Happy Friday to you everyone! Okay I found the cutest skirt tutorial from Leanne's blog, Elle Apparel. Check it out, her tutorial will probably make more sense than mine does and her blog is to die for. She makes up the cutest patterns in her head, she is AWESOME!
Anyway, I gave this skirt a go and I will show you how I did it :)
Here's the skirt... I think it turned out pretty cute. You?
The best part about it is it's stretchy (you will use elastic thread around the waist) so comfort all day long :) BooYa Baby GIRL!!!
What to Get:
Okay first of all I bought one yard of 36" x 50" of knit fabric. I chose jersey knit which was kind of hard to sew on. I think you might be okay with a little bit heavier knit, but I'm not completely sure on that you could ask Leanne. Also grab some elastic thread as well as some normal all purpose thread that matches your material. You are ready to start!
1. Lay your material out
2. Cut 2 waistband strips out. Leanne did 4" wide by 36" long. I followed all of her measurements and they worked for me, you may need to alter them depending on your waist size.
3. Fold the remaining fabric in half the hot dog way :), right sides together, and cut down the middle. This will be the front and back of your skirt. After cutting the fabric in half, each piece will be approximately 36" wide by 25" long. Leaving right sides together, cut a slight angle so the skirt flares a bit. Leanne did 5" bigger on the bottom than the top. Do whatever you think you would like in your skirt. I did 5" bigger on bottom than on top like her and I like how mine flares.
4. Lay the front and the back pieces of the skirt out flat.
Now for the box pleats in the front of the skirt:
5. Measure and mark the middle of the front top piece of the skirt
6. Take a ruler and measure 2" to the left and mark
7. And 2" to the right and mark
8. Proceed by measureing 2" to the left of the first left mark and mark (wow too many marks goin on)
9. And 2" to the right of the first right mark and yep, you guessed it, MARK. Get it? Good :)
10. Your marks should look something like this
11. Fold the fabric so the first left mark folds and hits the second left mark, and do the same to the right side and pin them securely down. The fabric should be folding away from the middle of the skirt.
12. It should look something like this.
13. Now again, take the ruler and measure 2" away from the end of the box pleat fold on both right and left side and mark.
14. Mark 2" MORE inches away from that marking and fold again so the first mark hits the second mark with the fold going away from the middle of the skirt.
15. Do this to both sides
16. So your marking should look like this before folding the second pleats. Proceed to make TWO more 2" markings and fold those last folds going away from the dress.
17. When you're finished it should look something like this. The picture will make it much easier then trying to figure out what in the crap I just said... :) Make sure you pin and iron each fold really well.
18. Now for the back side of the skirt. Take the other back piece and mark the middle.
19. Measure 3 1/2" away from the middle on the right and left side and mark
20. Then measure 7" away from the first marks on either side and mark
21. Match the 7" mark to the 3 1/2" in mark by making a fold, fold towards the middle of the dress. It should look something like this.
Once you're finished measure the top of the back piece and the top of the front piece of the skirt to make sure they are the same length for when you're ready to sew. This is very important, you may need to tweak the folds a bit.
22. After doing this, cut your waistband pieces, in half hot dog style :)
Before sewing make sure that you hand wrap your elastic thread and wind it very tight around the bobbin. You can just leave regular thread at the top of the machine.
23. With right sides together, pin two of the waistband pieces together length wise like so.
24. Sew over the pinned area, it will start to scrunch but that will be because of the elastic thread so that's what you want, don't worry sista.
25. Once you are done sewing both waistband pieces, they should look something like this.
26. Now pin, with right sides together, one end of the waistband to the front piece of your skirt. Make sure the pleats stay where the need to be.
27. Sew right sides together like so and proceed to pin the other waistband piece to the back piece of the skirt and sew as well.
28. Once you're finished, you will have to pieces that look like baby doll dress, don't panic like I did :)
Switch normal thread to your bobbin now...
29. Now I took the bottom of the front and back pieces, rolled the fabric under, and hemmed them. I did a cute little leaf stitch, but do whatever suits your fancy.
30. Now you have a nice finished edge for the bottom of your skirt.
31. Now take both the front and back piece of the skirt and pin right sides together making sure that the waistband pieces line up as well as the top and the bottom of the skirt.
32. Sew either side all the way down
33. Now your skirt should look like this
Now this is where I changed mine up a bit from Leanne's, but like I said, check hers out, you might like her way better.
Put the elastic thread back in your bobbin...
34. I folded the top piece of the waist band under, so WRONG sides of each waist band are together and sewed with the outside of the skirt facing me, about 1/4" from the very top so basically hemming the very top of the skirt.
35. After doing this, I just completely cut off the waist band piece on the inside next to the hemline. Yours should look like this if you choose to do it this way.
36. AND, Wala, you're done! Pretty easy huh?
Big thanks to Leanne for coming up with this and sharing it on her blog!
TGIF, and have a safe and WONDERFUL weekend!
And one last thing to leave you with....
The sunset last night was completely UNREAL!
