Secondo's Superhero Twirly Skirt

Friends, three of my housemates are children. Because they are children you may or may not see pictures of them on this blog and I've decided to give them the pseudonyms Primo, Secondo, and Terzo. Guess who was born first?

At any rate, last week was Secondo's 8th birthday and I planned the perfect present. You see, Secondo and I share an interest in skirts and dresses. I enjoy drag and the occasional forray into crossdressing and Secondo is possibly transgender and certainly a "girl's" clothing fan. So a few weeks before his birthday, Secondo and I had a conversation about skirts. Specifically: If you could have any skirt in the world what would your dream skirt be? I decided that mine would have to be something incredibly poofy and irridescent so I'd feel like a giant fluffy cupcake. Secondo said he wanted a pink superhero skirt that was good for twirling. [On a random side note: Secondo loves twirly skirts and has actually managed to break his arm before in a twirling-related incident. Oy.]

Anyway, as soon as he said this I thought to myself: I can make this skirt. And thus a birthday present was born.

I bought some superhero fabric from my local JoAnn's, grabbed some bright pink fabric from my stash, and used the twirly skirt pattern from Sew Liberated that I'd bought several years prior and never used. You can find it on their website should you decide you need a good twirly skirt pattern but it's soon to be discontinued so buy it soon if you want it.

Alas I can't show you pictures of Secondo in his skirt, nor can I accurately capture the look of glee on his face when I gave it to him. Instead I will tell you that the skirt's home is not in his dresser but in his locked treasure chest where he keeps his most prized possessions. Which should be enough to illustrate how well it was received.

Here are some (kind of crappy - sorry!) cell phone pictures of the skirt. It was my first time attempting to gather fabric and oh man what a pain that is! You sew a line and then very gently pull the top or bottom thread so the material gathers. The sewers of the internet seem to advise sewing three lines in case one breaks. In my case all three broke. Whoops! Luckily for me there is a cheater method where you gently hold the thread on the top of your sewing machine to create some extra tension and your fabric will gather as you sew. Far less painful!

Sew Liberated