Clothworks

Hello, This is Anshu from Blooms And Bugs. I’m back with a new project to sew.
Skirts are summer must haves, which is good for us sewing enthusiasts because skirts are incredibly easy and quick to whip up and . The options and styles are pretty much endless. Also among all the clothes pattern, skirts are probably the easiest to self-draft. These two factors make them the perfect sewing project regardless of your skill level. So today I brought you a sewing tutorial for the basic skirt. So if you are a beginner you could take on this project without any qualms. As long as you can cut and sew straight lines, this project is a piece of cake for you. However, if you are at an advanced level, I have just thrown in a small twist at the end to keep you hooked as well

How’s that for a marketing ploy?

Basic Skirt Sewing Tutorial

Level: Beginner

Supplies:

Half Yard Fabric – 0-5 years size

1 yard fabric 5-8 years size

1 inch wide non-roll elastic – 30 inches

For the fabrics I picked a beautiful print from Forest Wonder Collection by Masha D’yan for Clothworks. I have a little girl who is partial to everything purple these days and she was positively thrilled with this collection. I too loved that the prints are just perfect for the summer.

Estimated time: 15 mins – half an hour

Seam allowance: 3/8 inch

Sewing Pattern: This is a pattern free tutorial.  You need the following measurements  to sew this skirt. These skirts also have a good amount of ease, which means that even if you guesstimate the measurements, the garment will still fit in all likelihood.

1. Length of the skirt ( L1) – Add 3 inches to L1, lets call this L

L=L1+3 inches

2. Width at the waist; measured all around ( W1) – Subtract 2.25 inches from W1, lets call it W.

W = W1 – 2.25 inches

Construction:

For the 0-5 years old kids cut a rectangle of width of fabric x L. Now this skirt won’t work on crawling kids, because it will get in their way. But other than that it works on most kids.

Sew a seam along the L sides ( right sides together). Now you have a wide cylinder left, fold the raw edges of this cylinder half inch on the inside and sew a seam along both edges.

Fold the top 1.5 inch onto itself and sew along the edge of this waistband. Leave a 1.5 inch opening to insert elastic.

Cut a piece of elastic W inches long. Use a safety pin to insert the elastic into the gap you had left earlier.  Bring it out from the other side and sew both ends of elastic together. Sew the opening shut.

Now fold the edge at the bottom  half inch onto itself to finish the hemline. I folded about 2 inch in the pic above because I usually add some margin to dresses and skirts since my daughter mostly grows vertically. When the skirt/dress is too short I let down the hem an inch and get some more usage out of it.

And that my friends is the basic skirt. Done and done!

Adding Pickups to the basic skirt: 

Mark about 4 inches above the hemline and 6 inches apart throughout the width of the skirt.

At each mark pinch the fabric on the inside with your hand and secure the pinched part by hand sewing it.

Now you will have a kind of peak on the inside, where you pinched the fabric. Now pull this peak about an inch above it along the length of the skirt and hand sew it at the point. You want to take really small stitches here so it doesn’t show much on the outside.

This will cause the bunched up fabric to gather vertically just below the stitches, thus giving it a nice pickup effect.

If you are sewing for older kids, you could sew more than one row of these pickups. However, each row of pickups shortens the length by about one inch so you have to take that into account while determining the length of the fabric.

And there you have your basic skirt with a little something.

So much fun, why stop at just one?

Visit me at Blooms And Bugs for more free sewing patterns and tutorials.