Halloween Applique Shirt and Twirly Skirt

We love Halloween at our house – especially Black Cats!  It’s fun to have “Halloween” clothes to wear in October!

This skirt pattern fits about a size 6x.  Whats nice about elastic waist skirts if you can just cinch it in a little and it will fit perfectly!

Cut the chevron print (2) 36″ x 14″

Purple Piping (2) 2″ x 36″

Orange Cat fabric (2) 8″ x 36″

Sew the short sides of the chevron print together (1/4″ seam).  This makes one continuous loop.  I don’t have a serger, so I zig zagged the side seams so they won’t fray.  Press the seams to one side.

Sew the purple strips together in the same way, joining at the side seams.  You don’t have to zig zag these.  Press the long tube in half length wise so the raw edges meet.

Sew the orange piece together at the sides.  Press it in half just like with the purple.  You can see how it looks here:

To make the hem of the dress……

Layer the bottom of the chevron print, the raw edges of the purple print and the raw edges of the orange print together.

Pin all the way around matching side seams.

You can see here how it’s all layered together.  This is such a fast way to do a hem!

Once it’s pinned all the way around, sew a 1/4″ seam around the entire skirt.

Remove the pins and zig zag along the seam you just sewed.  Press really good.  Press all the seams up toward the chevon print.

This is how it turns out – cute!  Press some more 🙂

Top stitch 1/8″ away from the edge of the chevron print.

Prepare the top:

Turn the top edge of the skirt under 1/4″ and sew.

Fold that seam over 1 1/4″.  Pin in place and stitch near the fold.  This will form the casing for the elastic.  Leave about a 2″ opening to thread the elastic through.

Use a safety pin on the edge of your 1″ elastic.  I don’t pre-measure my elastic.  I like to thread it through and fit it to the child first.

Work the elastic around, distributing the gathers evenly.  Measure to your fit model 🙂  Sew a zig zag back and forth a bunch of times where you want the seam to be.  Trim the elastic and thread the ends through the opening of the skirt.

Pull the skirt tight and top stitch the opening closed.

Make sure the gathers are even around the skirt.  I like to sew a little side seam through all the layers of the waistband to keep it from shifting.  Do this on both sides of the waist.

For the black cat shirt…

Trace a circle onto HeatnBond® Lite.  Depending on the size of shirt, adjust the diameter of the circle.  This shirt is a 6/7 so the circle is the size of a cereal bowl.

Roughly cut out around the circle and iron it to the wrong side of the chevron print.

Cut the circle out, peel off the back and position it on the T-shirt.  This part is always tricky because T-shirts are never sewn perfect!  Press in place.

Top stitch around the circle – I went around it twice.

Trace the black cat pattern (bottom) to the HeatnBond® Lite.  Iron it to black fabric.  Follow the same instructions and iron the cat to the center of the circle.

Stitch around the kitty in black thread.

For the boys version…

Follow the same instructions on appliquing the black cat and appliqué the bats.  I love the green and white striped shirt (Target).

Right click on the image and save. Enlarge to the size you prefer. Then print! For an even easier way..print directly onto our HeatnBond® Pattern Material!  Our Pattern Material is a smooth interfacing perfect for printing, creating and resizing patterns for garment construction and quilting!

Be sure to take advantage of our great sale during National Sewing Month!