Betty Skirt Pattern Tour

I’ve had the immense pleasure of meeting two-thirds of the talented ladies who blog for Shaffer Sisters.  Scary and Al met up with Lauren Dahl and I and a larger group of sewing bloggers the evening before Snap! Conference last spring in Salt Lake City.  Let me tell you, they could not have been sweeter or more genuine!  Al was pregnant at the time and she positively glowed! The Shaffer Sisters have recently branched into the sewing pattern arena, and that’s what I’m here to talk to you about today – The Betty Skirt:   Sized for newborn through 16, and get this- they’ve also factored in plus sizes for 3-16 so if your child is not average sized, you don’t have to worry about figuring out how to adjust the pattern to fit.  Beyond that, they also give clear instruction for blending sizes, so if you’ve got a tall skinny child you can make the smaller yoke and a longer skirt.  There are four options – gathered, gathered with a button placket, large pleats, and small pleats.  The instructions are very thorough, giving different options for construction so you can choose your method based on your sewing comfort level.  Because I chose to do the gathered skirt, I didn’t need the pattern pieces with the pleat guides.  The tutorial had me covered, and gave clear cutting dimensions for the yoke and skirt pieces – no printing at all!   I made the gathered version in a 5T for Arden, who is standard measurements for her age.  I made some very minor adjustments to utilize the mesh fabric I found as an overskirt.   The base of the skirt I made is a polyester blend with foil cross hatching that gives it a nice shimmer (Arden loved that!) and the overskirt is a mesh with dots, almost like Swiss dots, embroidered all over.  Since the mesh was sheer, I used French seams for the side seams and the hem to keep everything nice and tidy.  I made the skirt almost like a bubble skirt by cutting the lining 1″ shorter than the overskirt, so the hem would be pulled up to the inside a little.   The lightweight metallic fabric and the mesh worked together to make a very swishy, twirly skirt.  Would any five year old not fall immediately in love?   In a bit of preparing-to-move-induced brain scatter, I thought my stop on the Betty Tour was on Friday, so I had not even begun my skirt until Monday morning.  I was done by just after lunch, including a trip to Jo-Ann’s for fabrics.  Talk about fast!  Because that left me with only that evening to take photos, I grabbed my camera, the Betty skirt and the rest of the outfit and went to get Arden from our daycare’s after school program a little early to nab some photos…   …and ended up with a lovely late fall backdrop complete with glow from the setting sun, just a little walk away from our daycare.  I was headed to a park just to Arden’s right, but there was a ditch in the way and this little spot on top of a rise worked perfectly!  Nothing in the background except grasses and trees and farm fields in the distance.  What more could I ask for?  It was a little chilly so Arden kept the puffy vest on.  If you catch the hint of pink in her hair, we’ve been experimenting with hair chalk, so both girls had some vibrant stripes in their hair this day.  I know I was all about colored hair when I was a kid, so I let them have fun with it!   To get your Betty Skirt pattern, head to the Shaffer Sisters pattern shop here, and to get 30% off through November 16, use the code BETTYTOUR at checkout.  If you make a skirt of your own, use #bettyskirt on social media to share with everyone!  And be sure to check out the rest of the pattern tour, there’s still a few more days left.   See you! Outfit details:
Pattern: Betty Skirt by Shaffer Sisters
Fabrics: Polyester foil cross hatch and dotted mesh from Jo-Ann Fabrics
Shirt, Vest, Tights: Target
Boots: Livie & Luca