Birthday Patchwork Twirl Skirt

Recently Annie had a birthday!  And I had made her a promise I needed to fulfill.  The very first skirt we made for our All The Skirts series was the Patchwork Twirl Skirt from Scientific Seamstress.  At the end of that edition of All The Skirts, we decided to donate the Patchwork Twirl Skirt to Skirting The Issue.  But as was very plain in the photos, Annie LOVED that skirt!  So I promised to make her another one. I picked up a set of 11 Brambleberry Ridge fat quarters from Fat Quarter Shop during one of their 24 hour flash sales, and was all set to go!  The first time I made the Patchwork Twirl Skirt, I thought this pattern would work with 7 fat quarters, but it actually requires 7 quarter yard cuts.  No problem, with a little bit of math, I still made it happen!  And a matching shirt too! And Aria made a matching skirt for Annie’s bear too.  There was only a very tiny bit of scraps left when we were through!
We all love the Brambleberry Ridge fabrics.  The cute nature scenes, and the metallics scattered throughout make for very fun fabric!  The deer print has the largest scale, so I didn’t want to cut it up for the patchwork skirt. I also wanted to make Annie a comfortable, everyday shirt to go with her new skirt, so I knew it would have to be knit.  Or partial knit!  I turned to the Oliver+S Hopscotch shirt and dress pattern.  We’ve made this once before, during All The Skirts: Oliver+S and Fat Quarter Shop, and loved it! 
I guessed that the front panel could be made from a woven fabric with no other changes to the shirt for two reasons.  1. The gathering across the front panel would allow for give.  2.  The crossover neck would still be knit and fit over her head easily.  And it worked beautifully!
Now Annie has a new old favorite twirl skirt again!  Allegra took Annie out for her annual birthday photo session.  (She does this for each of her siblings on their birthday.)  I just love how she captured Annie’s personality, spunk, and cuteness. 
And then Aria took Annie’s bear out for a photo shoot in the skirt she made for her!  You can really see the metallics nicely in some of these photos. We made a longer size for Annie from the last one we made her.  That was October, and Annie has grown several inches since then!  The bear got the same size, however…The bottom of the Patchwork Twirl Skirt is over 25 yards long!  That’s a lot of zig zagging and gathering.  But in the end, seeing Annie’s face while she twirls and twirls and twirls is totally worth it!