Floofy Streamer Skirt

This skirt is so easy you can make it without sewing at all.

For this tulle skirt you will be tying thin strips of tulles, nets, laces, organza, anything light with a little stiffness to it to the waistband.

First you need to decide what kind of waistband you want as a base. You can either use a sturdy ribbon for a skirt that ties on or a sturdy elastic that you can tie, or sew, together. ‘Sturdy’ being to operative word, obviously. You don’t want your base to sag while you are wearing it.

For a tie on skirt get ribbon, blanket binding, or a strip of non stretch non fraying fabric. Tie it, perhaps with a bow, around your waist leaving enough extra for it to hang down. Mark on either side of the knot. Now take it off and put a knot over each mark. This way you know where you work area is.

For an elastic waistband put the elastic so it lays around your waist but will stretch to go over your hips. Tie or sew it so it is this size. I like to use black bungee cord for this as the thicker cord stretches a lot but keeps it shape even if I use some heaver fabric strips.

Figuring out how much fabric you will need for this is more of an art than a science. I like to get 2 yards of 4 or more fabrics each so there is a lot of visual interest and variety in the skirt. You can also use different colors of the same texture fabric, for example, tulle, and make a rainbow skirt, or a black and white stripped skirt, or any other combination of colors. This project really lets you flex your creativity. Because you don’t have to sew it you can put everything on before tightening to make sure you are happy with the design.

For the 2 of these I made recently I did a combination of spiderweb laces, lace, tulle, glitter and sequin tulle, glitter and sequin organza, netting of different types and even more spider web lace. One was black on black. The other was metallic red on black.

The most time consuming part will be cutting the strips and if they aren’t perfect it’s actually fine. You want to cut the strips from selvage to selvage which is the width of the fabric, each strip about 2-3 inches wide. Some fabrics will curl when you tie them on some will lay more flat. Sometimes I will cut the end off at a slight angle so the bottom of the strips isn’t too squared off.

The length you want for the skirt will define how you tie these strips. If you want the skirt longer than half the width of the fabric you will end up with on end of the tie long and the other shorter. This will giver the skirt more of a layered look which really compliments the chaotic cascade feel of the skirt.

One on my favorite things to use for these is spools of pre-cut tulle, organza, and spiderweb lace from floral sections of craft stores and online. The kind WITHOUT wire. These I can cut exactly the length I want, trim the ends at an angle and I don’t have to waste time cutting strips.

OK time to tie. Figure out what length you want, pull the longer bit down about 2 inches longer than you want because the knot will use up some of the length. Fold it over the making a loop in front of the waistband then fold the loop over the top. Now pull the ends through the loop. If you are sure of your design, tighten the loop all the way. You want it tight enough it won’t undo but it’s good if you can still move it along the waist band to make sure you can get all the streamers bunched up together enough for good coverage.

Keep going till you cover your entire work area. Once you think you are done try it on, you may realize you have some gaps, fill those.

If you dance in this skirt legs will poke through. Probably walking too. If you are OK with this, fantastic, if you like more coverage you may want a light under skirt that will go well with it. The Circle Skirt project is great for that.

One of the really fun things about this, much like the Tatters and Rags skirt, is that if you later acquire some fabric for another project that you love and have some scraps, you can always add a few more strips by scootching the current strips over and adding them.