Materials 1 yard of elastic (1/4 inch wide) 2 play silks (30" square), dyed matching sewing machine thread

1. Determine you measurements
This formula is pretty flexible. If you would like to determine your own measurements, you have 3 factors to consider; size of scarf, childs waist size, amount of “gather.” The elastic will be tightened at the end to your child's waist size. Cutting a larger center hole will create more gather and make the skirt shorter.

A 30" square scarf, with a 27" diameter hole will look very cute and fit any child with a waist size less then 27".

The skirt pictured above has a 48" diameter hole that is cinched to 17" to fit my daughter.

2. Cutting holes for the waist
Begin by laying 2 silk scarves on the table with their right sides facing each other. The next step is to cut a circle in the center of each scarf.

 This is how we did it:
Taking care to keep the layers together, fold the square in half length wise and then width wise. You will now have a square ¼ the size of your scarves. Find the corner that is the center of both scarves. We had a lid that was about the size of the circle we wanted to create, so we lined the corner of the folded scarves with the center point of the lid and then traced the arch at the edge of the lid on the fabric.  If you do not have a lid, determine the radius of the circle you are trying to cut out and measure out from the center point every inch or so to create a cutting line.

To make the cutting process easier, Pin the fabric together on either side of your newly drawn cutting line. Cut along the line and remove the circle of fabric (put away for another project)

3. Aligning the points Now remove pins and unfold your scarves. Lay them on the table once again with right sides facing. Keeping the circle shaped holes aligned, rotate the top scarf so that its corners point in between the corners of the scarf beneath it.

4. First Seam

To prepare or your first seam, pin the layers together around the opening. (It helps to point the heads of the pins toward the hole. Take your work to the sewing machine and sew around the entire circle with a quarter inch seam allowance. If the raw edges bother you, you can go around one time more with a zig zag stitch at the edges, but it is not necessary as this edges will be enclosed within the garment and not visible from either sid

5. Turn inside Out
Now, turn the right sides so that they are facing out (the wrong sides of the scarves are now touching). Press the seam with a warm iron.

6. Second Seam Lay the project flat on the table again (with wrong sides facing each other) and pin around the waistband.  Go back to the machine and sew around the waist 5/8 inch in from the edge leaving 2 inches unsewn (this is where you will insert the elastic).

7. Inserting and stitching elastic Fasten a safety pin to 1 end of the elastic an insert it into the hole created by the unsewn portion of the waist band. Work the elastic around the waistband tube and back out the “hole”. If the elastic is twisted inside the tube, untwist it. Stitch the elastic so the waistband shrinks to 18 inches (or desired size). Trim the elastic and sew the raw ends together overlapping them slightly.

8. Finishing
Go back to the machine and close the 2 in” hole by completing the line from step 6.