Your little Fairy Girls will love this Rainbow Petal Skirt Knitting Pattern.
This knit petal skirt is an easy pattern for beginning knitters to tackle. Each of the 7 petal sections are knit flat as individual pieces. When all the petal are complete they are whipped stitched together to form the skirt. Enjoy the petal skirt knitting pattern.
Sizes: XS (19.6in), S (22.4in), M (25.2in), L (28in)
Choose a size that is a couple inches larger than your child’s waist measurement. You will add an elastic band to cinch up the waist to fit exactly.
Petal Skirt Knitting Pattern Materials:
Yarn: For this project I used Shine Worsted Weight Cotton from Knit Picks. I did each petal in a different color. You will make 7 petals.
For Pixie’s skirt in child medium, I used every last inch of each skein. (Actually I was a bit short on two of the colors and had to bind off one row early – not that you can tell). You will need 1 skein per color for sizes XS and S. It is possible the M can use just 1 skein per color but just to be safe you might want 2 skeins for the M. You will need 2 skeins per petal for the large.
Needles: Size 7 needles or size needed to obtain gauge.
Gauge: 5st per inch in stockinette stitch
Also Needed: 3/4 in wide elastic for waist band
Petal Skirt Knitting Pattern Directions:
Knitting the Petals:
- Cast On (14, 16, 18, 20) stitches.
Waist Band:
- Knit row 1.
- Purl row 2.
- Continue in st st for 5 more rows ending with a knit row. Knit the next 2 rows. This creates a bump and natural fold line for the waist band.
- Purl next row.
- Continue in st st for 6 more rows ending with a purl row. You should have completed 16 rows all together.
Petal Shaping Increases: Increases are completed in 8 row units.
- Row 1: Increase Row: K6, KFB, K (0, 2, 4, 6)*, KFB, K6 (You should now have (16, 18, 20, 22) sts total).
- Rows 2, 4, 6, 8: Back Side: K4, P (8, 10,12, 14) K4 (For all purl rows knit the first and last 4 stitches to create a garter stitch border which will stop the petal edges from curling).
- Rows 3, 5, 7: Knit.
*With each repeat of the increase portion of the pattern the number of stitches knit in the middle section will increase by 2. You will always K6, KFB, and then knit until 7 stitches remain on your needle, KFB, K6.
Repeat Increase portion of the petal a total of (7, 8, 9, 10) times. You should have (28, 32, 36, 40) stitches total. End with row 8 (purl).
Petal Shaping Decreases: Decreases are completed in 4 row units.
- Row 1: (Decrease Row) K6, SSK, K(14, 18, 22, 26)*, K2T, K6 (You should now have (26, 30, 34, 38) stitches all together).
- Rows 2, 4: Back Side: K4, P (18, 22, 26, 30), K4 (For all purl rows knit the first and last 4 stitches to create a garter stitch border which will stop the petal edges from curling).
- Row 3: Knit.
*With each repeat of the decrease portion of the pattern the number of stitches knit in the middle section will decrease by 2. You will always K6, SSK, and then knit until 7 stitches remain on your needle, K2T, K6.
Repeat decrease portion of the petal a total of (7, 8, 9, 10) times. You should be back to (14, 16, 18, 20) stitches total. End with row 4 (purl).
Knit to Bind Off.
Complete 6 more petals.
Finishing Your Petal Skirt Knitting Pattern:
- Block your petals.
- Line up two petals side by side, back side facing you, and whip stitch together starting at top edge of the waist band and working all the way down to the first decrease row.
- When you have sewn all of the petals together in circle, fold down the waist band and stitch it in place leaving one section open to insert the elastic.
- Cut elastic to the exact waist measurement.
- Use a safety pin to thread it into the waist band.
- Over lap the elastic by an inch and sew the elastic together.
- Fold down and tack into place the rest of the waist band.
Note: This is a longer skirt. I chose to have it be longer since the side seams only come down part way. If the length seems too long, try decreasing the number of rows between increases by 2 for a total of 6 rows for the increase units and decrease every right side row instead of every other row in the decrease units.
Abbreviations:
- K =Knit
- P = Purl
- St St = Stockinette Stitch
- KFB = Knit Into Front and Back. Increase one stitch by knitting into the front and back of a stitch
- SSK = Slip, Slip, Knit. Slip a stitch as if to knit. Slip the next stitch as if to knit. Then knit the two together. Decreases 1 stitch.
- K2T = Knit Two Together. Slide your needle into to two stitches at the same time and knit. Decreases 1 stitch.
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Hi Michelle, the skirt is beautiful. When you say “block the petals”, how did you go about doing that? Not so good at knitting so I would love your input…… thanks!
For this project and since I was working with easy-care cotton I just used a warm iron with steam to block the pieces. This straightened them out and stopped any curling.
Usually though, blocking means hand washing the pieces and then laying them flat to dry on a foam board using pins to hold the edges out straight to help “shape” the finished piece. With more delicate yarns ironing would be bad.
Here are some blocking tools…
http://www.knitpicks.com/accessories/Blocking_Tools__L30056209.html
Hello,
This petal skirt is just too cute, thank you for sharing I’m looking forward to creating one for my granddaughter. Trying to keep the costs down and thinking I’ll use some worsted from my stash which will take some figuring on the yardage but I’ll do a couple of practice petals first, or maybe Caron Simply Soft? ?
Thanks Elaine! It is still one of Pixie’s favorite outfits. She wears it all the time. It is two year old and still fits…. it has just gotten a bit shorter. Have fun making one. It can definitely be a stash buster project. Let us know how it turns out.
Hello, I know that it has been ages since this is posted, But i was wondering if there was a way that I could somehow enlarge the pattern to make an adult sized skirt? any help would be appreciated. I’m 17, and I really enjoy knitting.
The easiest way to make it fuller in width for an adult, is to make an extra petal or two. To add length, repeat the increase section several more times until you achieve a length you feel comfortable with in terms of showing skin. Just keep measuring it as you knit. Then repeat the decrease portion an extra number of time to match. Hope that helps! We would love to see photos when you are done.