A couple of weeks ago I was playing about with a bit of fabric and ended up making this:
Want to make one?! Here we go:
You will need:
- Fabric - I'm using a fantastic fabric called 'Bright and Buzzy Bees on Sky by Robert Kaufman, bought from the fantastic PlushAddict
- Zip
- Thread
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| Reptile optional - he was trying to help out |
The width of the fabric = approx. 3 x your waist measurement plus seam allowance for the zip. The length = length you want your skirt plus allowance for hem and waistband (mine was 55cm). My fabric had a print that was one directional, so I actually had to stitch 3 pieces together for it to be about 250cm. To ensure the finished skirt was going to fit I actually did more than 3 x waist measurement and just kept pleating! Feel free to do the same!
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| Massive rectangle |
Do the hemming now. Its far easier to hem a giant straight line than a crazy folder skirt at the end. Neaten the bottom edge, turn it up and hem in place.
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| Hem the bottom edge |
There are many ways to pleat - there's a whole list here. I'm just doing regular, straight forward side pleats about 5cm in length. Not forgetting to leave 1.5cm at the left edge of the fabric for seam allowance, pick up the fabric about 10cm in, and fold it back on itself 5cm, creating your pleat. Pin the pleat in place both at the top and bottom so it hold shape. Where the pleat ends, pick up again a further 10cm away, fold back on itself 5cm and pi the pleat - they should be sitting neatly side by side, neither overlapping nor having gaps between them.
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| A side pleat - start at the left edge of fabric |
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| Pin in place |
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| Trying to help - not helping. |
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| Keep pleating until you reach your waist measurement plus seam allowance |
You want those fold to stay put and be nice and sharp - use a steam iron to really flatten in the creases
Sew the top edge of the skirt all the way along the pleats securing them together
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| Stitching the pleats in place |
I don't like my skirts too 'poofy' or sticking out that much, I'm not a very 'girlie' sort of person so I decided to sew about 7cm down each place to keep the skirt sitting a little straighter. It kept the pleats in place and held them flat to my middle before sticking out a bit.
Step 7 - create a waistband
You will need a strip of fabric 10cm in length x your waist measurement plus seam allowance in width.
Step 7 - Add the waistband to the skirt
Right side to right side, pin the waist band across the top edge of the skirt. Then sew it in place.
Step 8 - Insert the zip
Now join your rectangle of pleats together, right side to right side pin up the centre back seam. Leaving enough room for your zip, sew up the skirt from the bottom hem up to where your zip will start. I'm doing an exposed zip as I found a nice blue one that matched my fabric. You might also want to try a concealed zip - tutorial here!
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| Neaten the raw edges, pin and sew seam together leaving gap the length of zip |
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| Top of zip sits at halfway fold on waistband |
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| Sew zip in place |
Fold the waistband over onto the wrong side of the fabric, trapping all the raw edges in there. Sew the waistband down keeping the stitched straight and neat :-)
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| Not the best example of neat stitching ever - finished waistband none the less! |
Enjoy your new skirt. I chose the windiest day ever to try and take these pics, was blowing around all over the show!
As always please do feel free to get in contact by comments below, Facebook or Twitter :-)
Happy sewing! x
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