In progress #2

Well, after last yesterday's marathon cutting session of over 1000 4"x4" squares, I woke up with a sore back and a bruised thumb & forefinger. I relied heavily on my rotary cutter, but still reverted to scissors on occasion.

But, today I sat back on that floor with my cutting board on a cardboard box (I need more light in my sewing room!) and cut out 690 pink squares! Yes, I had enough for the extra ruffle!!!

After sorting everything and double counting (all while babysitting & taking care of DS), I decided to get started on the sewing. I have sewn together the first 4 tiers. Only 6 more to go! 

Then, I want to borrow BFF's serger and serge all the seams (cotton broadcloath has this horrible tendency to fray). Perhaps I can get the individual tiers all sewn together and serged this week, then I'll start the task of ruffling and attaching. I'm really dreading hemming this mofo though.

Rainbow Patchwork Skirt

Using 4"x4" squares, construct a 10-tier skirt with 1.5x increases, using the following colour scheme:

             Colour                      # Squares           Width of Row (appx)         Progress

• White                           13 squares             50"                                    cut, sewn together
• White                           20 squares             75"                                    cut, sewn together
• Orange                         30 squares             113"                                  cut, sewn together
• Yellow                         45 squares              170"                                  cut, sewn together
• Green                           68 squares             255"                                  cut 
• Teal                              102 squares           383"                                  cut
• Blue                              153 squares           575"                                  cut
• Purple                           230 squares          863"                                   cut
• Red                              345 squares           1295"                                cut
• Pink                             690 squares           2590"                                 cut

Also, here's some pictures of the squares all cut out before I started sewing, just so you can get a feel for what over 1600 tiny pieces of fabric looks like:

Separated into containers, pink & red on bottom, purple & blue on top, teal in the next, green & orange, and finally yellow & both layers of white :)

 Laid out on the floor, in stacks

 Panoramic shot - mostly because I wanted an excuse to use the panoramic function on my camera :)

Showing all of the different fabrics that were used















And before I stitched up the first 4 tiers, I shot a couple pics of my favorite fabrics:

 From the oranges

 From the yellows

Also from the yellows. Excuse the wrinkliness - it didn't look that bad when I cut it, but I have a feeling DS got into them a bit...













*Total cutting time: ~5 hrs*
*Total sewing time: ~2.5 hrs*
**Total time invested: ~14 hrs**