisted of 4 pieces: the upper yoke, the upper front/back, the middle front/back, the lower front/back. I dauntingly traced and cut what I approximated to be a size "6" from girls' patterns in the 7-10 range (McCall's skirt) and 7-14 range (Butterick top). Heather also helped with the labeling of the pattern pieces and the cutting. She then whined a little about being tired especially when cutting curved pieces, so I took over the cutting.




Directions
Tiers for Fears
I found them satisfactory. The illustration for adding each layer in the skirt is not clear. It helps to visualize the progression of the tiers. The upper front and back is shorter than the middle front and back which is shorter than the lower front and back. Also the wrong side of the upper front/back is placed over the middle front/back. The wrong side of the middle front/back is placed over the right side of the lower front/back. If you have sewn skirt with similar styling, you would have no problems.

The pieces are sewn to produce 3 tiers of fabric with hem corners in different orientations, all sharing the same top seam that the upper yoke encircles. The skirt is simple to sew, but not quick to sew due to the seemingly endless hemming! After sewing the side seams of a front to its corresponding back, I proceeded with the pressing and stitching those 5/8" hems. It reminded me of stitching the hems of 3 large handkerchiefs! Here's the math: upper front and back (4 hems, approx 17" each side), middle front and back (4 hems with each side length approximating 23 1/2") and the lower front and back (4 hems with each side length approximating 23"). So 4 * 3 = 12 hems! Your math assignment will be calculate the total hem distance of this skirt...
(total = 254"= 21' 2")



Modifications
These seams go on when I close my eyes
* Used French seams at the sides to joining a front piece to its corresponding back piece.
* Embellished the seam of the upper yoke, and upper front/back with a Hello Kitty ribbon.




Conclusion
Twirls just want to have fun
Although the hemming takes some time, you get a very unique and stylish skirt for your favorite girl that she can twirl in!