A Modern Sewing Blog.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Sew a Skirt Tutorial

Here at Sew Unique we love sharing our love of sewing. One of the things I (Jessie) enjoy is a quick garment pattern. Following is a free pattern and tutorial for a skirt. This is a great beginners project and it’s also very quick. Please keep in mind that we are not professional pattern developers or writers. If you have any questions feel free to contact us and we’ll do our best to help you out.


What you will need for an average adult woman: 1 Yard of Fabric
1 Package of 2’’ wide elastic
Spool of coordinating thread
Sewing machine

LET'S GET STARTED!
1. Measure the amount of elastic you will need by wrapping it around your waist (or the waist you are sewing for) and cut.
2. Cut your fabric down the center being careful to do it so that the pattern on the fabric is going the right direction (I’ve cut the fabric for one skirt the long ways and one skirt the short way, both work one will simply have more gathers.

3.  Now we are going to sew the two pieces together so that we have one long strip of fabric. We will do this by making a french seam. To make a french seam:

    1. On one side pin the short sides of the fabric together wrong sides facing.

    2. Sew 1/4’’ seam.
    3. Trim the seam
    4. Fold the fabric over so that the right sides are now facing. Press (iron).
    5. Sew a 3/8’’ seam. (Your raw edge will now be encased inside the french
seam)

4. On the long edge of the skirt that will end up being the top of the skirt fold over a 1/4’’ and press. Fold it over 1/4’’ again and press. Sew down the length of the fold. The top of your skirt now has no raw edges.
5. On your sewing machine select a wide basting stitch (probably a three or four). Just below the folded top of your skirt sew across your skirt. Leave a long thread tail at the beginning and end of your row of stitches.

6. Just below the first row of basting stitches sew another row leaving long thread tails. You’ll now have two rows of basting stitches to use to gather your skirt.
7. Now it’s time to gather your skirt. Find the middle of your waist band by folding
the elastic in half. Mark the middle with a pin. Lay the elastic on a flat surface.
8. Lay the fabric below the waistband, with the middle of the fabric lined up with
the middle of the waist band.


9. Starting on one side of the skirt take your threads and begin gathering your skirt by pulling on the threads. Take your time and be careful to spread the gathers evenly. Gather until one half of of your fabric is the same width as that half of the waistband.
10. Repeat step 9 by gathering the other half of your fabric.

11. Pin the gathered fabric to the waistband with right side of the fabric against the wrong side of the waist band. Pin the fabric about half way (or one inch) up on the waistband. Sew along the waistband keeping your presser foot along the bottom edge of the waistband.


12. We are now going to sew up the the side of the skirt. Repeat step three to make a french seam on the side of your fabric sewing from the bottom of the skirt to the top of the waistband.
13. To hem your skirt fold the bottom up 1/4’’ and press then fold it up again 1/4’’ (your can make the fold bigger if you’d like your skirt to be shorter) and
press. Sew along the fold keeping your presser first along the bottom of the skirt. Sew a second line of stitches keeping your presser foot along the first row of stitches.
14. Remove the basting stitches at the waistband.
15. Wear and enjoy!!




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