Tutorial: Christmas Bustle Skirts

Created On: December 9, 2011 | Updated: November 22, 2021 | 26 Comments

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(you know cause when aunty says stand by the tree she really means lay under it and pretend that you’re a present)

I’ve been drooling over and pinning all the bustle skirts that have been floating around the blogosphere over the last year (like this, this, and this). I had plans to do one for valentine’s day, then forth of july, then just any old day and I finally have done one in time for Christmas. Yeah sometimes it takes me a bit to get around to things.

I love making the nieces holiday skirts but they grow so fast that I wanted something that would last longer than just this Christmas. So my solution was to make this a two part skirt. The bottom skirt is made of two layers of red and white. The top bustle layer is made up of a fun snowman fabric I found in my stash. Since the Christmas-y part is separate the girls can where the underskirt whenever or if I feel adventurous I can make more top skirts for say Valentine’s day, Fourth of July and more since the red and white would work with so many holiday and everyday fabrics.

I was having too much fun at craft day to remember to take a ton of pictures but if you know how to make a basic skirt (or can make sense of my written directions) you should be able to do this. If you have never made a simple gathered skirt you might want to check out this tutorial from made (with lots of pictures) for a better explanation of the basics. And little pink monster has a good tutorial on for how to do a similar layered skirt which is close to what I did for my underskirt.

What You Need

layer 1 underskirt fabric (my white)
layer 2 underskirt fabric (my red)
ruffle fabric
lace
bustle fabric
ribbon
elastic

What to Do

Unfortunately I don’t have too many pictures and wasn’t super picky about measurements I just cut the white fabric a little shorter than the red fabric so for the girls the white was about 8 inches the red was 10 and the ruffle was 4 (they are 3 and 4 years old). The bustle fabric was 10 inches. So these are the full width of the fabric so for the bustle the piece is 10 X 44 (since the width of the fabric is 44 inches). This post has a good chart on skirt/fabric length suggestions for skirts. Think of it as the length if you weren’t adding a ruffle or lace. You’ll want to do some math to accommodate for those things.
Attach the lace to the white piece. You can do this with a serger like me or french seam or however you’d normally sew a seam.
Finish the edge of the red fabric (or whatever that layer is for you). I did this with a rolled edge but you can do a basic hem or zig zag on your sewing machine to mimic a rolled edge.
Finish the long edges of the ruffle. Attach to the underside of the red piece. The goal is to make it look like it’s two layers but it’s really just a ruffle underneath. You could just do a whole extra layer if you like.
Lay out the fabric so that everything sticks out the amount you want, cut off some of the tope if necessary so the layers stick out how you want them to and pin (or if you have a serger just serge the layers together at the top). Sew the ends of the fabrics together (both layers) so you have a tube.
Next make a casing at the top edge and add your elastic. You should now have the white and red skirt finished. This can be worn as is or with a bustle top skirt. And the best part is that you can make a bunch of top skirts to change things up

For the bustle layer. Hem one edge of the bustle fabric. Sew the ends to form a tube. Finish the top edge (or just roll under twice) and make a casing.
Before you put in the elastic put four pins spread out evenly around the hem of the skirt.
Then sew the sew from the edge to the waistband pushing and scrunching the fabric so it gathers.
See how you like the length if you want it shorter just repeat and scrunch some more.
Add bows. I sewed the ribbon in the middle then tied the bow then took a few stitches so the bows wouldn’t come undone.
Add elastic and you’re done.

Let me know if you have questions and I’ll do my best to help. And as with all my tutorials if you try it out I’d love to know and see pictures. And as always I’d love you to add them (and any other creative, delicious or fashiony posts) to my What We Wore and Made Link Party that I hold every week.