For those of you that follow me on Instagram and facebook I promised this tutorial last week, my apologises I got caught up with holiday plans. A few weeks ago I shared my love of full skirts, I’ve not been able to find the perfect one for me though. 

I wanted green, satin and a big bow, so figured I’d try and whip one up myself. Now this tutorial has maths involved, not my strong suit so if I can manage sew, get it, can you. Firstly what do you need:

2-3 meters of fabric

Measuring tape

Pins

Sewing machine 

Zip

Interfacing (optional)

I picked up this gorgeous green satin on eBay here, total bargain. It is quite thin though so I also picked up some interfacing to stiffen it. You may only want to use the interfacing for the waistband though. 

Firstly cut out your circle as above. I did this by folding the fabric in half and finding the middle of the folded edge. I then marked out the radius and length. The radius is were the maths comes in, your waist measurement divided by 3.14 divided by 2. The length of my skirt was 23inch but this will vary depending on your height and preference, just remember to add an extra inch for the hem. In all honesty the hardest part of this tutorial is cutting out that circle evenly, I didn’t succeed. Don’t stress about it too much though, you can see mine worked out ok in the end. 

For a basic waistband simply take your waist measurement and add an inch. Mine was closer to three times my waist measurement as I wanted that bow. It’s best to cut the waistband on the bias, diagonal direction of the fabric, this gives it a little more stretch. It’s not essential though, I didn’t manage as mine was so long. 

Once I cut out the skirt and waistband,  I added interfacing to everything. This is simply ironed on and adds some stiffness to the fabric, depending on the fabric you use you may not need to add this to the skirt. The waistband is folded to create a nice smooth top, give it a little iron and you may be able to avoid stitching it in place. 

The next step is adding the waistband to the skirt. Firstly though you need to cut a slit for the zip, my tip err on the side of caution you can always cut it a little more later. Now pinning that waistband takes a little patience as you will need to gather the skirt slightly. It can be difficult to get it even, I’ll be honest it was third time lucky for me. Eventually I got there and then ran it through my sewing machine. 

Next up is that zip. An invisable zip is obviously preferable. I’ve never tackled a zip before though and as I had my bow I though I’d get away with a normal one. There’s plenty of you tube videos showing you how to add a zip so I won’t even try to describe it here. One tip I did pick up was using wonder web, a kinda of fabric tape which you iron to stick two pieces of fabric together. I used this to hold the zip in place before sewing. 

Then simply hem the bottom, this is where you can sort out any unevenness from your dodgy cutting out. 

Now that sounds simple right? Well it is! If not for sewing machine issues I think I’d have finished mine in a few hours. What do you think? 

Vogue – Madonna