I do a lot of runs and I usually like to wear tutu's. Recently, they've started to bug me as I've become a more serious runner, so I decided I needed something a little less "poofy." I've seen women, and a man or two, wearing race skirts, and decided to make one myself.

Step 1: Materials

For this project, you'll need:

- A sewing machine

- Elastic

- Pins

- A measuring tape

- Scissors

- A elastic threader (lower left corner)

- Material ( see next step for length)

- Coordinating thread

I had all these materials on hand, but you can get them all at your local fabric store. Depending on the kind of fabric you but, I'd say this project costs $15-20 and takes about 20 minutes total.

Step 2: Prepare Elastic

To figure out how much elastic I'd need, I measured around the part of my hips I wanted the skirt to sit on, and subtracted 3 inches so it's be a bit snug.

My hips are 39 inches, so I cut a 36 inch piece of elastic.

Step 3: Measure the Fabric

A little note on the length of the fabric. I took my hip measurement and multiplied it by 1.5 since I wanted the skirt to have a gathered look. I ended using 60 inches, which worked out well since that was the width of the fabric I was using, but the end product didn't look as ruched as I'd like it to, so I'd suggest using double your hip measurment for a really gathered look.

I measured from where I wanted the skirt to sit. I then measured my elastic, which was 2 inches long, and added that to the length.

From my hip to where I wanted the hem was 16 inches, the elastic was 2 inches, so I laid my fabric out and cut 18ish inches.

I felt lazy and didn't want to really measure the fabric (hence the "18ish"), so I just eye balled the cut, folded it (4th picture) and cleaned up the edges that way. It makes it go faster and since I wasn't looking for perfection, it suited my needs just fine.

Step 4: Sew Skirt

Note that I didn't create any good hems since I don't really like sewing with velvet and I wanted this project to be done ASAP. If you wanted this to last longer, I'd suggest serging all the edges and folding them over twice so you have a nice seam.

Again, I was feeling kind of lazy, so I just eyeballed how much to fold the fabric over. You basically want to make a tube to thread the elastic through, so make sure it's at least wide enough to fit your elastic.This shortcut also came back to bite me in the butt since the extra fabric bunched up a little. T'were I to do it again, I'd use 1 inch elastic and fold the fabric over 1.25 inches so there wouldn't be so much bunching.

Anyways, I pinned down my not so seemly seam and got to work sewing. My machine hates sewing velvet as much as I do, so it's not that fin of a process. Make sure you change your machine settings to reflect any stretch the fabric might have. I forgot to do this and paid for it later.

Once you've sewn your tube, thread the elastic through until the end of the elastic lines up with the edge of the fabric (see 3rd photo). Sew the elastic down to the fabric so it's secured to it's "tube."

Thread the the elastic through until it is peaking out of the other end of the tube and secure that as well.

Fold the skirt over so you match the edges, pin it, and sew it together.