How to "Selvedge" a Skirt

I just took up the waist on this brown skirt this week. Now that it fits well, I focused on the appearance. It's nice, but a bit boring. I wanted something summery and fun to wear on my two upcoming beach trips. Inspired by 49 Sensational Skirts, I decided to spice up my new skirt. 

I considered lots of options, especially fusible applique, and fabric painting. But I wasn't in the mood to paint, and I thought fusible applique could too easily end up looking like a poodle skirt. Cute but really not MY style. Plus I wanted something I could finish fast, before my kids got home from the baseball game.

So I glanced around my sewing room looking for some other inspiration. I have been collecting selvedges for months, hoping to make them into a sewing machine cover, or possibly even one of these amazing quilts.  I decided to sacrifice a few for my skirt.  I tried pinning on a few just to make sure I liked the look of it, and to figure out which direction I wanted the selvedges to be turned.

I liked the way this looked so I pressed a bunch of selvedges flat, choosing the longest ones I had and ones with a neutral color scheme.

I started at a side seam, stitching the selvedges down only along the white edge (with white thread). I didn't even really pin it down, so some of my lines got a bit wavy. I like that hand-made look, but if you are not comfortable with "winging" it, of course you could measure and pin.  I spaced the selvedges closely at the bottom, and spread them out the further up the skirt I went.

As you can see, when I ran out of long selvedges, I didn't worry too much about matching up colors or patterns.

Here is the finished product. I love it!

I'm very curious to see what it looks like after washing, since the bottom edges are raw and not sewn down. I'm thinking I will launder it in a garment bag and hang it to dry. I hope it's not too much of a pain to press.