Here's a skirt I made yesterday, and decided I would make a tutorial. So I made another one today for my sister, though one can never have too many skirts... Can't take all the credit for the skirt though; I found the pattern in a magazine that my grandmother had. Changed it a bit and here it is:
Start by getting your measurements. This tutorial with be done in cm since that is the only thing I know. Though I think an inch is about 2.5 cm and that would mean that a foot is about 30 cm. Anyhow, this is how you do it:
Measurements you will need: waist and around the hips.
You need three pieces of fabric. One in stretchy fabric and two in regular cotton fabric. Experiment as you want with the color combinations.
Piece #1 (Stretchy fabric):
Measure your waist and add 2cm to that. That will be the length of the piece and the width should be 30cm. Though you can experiment with the width to make the band at the top thinner or wider.
Piece #2 (Regular):
This piece will be between the skirt itself and the stretchy part. Measure around you hips and add 10cm to that. The width should be 5cm.
Piece #3 (Regular):
This is the skirt itself. Measure around your hips and add 50-70cm to it depending on how scrunched up you want it to be. I recommend about 60cm. 70cm turned the skirt into a kind of tutu. The width should be about 25cm, but you can alter it according to how long you want it to be. The shorter the cuter though.
Take piece #3 and fold it so that the short ends are together with the right sides against each other. Sew together along the edge to make a sort of tube.
Now here’s the tricky part, which isn’t really tricky at all. The scrunching up. I have no idea what the real name in English is, so I’m just going to call it scrunching. If you know how to scrunch, do it your own way, I’m not so good at explaining. It you don’t, I will do my best at explaining.
Along the top of the tube, sew two seams right next to each other with long stitches (3-3.5). Do this around the whole tube. Make sure that the seams don’t overlap and don’t secure them by sewing back and forth at the start of end of the seam. 0.5cm between where the seam ends and starts should be OK. Also make sure that the strings are long, you need something to hold on to when you scrunch it up!
So, by carefully pulling the bottom strings scrunch the whole thing up. To know it is your size, wear the skirt while you do this. When it’s your size, even it out and tie the strings together with another piece of fabric to make sure they don’t get all messed up.
Take piece #2 and put the short ends together with the good sides against each other. Sew together at the edge.
With to good sided against each other, pin your new tube to the skirt like in the picture.
Sew it on.
It should look something like this.
Take piece #1 (the stretchy fabric) and fold it with the short sides together and with the good sides against each other. Sew along the edge like in the picture.
This is a super easy step and I just realized how extremely hard it is to explain in writing… I hope you are all smart people
. Well, the picture should make it pretty clear though. Well, here it goes:
With the bad side still facing out take the top part of the tube and turn it so that the good side is out and fold it over the bottom half of the tube. It should look like a tube folded in half, but with the good side out and the bad side inside against itself. That sounded a bit unclear… It’s the best I can to though!
Now take the stretchy and strangely folded tube and put it inside the skirt. Good sides against good sides. The folded end of the stretchy tube should be down inside the skirt while the open part is lined up with the top part of the skirt. Pin it and see to that it is all even. You might need to stretch the stretchy tube out to fit the skirt.
Sew it and make sure that it is all even! Otherwise you will end up with left over fabric at the end of the seam and you skirt will be lopsided.
Turn it right side out, and tada! Almost finished skirt! Just the boring part left…
Fold the edges and sew them.
And here’s your finished skirt!
Good luck! If there are any questions, just ask! I think the tutorial might be a bit confusing; it is after all my first.
