Making a Skirt for the Elf on The Shelf

They are making clothes for the Elf on the Shelf, but they aren’t the colors or style I wanted, so I decided I could make her skirt.  How hard could this be?  A little gel printing, a simple running stitch, and a bunch of glue. Let’s just say I don’t think I’ll be on Project Runway anytime soon with my sewing skills.

Watch Making a Skirt for the Elf on The Shelf on YouTube.

Want to know more about gel printing?  Check out my page of resources here.

The first step is to make colorful fabric using a gel plate.  Add any acrylic paint and then a stencil. The paint I’m using is by Paper Artsy and the stencil is Trio of Thorns that I designed for StencilGirl.  Why not fabric paint?  Because this isn’t going in the laundry.

Remove the stencil to reveal the pattern on the gel plate.

Next, press the plate directly on to the white cotton fabric.  What kind of cotton fabric is it? I have zero idea.  At the store, I just pick fabric out that feels nice without any idea of the proper name of it.

Repeat the process of printing until you  have a strip of fabric that is long enough to make the skirt.  You might be wondering how long that is exactly.  Me too…since in the video you can see that at first, I didn’t have enough fabric so that it was more like a wide-open-in-the-back hospital gown than a skirt.

That was just an O.O.P.S., an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly.  I printed another piece of fabric (for a total of 14 prints) and then there was enough…or so I thought!

Trim up the fabric and then gather it using a running stitch.  Beware of needles though…they are sharp as my thumb will attest but I do have a better understanding of why my mother and grandmother had so many thimbles.

To make sure the gathers will stay, add glue to the top, and cover with a long scrap of fabric from when you trimmed the fabric. Do this on both the inside and outside.

The vintage trim, courtesy of my grandmother, added that last touch to the waistband.  I had been hoarding that trim, and it felt so good to use it!

Turns out that the skirt still didn’t give her full coverage in the back, but a little fiddling with the fabric and I doubt anyone will notice.  After all, she sits on shelves a lot of the time.

Thanks for stopping by for a bit of play.  Not only do I have a colorful Elf on the Shelf, but I also have a fun clean up print too!

You can see what she’s up to over the in the Facebook group, Rediscovering Your Creativity.  If you’re already a member you’ve seen some of her shenanigans, like the O.O.P.S., and if not, join the fun by clicking here!

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming!