Ballet Folklorico/Cinco De Mayo

A friend and I were talking this last Friday about how her daughter came home last night and said she needed a costume for her class on Monday. They would be doing class presentations and would get extra points if they dressed in costume. Originally, said daughter's friend said she could borrow one but that fell through and she didn't know where to go to buy one. So I offered to make one. BTW, if you buy them off the internet they start around 85 bucks and go up! I think somewhere in the conversation I said "How hard can it be? Hubs is working the whole weekend so I'll have plenty of time available to do some sewing."

Ummmm, I couldn't find a pattern! Her mom and I googled like crazy! Thank you Google images. The white one below is what I used as inspiration (and I had tons of white fabric already so we went with that.) Thank you Humboldt State University for having a Ballet Folklorico club.

What I did learn on the Internet-(thank you Internet!)- is that these skirts represent different regions of Mexico depending on their design and that they are double circle skirts. I had no idea what a double circle skirt was. So I googled it. :) I have made a poodle skirt before and it is a single circle skirt. So you just make two circles and connect them together. That is how these skirts get their fullness and the ability to pull them up so high on the sides.

Back to no pattern.....

• I didn't have a true pattern for the skirt but I did have a poodle skirt pattern and doubled the recipe.
• I made a few adjustments like making it shorter and an elastic waistband instead of fitted.
• I used one of her t-shirts as a pattern for the top.
• I grabbed a sleeve pattern from one of my dress patterns.

She had lots of fun twirling around at school!

I had no idea how much fabric to have her mom buy. Like I said, I already had the white fabric. I think I used about 4 yards of white fabric. She picked up 1 yard each of yellow, orange, and hot pink fabric. When making the sleeves I also found some eyelet fabric in my stash. :) I also used a little ribbon and trim on the top.

If I ever make one of these again......

• I'll figure out how many yards of ribbon it takes and possibly try that. Almost all of the dress examples I saw were made with ribbon. But ribbon can get pricey when you need about 11 yards just to make one stripe around the bottom. But I do like how it shines!
• Edge the ruffles before gathering them!
• Look into buying a ruffle/gathering foot for my machine.
• I used lightweight fabric. Very important because the skirt can get heavy.

Wonder if her mom will let me steal it back to add a little more embellishment before Cinco de Mayo?