Thread: 25 yard tribal skirt

Anyone have know any patterns for making a 25 yard tribal skirt?please!I need one for a salsa fusion performance but they're so expensive!

My big suggestion with making one is buy 12.5 yards of fabric with a salvage that isn't that noticeable. Use the salvage for the bottom instead of hemming it. You'll end up with more fabric than you actually use, but you will save so much time and it will still be cheaper than buying one brand new.

I'll be honest, it's worth it to buy these. Seriously. I made my first ten yard skirt, and then my second, and it was an incredibly huge commitment time wise and it was frustrating cutting out all the material and gathering it for the tiers (there is no ruffler foot for my machine so I've done it by hand). When I decided I wanted a 25 yarder there was no way I was going to make it.

Also, those 25 yard skirts are a tissue weight cotton, which hangs better and flows when you dance. Unless you can get a comparable fabric, the cotton you find at Joanns just isn't going to look as good (a cotton gauze may work, but not a quilting cotton). My first 10 yarder was out of plain quilting cotton, and it just doesn't hang right, it's kind of stiff. The second was out of raw silk, which moves beautifully but is heavy.

I think Moondance or some sellers on eBay have 25 yard skirts the cheapest, but I went for good sellers with great service and a nice products when I bought mine:
Tribe Nawaar Long Skirts
Fat Chance Belly Dance, Catalog

Here you go:

Izzy's Huge Skirt

Contact Wendy Oliver at Bali Isle Imports. She has really good prices on them. Her eBay store is wendybaliisle.

Izzy's pattern is a 15-yarder, I believe. I concur with kazoogrrl -- unless you have a serger or sewing machine that has the ability to do the gathering for you, I would buy a 25-yarder.

Cotton gauze fabric is going to run you $4 or $5/ yard minimum. So buying one for less than $100 is cheaper than making it!

Originally Posted by tigerb

Izzy's pattern is a 15-yarder, I believe. I concur with kazoogrrl -- unless you have a serger or sewing machine that has the ability to do the gathering for you, I would buy a 25-yarder.

I have the cheapest sewing machine in the world, and I can get it to gather. All I need to do is put it on the longest stitch setting and crank up the tension. I did this on the last couple 25-yarders I made. (I only wish I knew that secret when I made my first ones!)