It tastes like ruffles.

I am SO CLOSE to being done with the skirt I can nearly taste it. And by close I mean perhaps 3 or 4 hours out. >_<

Having cut out all three layers of circle skirt with the intention of gathering them in, I then hemmed the shit out of all of that. It ran me out of good black thread. Get at least 3 spools of black and 2 of brown for this thing...perhaps it's a bit late to be saying that now, but oh well.*

*First! I figured out I wanted to raise the hemline of the long layer in the front to about 14", and then cut another 2" off the back. Make marks with chalk at the longest and shortest points of the skirt on the circle you've cut out, and then figure out the deviation (mine went from lik 14" to 22" so had about 8" of deviation) and mark half-way points, and then halfway between the halfway points...until you get an oval kinda thing. It's like using a compass but not for a circle.

I used a rolled hemming foot and it was fabulous. Don't try it without one...only pain lies that way. Also, it is hard to get a fine curved edge--that's why they tell you to practice on straight lines first. This is true. For curved edges I futzed up a lot--ask me at Sakuracon if you want to see where. It doesn't make much difference if you're not staring at it from three inches away, but I strive for perfection. This is because I am nuts, but perhaps you are too.
The black fabric had stretch in it--just a little, but enough that with the weight and length of the fabric it pulls and I'm not sure if anything can be done about it. It makes the hemmed edge a bit wavy but...so what? It's for ruffles and doesn't matter anyway.
Go slow, be careful, and slide the edge over tiny bits constantly...this way you slowly make up for the changing width of the curving hemline.
Good luck, have patience. Unpicking it's a pain in the butt, so care is better.

Having hemmed everything, the next task was to gather them up into the right size to be sewn to the skirt.

I sewed the ends of the layers together, which in retrospect was probably not a good idea. The chiffon layer turned out to be almost a foot longer for some weird reason, so I had to cut it apart anyway. Also, working in the halves makes less fabric to drag around.

First off, figure out what lengths you want the skirt layers to be. DO NOT go crazy and sew the chiffon layer to the top skirt layer (yet) and then discover the lengths are wrong and spend an hour and a half unpicking the two apart.
DO NOT do that. It sucks.

DO sew the chiffon layer to the top black satin layer when you have the lengths right. This will keep the two from shifting around when you gather them in the next step. Yay for stability!

DO set the sewing machine on a big zigzag stitch. DO buy some embroidery thread (thicker, whatever color) and pin it to the fabric in a spot directly behind where the zigzag stitch will be. Pull the embroidery thread through and under the foot...(it's a C foot on my Viking) The idea is that the zigzag crosses over the embroidery thread and then at the end you pull on the pinned thread and VOILA! Shit is gathered. AND you can futz with the gathering to make it as much or little as you like. Fabulous.

So I've done that to the bottom layer. Tonight I'll go RE-sew the top two layers together and gather them again, and THEN sew some stuff to the skirt!!

So close.
~Raiphin