Monday, February 7, 2011

Tutorial 2 - No hem 10 minute skirt from Mumu/Dress

So here it is, easy peasy skirt even if you don't sew this is a cinch, I used a mumu for this but you could use the same tutorial to make a childs skirt from an adults dress/skirt and as you'll need less width  you could even use a slimmer fit skirt.


Chop off bottom of dress, making sure it's long enough for your tastes and roughly 1.5 times your hip measurement, just hold it against you don't bother measuring.

Grab some wide elastic (this is 3 inches wide) wrap it around your waist (wherever you want the skirt to sit) and overlap it slightly (2 cms approximately) then cut it.


Now for your easy peasy waistband, overlap the ends of the elastic, at least an inch. I overlap more than I included in the original estimation to allow for easing up of the elastic with wear, you don't want it to go baggy. 

You don't need to stretch the elastic as you sew but you'll need to use a zigzag stitch, a regular stitch length of 2.5 will do. Now stitch the overlapped ends of the elastic, I did this 2 or 3 times about 1/2 a cm away from each stitch line. You're just trying to make sure that the elastic stays together and sits flat with no flappy ends.
 
See it sits flat!



Next you need to make the skirt piece the same width as the elastic, so with a long stitch length (I used 5mm) and roughly 1cm away from the raw edge stitch with a straight stitch, don't get hung up on sewing too straight, these are just gathering stitches. Once you've gone round once, cut the thread (leaving a couple of inches) and stitch round again just to the outside of the original stitch line.


Grab a seam ripper and lightly pull on the stitches starting at the start/end point, this will start to gather the skirt, line up the elastic with the skirt and keep pulling on the stitches until the elastic and skirt are the same width. You want the gathering to be even around the skirt.






Now pop the elastic waistband over the top of the skirt as below. For neatness sake line up the elastic waist join with the side seam of the skirt piece. If you stitched the elastic together properly it should sit flat both sides so it doesn't matter which side is facing the skirt as you sew.

Now stitch the waistband to the skirt with a zigzag stitch again, I just stitched over the two gathering stitch lines you made initially. Stitch all the way round and continue stitching a little over the starting point, back stitch for a couple of stitches then you're done with the sewing.


This is what it will look like


Now you need to remove the initial gathering stitches, I'm lazy so I stretch the waistband of the skirt which will pop the straight stitches (because straight stitch is NOT a stitch you should use on stretchy fabric except for gathering) you can then just pull out the stitches with a seam ripper or they will show as below pic.


Last step flip up the waistband and the raw edges of the skirt will be inside the skirt, and since you've used a hemmed piece of fabric your skirt is done.


I'm a busy Mum and make these tutorials instead of catching up on much needed sleep so if this is useful to you be sweet to me and just leave a kind word of thanks.

13 comments :

emmalemma said...

I might try this. I have some awful, yet awesome polyester prints from the 70s? from my Great-Grandma that I want to use, but have no idea what to do with.

Ruby Murray said...

Perfect fabric for this, the Mumu was polyester too and it can get a little sweaty worn as tops/dresses. With skirts you can go bold with patterns and just mute the top a bit. Once you've made one of these you'll be addicted ,so quick and easy!

spidermom said...

so impressed! the "before" was one of the ugliest things i've ever seen, the "after" is adorable!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tutorial, I actually have some stuff to make a skirt like this and was kind of worried about attaching the waistband to the skirt so now I know that it will stretch fine if I just gather it!

Ruby Murray said...

Thanks lovely people, Spidermom, I know you though this was fugly before so you had me worried for a while!

Anonymous, never be worried about sewing, it's just fabric we're cutting here not spinal cords lol. Sometimes you just have to 'do it' to see if it works!

Anonymous said...

ah, the fabric is so beautiful~

Citizen K said...

I absolutely love it! How wonderful that you saved that lovely fabric from a dreadful life as a muumuu. Nicely done and thanks so much for the tutorial! I'll have to give this a go soon.

Kara said...

Absolutely brilliant! I am now ready to take a closer look at dresses I thought unwearable! Thank you so much for posting! :)

1956okie said...

Ruby, Ruby....you have saved my sanity AND my pocketbook!! With two teenaged daughters, we go through clothes like mad. But their favorite skirts right now are these cute, elastic-waist ones, and this will be perfect for remaking some of their older dresses instead of giving them away. We cleaned out closets and are set to create EIGHT new skirts today, thanks to this tutorial!

You're my new hero! :)

Ruby Murray said...

So glad you had fun with this tutorial, and 8 new skirts? way to recycle lady.

Thanks so much for letting me know, I love to hear back from people x

ell.el.p said...

I LOVE this!! Thank you for the great tutorial! :) I have a couple of old dresses that I don't really wear anymore but still love the fabric so I wanted to find a way to repurpose them - yay!

Unknown said...

I love this skirt! I have an Angle in a Nursing Home that I sew for and buy cloths for! My challenge is that she wears a 5 X large and finding cloths are next to impossible. So this will be so helpful. Thank You for your work in posting on your blog! I appreciate it.
Carol in Grapevine TX USA!

Ruby Murray said...

I made this! With a couple of alterations to the design and fit, due to availability of fabric but more importantly, my newness to sewing (the fewer cuts and seams, the better)! http://i.imgur.com/itdS1Hj.jpg

Thank you!

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