A Handmade Skirt Instructions

OK, so here are the instructions on how I make a very quick and easy skirt.


Before I begin I would like to say that in no way am I a seamstress, I love to sew, but follow a pattern I cannot do, which in it's self can be very frustrating. I'm self taught, have picked up the odd tip from occasional sewing workshops, but mainly I look at things, pull clothes apart and work out how they are made, call me a bit backwards in my approach, but that's just me!


Anyhow, I made this skirt this morning and it took me about an hour, even with a Tabi perched on my lap at the sewing machine (I wish I could of got a photo of that).


OK, so here it is! I would say you can use fairly any length of material you have from a pretty tea towel to an old tablecloth or even a piece of blanket, as long as it can fit around the person 'or' child's waist at least one and a half times, you can have a wider piece for more body, but I would suggest this as the minimum from experience. I had an off cut of baby cord which measured 32 inches (waist) by 14 inches (length).


Make sure you press your material first and if you want to tidy up any raw edges feel free. I tend to just use zig zag stitch where needed.


Fold your material in half and sew down the raw edge length to make a tube, kind of like a 'boob tube' press open this seam.


Hem the bottom edge. I tend to fold over by half and inch and then half an inch again, pin and sew, either by hand or sewing machine.


Then to make the waistband fold over by an inch then an inch again. I like my waistbands to be fairly wide, pin and sew, but make sure you stop about an inch before the end so you have a gap to feed the elastic through.


Attach a safety pin to the end of your elastic and feed through the waistband, checking to make sure it doesn't twist, there is nothing more frustrating then a twisted waistband!


Pull the elastic taunt until you have the right size ie. the skirt fits around the middle without being too tight or too loose. When you are happy with the fit pin the elastic where you want to cut off and then sew the ends together however you can (elastic is a sod to sew - look at my effort!). When I was shown how to make a bag I had to overlap the two pieces of elastic (laid flat) and sew a box on top of these pieces. Snip off the excess elastic.


Finally sew the gap at the back and press, that's it. Find your victim urmmm, sorry model and stand back with a 'I made that' smug look!!


As you can see my 'model' didn't want to do the whole catwalk thing for me, I had to be contented with her bouncing on the sofa, this being the only exception as I do not normally encourage this, but as she is allergic to most things including dairy I couldn't bribe her with chocolate!!




I hope that all makes sense?? I'd love to see any skirts that are made.

Happy sewing xx