On reflection after wearing the skirt and seeing the photos, I think I chose an elastic for the waistband that’s too narrow so it’s slightly unflattering. You may want to chop a bit off, but if not just turn up by 1.5cm, fold in on itself and stitch in place.
Try the skirt on and see how much you would like to hem it. Let the elastic go in to the waistband and stich up the 5cm gap so it’s all closed. Make sure the elastic isn’t twisted then overlap the ends by 2cm and stitch back and forth to really secure them. Feed the elastic through until it comes out the other side of the gap and you can match it up with the end that you secured there.
Secure the other end of the elastic to the gap so it doesn’t get lost in the waistband. Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic and start feeding it in through the gap you left. Hold your elastic around your waist and get it to a comfortable size, it needs to have no slack to it otherwise the skirt will sit loose. along the seam line marked with yellow dots here, but leave a gap of around 5cm to insert the elastic: Now you need to ‘stitch in the ditch’, i.e. Pin from the right side of the fabric as this is where you’ll sew: Fold the raw edge of the waistband over 1.5cm towards the wrong side and press, then match this up so it just goes past the line of stitches you just sewed, to create a waistband channel for the elastic to go in. Stitch the whole way around (joining two layers not four) with a 1.5cm seam allowance. Slip the waistband piece completely over the skirt section, right sides together and pin in place: If, like me, you have a habit of marching around at speed, sew across the top of the split (like bar tacks on jeans) to avoid any risk of the split splitting up your thigh! Also sew the short edges of the waistband piece with a 1.5cm seam allowance:įinish the seams however you prefer, then where you have the opening for your split, fold 1.5cm towards the wrong side, then fold this in on itself and stitch it down: Sew the side seams of the skirt with a 1.5cm seam allowance, but finish at the notch you made for the split. This totally depends on your preference I put mine 30cm up from the hem, which I have found gives good swishiness and leg flash without any worry of flashing too much! Cut a little notch each side of the skirt pieces at this length. You’ll end up with two big rectangles and two skinny rectangles like this:īefore sewing anything, hold one of the big skirt pieces up to yourself and see how high you’d like your side split to go.
So if you’re using 2cm elastic, do 2cm x 2 (so it goes over the front and back of the elastic), plus 3cm (1.5cm seam allowance on the outside and inside) plus 5mm (for wiggle room!) = 7.5cm width. The width you need depends on the width of the elastic you are using, but the formula is the same: These will be exactly the same length as your skirt pieces are wide. Measure down from your waist to the length you would like the skirt to be, if you’re not sure, go for longer as you can always chop a bit off at the end! I’m 5’6” and I cut mine 76cm long.Ĭut two rectangles at the width and length you measured.Ĭut two long skinny rectangles to make your waistband. Take your waist measurement and measure out two pieces of your fabric at this width, so if your waist is 28”, the width of the front and back pieces will each be 28” this way you’ll end up with double your waist measurement to gather in. Step 1 – Cut two rectangles for the skirt pieces
Floaty skirts have been doing the rounds this year they’re comfy, easy to wear but oh-so-stylish, so here I’m going to show you how to draft your own like this!