New 'DIY' Skirt!

Hey, I'm back!

Sorry I have been MIA for the last little while. For those of you that don't know, I have been VERY busy working on helping my parents move, and getting ready to open a photography studio/retail store. Pretty exciting stuff coming in the near future, but lots of long nights moving furniture and painting so I have been incredibly exhausted. I started a little side project and was able to finish it though so I wanted to make a post really quick and share it with you guys, but stay tuned for studio posts, as I will be doing one of those in the next week or so as we get everything ready to open!

I have to say I should not be allowed in Hobby Lobby because I am terrible when it comes to walking through the fabric section. I went for a zipper, just a zipper, and ended up leaving with a whole bundle of fabric for a new skirt. I was putting it off with the studio keeping me plenty busy getting everything ready, but then I thought to myself, no. I need to finish this skirt because it is a summer weight cotton, and a summer print and I would look awfully silly wearing it in the middle of the winter. Anyway, here is the fabric I ended up taking home:

Isn't it adorable!?

I couldn't resist, and Hobby Lobby always has a coupon on their mobile app, so I got it on sale, and then discounted with my coupon. Talk about a good deal.

Gathering my supplies.

So here we are, with my supplies all gathered, plus my husband just scored this adorable little pink swan pin cushion that I was dying to stab my pins into, so all the more reason to sew right? Basically what I did is made a template from a lovely Winco Foods paper bag, really anything will work, cardboard, card stock paper, paper bag etc. just as long as you can pin through it. Now I am a crafty person, but I am horrible when it comes to sewing. Well, no I shouldn't say that... I have success when sewing, but not always. I'm not about to go sell my creations on Etsy, so don't get any ideas. I have made two skirts for myself before, so I had a pattern sort of worked out as to what I needed it to be. For the life of me I cannot seem to be able to figure out those package patterns you can get at Walmart, or craft stores. All the add this then subtract that and then multiply this, just really irritates me. I don't have time for all that extra work so I made my template for one panel, and I know that if I put 14 of them together it makes the top of my skirt exactly 26" (after hem) which is exactly where it needs to be. The end of it can really be as big or as little as you want. I like really full circle skirts, hence why it requires 14 panels. Basically what I did was laid my fabric out on the floor and guesstimated about how many panels I could fit going horizontally across the fabric. I can fit 3 with about 4" to spare, which is great for hem allowance and bad cut jobs. So after I cut all of the panels out into rectangles I laid the pattern down on each strip and cut the panel out again. Mind you I could have probably skipped the first portion of this step and saved myself from cutting them into rectangles first but since the pattern is directional it made the most sense to me that everything lined up reasonably close.

  

After I got all of the triangles cut out I lined them up and pinned the FACE sides together, and sewed two panels together at a time until they were all sewn in pairs, then I sewed them together, all but one hem so my circle was still open to add a zipper. Now my other two skirts I made I allowed for pockets, but since the cotton is so thin on this skirt, you would be able to see the material through it if I added pockets, and I didn't want to line it as it is a summer skirt so I decided to skip that step.

Forgive me for the horrible light on these, my sewing desk is against the window in my office so I have my desk lamp to work by. Anyway, here I am holding it together behind my back, as it is still open but you can see all of the panels are sewn together, but I left the tops of the waist open about an inch to allow for my hem on the waistband.

The waistband on this one was tricky because I wanted you to be able to see the bus and camper, not just wheels and the tops, so I measured it and folded it so you could see it. Then I tucked the tabs inside the folded section and sewed my hem there. As you can see on the photo on the right, the tabs are all tucked inside and the you can see the bus right in the center of the waistband. Next I added the zipper, and boy do I hate zippers, but I managed. Nothing fancy here, just a standard zipper all pinned in and ready to be sewn.

After finishing the zipper so the waistband is complete, I got to hemming the bottom of the skirt. My template makes it 30" long after hem, but I decided to go a little shorter with this one and measured it out to 26" so it sits right at knee level. I measure from the top of the waistband to the hem then roll the fabric under so it does not fray. When I finished the hem I sewed along the top of the rolled section and again at the bottom of the rolled section, basically at the bottom of the skirt so it would not unroll or pucker after washing. There is nothing quite as annoying as your hem rolling on you.


Be sure to check out my outfit post for tomorrow, as I will be wearing my fabulous new skirt to go out shopping with Tara and her husband in the afternoon. I would have captured a picture of me wearing it tonight, but I have not bothered to get myself ready as I'm about to go move some playground equipment, and I really didn't want to get my new skirt, or any of my skirts dirty while doing that.


I should probably also add, this is not a 'legit' tutorial on how to make a skirt, this is just how I make mine, in what little spare time I do have. If you have an easier way of doing things, I would love to hear how you do it. When I first made my first skirt I had no idea how many yards of fabric I would need, so I went online and found a whole bunch of mathematical equations on how to determine the amount of fabric you will need. After fussing with my calculator for about 20 minutes I finally just decided to say forget it, and got 6 yards. I ended up only needing about 4 yards for a full circle, so just something to keep in mind. If you're better at math, or have the patience for it, I'm sure you would be able to figure out the conversion just fine. Again, this isn't a tutorial for how to do it, just how I do mine. 

These are the other two skirts I have made thus far:

 

The cat fabric I picked up at my local IKEA, I love cats, and my husband loves the color orange so it was just meant to be. The waistband on it is actually a row of cats, but I chose a belt to wear here to bring the black up from my shoes.

With the black one I decided to go with a more steep triangle, meaning the hem on the top was a lot wider than the other one I did, so the fabric is gathered more at the top to make my hips look wider.


Now that things are getting set up and starting to go a little smoother with the studio I should hopefully be back to posting more regularly, so like I said, be sure to check out tomorrows post, as I will wear my new Camp Site skirt, and talk about our shopping adventures!


Until next time!

XOXO