Ballet skirt for a little ballerina

 Making a basic ballet wrap for  little girl, I used a silk crepe from an old dress..making everything do double duty!


1.     Measure your ballerina around the hips in inches.   This measurement will be known as X. 
2.     Draft two copies of the template piece on paper.

3.     Fold silk in half in line with the selvedge.  The two pattern pieces will be places apart, with the measurement of Y between the top and bottom pattern edge.  To calculate, perform the following calculation.  Y = X – 15”. 
4.     Mark pattern pieces on the silk and cut out.  You should have two silk pieces.

5.     On the long edges fold over the edge by ½ inch, and use small pieces of sticky tape to hold them in place.  You will be stitching through the tape while this holds in the edges in place.
6.     Sew a narrow zig zag stitch along the long edge on both pieces
7.     Trim along close to the zig zag stitch.
8.     Place the short edges together, with toilet paper inbetween to stabilise the seam, pin and sew with a short straight stitch together.  Ensure the hems are facing outwards as per the diagram.  This ensures when you complete the French seam they are both facing the same way.

Ballet wrap seam stabilised using toilet paper

9.     Trim ¼ inch from seam
10. Turn over one edge over and straight stitch ½ inch to enclose the seam
11. Hand sew on the snap fasteners 4 inches apart

Ballet wrap finished detail