Happy valentine's day!

I've amended my "no new projects" resolution. I'm still working down my list, but I'm also making room for small diversions. Sometimes you just gotta have a little fun! So now my rule is "no new UFOs". If I want to start something, I have to commit to finishing it before I move on to anything else. This way, when the little missy asks for a new skirt for Valentine's day, I can say sure, why not!

It's just a simple gathered tiered skirt with an elastic waistband. I did the ruffles with the serger by increasing the differential. I first tried it with some el-cheap-o fabric, and set the differential to 2, which made it gather about 100% (42" wide strips gathered up to about 21"). For the test skirt, I used seven 6" strips to make a 3-tiered skirt - the top tier was one strip, the second tier was 2 strips, and the third tier was 4 strips long. It was really, really twirly! For the real skirt, I decided to start a little smaller so it wouldn't end up quite so voluminous (and because I only had a yard of fabric, so I only had 6 strips instead of 7). The top tier would be 3/4 of a strip, the middle tier would be 1.5 strips, and the bottom tier would be 3 strips, for a total of 5.25 strips, giving me a little fabric left over for a comfortable margin of error. But even though I set the differential to 2 again, it somehow gathered more loosely than the first time!! What the heck? Oh well - it somehow worked out perfectly so that I had enough to make 4 tiers instead of 3, with about 12" left over. It could be twirlier, but it's good enough. And it's a little long, but that just means she can wear it next year, right? :-)

I picked up the solid shirt at Target a long time ago, and was so pleased that the color happened to match perfectly. One big appliquéd heart later, and her outfit was complete (and total pink overload!!).