Tutorial Review: DANA'S CAN CAN or TURKEY SKIRT

When I saw Dana's Can Can/Turkey Skirt, I knew I just HAD to make one for my little gal (and 3 girl cousins). I am not a "sew from a pattern" kind of girl. I find that trying to figure stuff out myself is half the fun of sewing (sometimes it turns out like a serious disaster). Rather than trying to figure this one out myself, I decided to purchase her pattern online and do a review.


REVIEW:
1.Price of pattern: This pattern/tutorial was 6 dollars. Worth it! And she emailed it to me within a couple of hours of my purchase. Love that!

2. Actual costs of making the skirt: I bought 4 yards of non-fray nylon at 1.59 each yard and paid 6.95 shipping. If you could find this local, it would save you tons. I used an cotton bed sheet for the main portion of the skirt. It was one that I had never used and it worked great, so that cost me nothing. I also used thread I already had and paid .99 for a couple of yards of elastic for the waist band. These supplies made 2 skirts. I figured I paid about $8 dollars per skirt. Not bad considering these skirts could sell for $40 at a boutique.

3. Dana's Instructions: Instructions are easy to follow and very specific. Plenty of photos. She is great at making tutorials.

4. My rating of sewing skill level: INTERMEDIATE. I am not sure what Dana rates this pattern. It seems like it would be easy, because after all, you are sewing straight lines. The sewing isn't' difficult, but I could foresee a beginning sewer getting frustrated with the bulk and maneuvering of the skirt while trying to sew on all of the ruffles.

5. My overall rating of the pattern: 9 out of 10. There is nothing at all to complain about in this pattern, but how can you give someone a 10 out of 10?

WHAT I WOULD ADD TO THE PATTERN:

1. Cut your ruffles with a rotary cutter. I started cutting with a pair of scissors and thought I would go insane. I got out my metal yard stick, which is 2 inches wide, and used it as a guide. I folded the chiffon fabric lengthwise in fourths. I then cut the strips the width of the yard stick. It worked perfectly and all of my ruffles were cut in 10 minutes.

2. When gathering my ruffles, I knew I was going to layer them. I found that it was easier and looked tidier when I layered two unruffled strips together before I gathered (so I was gathering 2 layers of fabric at a time).

3. I figured that it would take about 3 strips of chiffon to go all the way around the skirt. So, as I was gathering my ruffles, I made one continuous ruffle with 3 strips of chiffon by tucking in one right after another as I sewed. This made it much easier for me when sewing the ruffles on the skirt.

4. I used peach, gold, white and cream colored chiffon. I loved the mix of all of these colors. I did make the mistake of using peach colored thread and I didn't like that my sewing lines were so obvious on the white and cream ruffles. So, on the second one I did (the one pictured), I used white thread and it made all the difference!