Hemless a-line skirt. Marigold over at Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! Is organizing a summer sewing challenge: make a skirt (or dress) a week for the month leading up to summer. To help those of you participating in this Summer of No Pants, I have a tutorial for an easy a-line skirt. My least favorite part of making a skirt is hemming. You will need 1 1/4 yards main fabric 1/2 yard contrast fabric A 9″ zipper (or a 7″ zipper and a button) To make the pattern: Making a pattern for an a-line skirt is pretty straight forward. Putting together the skirt: To assemble the skirt, sew the front and back together along one side.
To put in the zipper: Putting in zippers is my worst sewing skill. First, sew down the bit of the zipper that extends past the teeth. To add a button (optional): Cut your waistband with an extra inch of length. Sew a Full, Gathered Skirt , Part One: Make Your Own Pattern! A lot of you went gaga over this taffeta skirt from Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing. Well, do I have a secret for you! This type of skirt is easy to replicate, no scrounging around for a vintage pattern required. This is part one of two in this tutorial. In this installment, you'll learn to make your own simple pattern for this skirt.This is a basic dirndl style skirt. First, you need a big rectangle for the skirt front and back. The skirt pattern piece will be 40" wide. Second, you need a long, skinny rectangle piece for the waistband. You want your waistband length to be your waist measurement plus one inch of ease.
Now for the width, which will be 1-1/4" finished. So. Those are your two pattern pieces! My only disclaimer is that the measurements I'm using here were developed on my body. Next up, look for the second part of this tutorial, which will walk you through the construction of the skirt. Circular skirt directions. The Pinwheel Skirt. Many of you have probably already seen this tutorial on Ucreate, but for those of you who haven't seen it, here is a tutorial for my Pinwheel Skirt.
Enjoy! The Pinwheel Skirt Lets get started…. You will need: 2 yards of fabric (make sure you chose fabric that hangs nicely. I’ll give you the step-by-step instructions using my measurements, but just remember to substitute your own measurements. (*note: s.a = seam allowance) Waistband: 1. 2. 3. 4. My waistband measured: 3” X 31” + Seam Allowance (1” X 1”) = 4” W x 32” LBack: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
My 2 back panels each measured: 18”W x 22 ½”L Width- 9” + 8” (for pleat) + 1” (for ½” s.a. per side) = 18” Length- 21” + ½” (for top s.a.) + 1” (for bottom hem) = 22 ½”Front: 1. 2. 3. 4. My front piece measured: 16” top width, 21” bottom width x 22 ½” L Top width- 15” + 1” (for ½” s.a. per side) = 16” Bottom width- 15” + 5” + 1” (for ½” s.a. per side) = 21” Length- 21” + ½” (for top s.a.) + 1” (for bottom hem) = 22 ½”Side Triangles: For my triangles: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.