Hey there! I know a lot of people are wandering over to my blog via Pinterest for the tutorial, so welcome to my blog :) Make yourself at home. This week I have a super simple skirt tutorial that even the most basic of sewers can tackle and it takes less than an hour. As always, if you take a shot at it be sure to comment as I would love to hear/see how it turned out.
Materials Needed:
- About 2.5 yards of fabric depending on your size (I used cotton)
- 3/4 inch elastic
- Scissors
- Sewing pins
- Sewing machine, thread, thread ripper...the usual!
Directions:
1. Wrap the fabric around your waist one and a half times.
2. Cut about an inch down on the fabric where it hits your waist one and a half times around.
3. If it's cotton fabric there's this nifty trick that you can then just tear it all the way down and it will tear straight, much easier than trying to cut a perfect line down, at least for me.
3. More than likely your fabric came to you already folded. Leave it fold as that will be the bottom of the skirt. This saves us from having to hem the bottom and creates a cute bubble hem.
4. Now you're going to fold the fabric in half. Remember it's already in half once so now there should be four layers of fabric together, as shown below. Pin it up the short side as this will become the very base of the skirt.
5. Sew down the side you just pinned (the short side, perpendicular to the bubble hem and top of the skirt) with normal stitch length and tension.
6. Since I don't own a serger, I used pinking scissors to get rid of the excess fabric. This allows for minimal fraying and you can get really close to the stitch.
7. Cut, or serge, all the way down the stitch line.
8. Now on the top of the skirt (opposite of the bubble hem) you're going to fold down fabric, towards the inside of the skirt, about an inch. You can make it smaller or larger depending on how you want the skirt to look. Pin this down all the way around.
9. Most important step to pay attention to! Change your stitch length to the longest one possible on your machine. When you start sewing, do not reverse stitch to create a knot. You do not want to secure it because of the next step. Sew all the way around the skirt and when you get to the end, make sure you don't secure it either. Just stop sewing and cut the thread (try to cut it with a lot left over). Also, leave a small inch opening to insert the elastic.
10. Take one of the threads that aren't secured down and start pulling. This will create the ruffled top. Be careful not to pull so hard the thread tears (been there done that). Slowly but surely work the ruffles around the whole skirt.
11. Keep ruffling until the skirt is the size of your waist, where you want it to hit. Be sure to hold it up and check.
12. Finally, insert the elastic to the small opening. I use the classic trick of attaching it to a safety pin as it is easier to work in through the waistband. Push it through around the whole skirt and then sew up the opening. Make sure you go over the two threads were previously not secured down.
13. Cut any loose threads, flip inside out and you're good to go :)
Labels: crafts, DIY, flowers, Sewing, Summer, tutorials
