I wanted to show you what my girls will be wearing for Thanksgiving this year and the funny, awesome way it all came together.

Happiest little accident ever.

And total tender mercy.

I was digging through my stash looking for inspiration when I pulled out this torn, king size fitted sheet. We had this on our bed  for years before it finally wore a hole in the center. This sheet was huge (and because it was fitted), never really fit well on my shelf. Since I was drawing a blank on the Thanksgiving outfits,  I decided I’d at least clean up the stash a bit and cut the sheet  into smaller pieces so that it would store better. I grabbed my scissors, cut the sheet into quarters, and then went to cut off the elastic that ran around the entire thing.

And I stopped dead in my tracks … and just started at the elastic … and wondered if it was a mistake to cut it all off … what if I needed that elastic later ….?

While I was thinking, my daughter the genius picked up one of the ragged pieces and said, “Look Mom! It’s just like a skirt!”

Light bulb.

And from that happy little (divine) accident, I wound up with skirts for my girls in less than ten minutes.

Want to know how?

Seriously … it was that simple.

And if you use bias tape or some type of binding on the bottom, you can skip the hemming part all together – score!

So since I didn’t spend all that time prewashing, trimming, measuring, sewing, adding elastic, etc., I had lots of time to work on the details.

**And quick picture disclaimer —  my girls kept bugging me to wear their new skirts so I let them play around while I finished up projects. Consequently, these don’t look freshly pressed anymore. Sorry for the wrinkles. **

You could so do ANYTHING with this basic skirt, but I figured the best thing to add to a happy little accident was a happy little tree … or at least the happy little leaves from the happy little trees.

{Sorry – I can’t stop thinking of these as “The Bob Ross Skirts” and smile every time I see them.}

I grabbed the fat quarter bundle I won a few months ago …

… and cut a bunch of 3.5” x 3.5” blocks with leafs cut out of the centers.  I cut my blocks and shapes using my Silhouette, but this is easy-peasy to trace and cut using sewing shears or a craft knife.  The blocks were sewn together with a 1/4” seam allowance …

… and the top and bottom edges were pressed under for a clean finish. The whole strip was sewn to the bottom edge of the skirt.

I hand-cranked my sewing machine around each leaf cutout, but you could sew this by hand, too.

I love the creamy flannel poking through the cut-outs. Yummy.

And don’t think the leaf shapes and scraps went to waste. I just made another skirt.

I stitched the scraps together to make a long, 1” wide strip. Then I ironed the strip in half and then in half again to make my own faux bias tape to finish the bottom edge. The leaves were stitched in place with a lot of hand-cranking as well.

Not bad for a fitted sheet and some fabric scraps, huh?

It’s all in the details:

peek-a-boo cut-outs

or sweet appliqué with a simple border.

And how fun would it be to dress up this skirt for Christmas?

Mitten appliqués? Little trees with button ornaments? Ric Rak candy canes? Reindeer?

Or  for Valentine’s Day? Or any day?

How much fun could you have with an old fitted sheet?

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