Gathered skirts are pretty simple projects. I have made quite a few with elastic in the waistband when I started sewing. My daughter loves them, because they are so easy to put on. No zippers, no buttons, just step in and go play! I put together some tips & tricks I used for the "Fancy Gathered Skirt" in the Cat's Cradle post.
I'll explain how to draw the "pattern" with just 1 measurement in tip #1.
Lately I have been seeing loads of gorgeous gathered skirts with sparkly elastic waistbands. My daughter had asked for them whenever she saw on pop up at my screen, but I didn't try because I did not see how to finish it nicely. What does a sewing mom do in cases like these? Ask Google! It found a great tutorial in Dutch by Seija that really works like a charm. You get a clean finish without itchy threads on the inside. Check out tip #2!
I like it when a gathered skirt has some volume, so I usually go for at least the whole width of the fabric. On Starbrite (Cat's Cradle by Michael Miller) skirt, I even used twice the fabric width. If you want the skirt to stand away from the body a bit more, you add a little something to make the hem firmer. If you get a nice finish in the process: bonus points. On my first elastic skirt I used piping: Have a look at tip #3! The Starbrite fabric was too shiny to let anything else steal the glory, so I went for bias binding on the inside. Check out tip #4 if you want more info on that.
