Zafarani: Matilda Jane Mesh Bag Skirt Tutorial

Let it be stated, I love Matilda Jane clothing. It's a lot of crazy combos, knot dresses, peasant tops, ruffle pants. It's my style of clothing. I remember the first time I heard about Matilda Jane. I had just finished making this dress:

Someone told me that it reminded them of Matilda Jane dress, and of course I had to look that up. I was beyond flattered. I personally think Matilda Jane is one of the most adorable clothing lines for girls.

Anyways, whenever you buy something from Matilda Jane they send it in a really cute little mesh bag. Now, there are a ton of uses for these little bags, but one day I decided that I could make a cute little skirt out of them. So, on to the tutorial.

This takes 6 mesh bags (or 1 yard of mesh fabric) and half a yard of knit. The mesh bags from Matilda Jane all slightly differ in size, so I chose 4 close to the same size and another 2 that were slightly smaller.

To start I used a seam ripper and took the seams apart.

Then I cut 2 of them into 1 1/2" strands

Here's the rest of the cut list:

(sorry, I messed up with the size of the ruffles on this)

If you are just using mesh material, cut 2 12" by 44" rectangles and then cut as many 1 1/2" strands with the rest.

Then I put my sewing machine on the longest stitch

and I started sewing the strands 1/4 inch from the top

When I got to the end of one I slightly overlapped and sewed them together making a huge long ruffly strand.

I sewed 2 of the bags together at the short seams with the remaining bags

Next, start sewing the ruffle onto the edge of the skirt

I don't have a picture, but sew the skirt part of the knit together at the short ends. Then (if both mesh pieces and the knit piece are the same lengths) put them all together, the knit on the innermost and make sure the ruffles are facing outwards. Then use the longest stitch possible to sew around the top. You will be ruffling this up to attach to the waistband.

Take the waistband and sew the short ends together, then fold over with wrong-sides together. Baste.

Ruffle the skirt to be the same size as the waistband and sew at the edge.