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Monday, October 11, 2010

Easy Sewn Knit skirt

I was so excited yesterday at church all the girls wore there knit skirt we sewed last month for sewing group. We made the easiest skirt on the planet. It had 4 seams. That's it. I almost wish I had a camera at church with me.

We used knit fabric, It doesn't ravel, so we didn't hem it.

Most sewing Machines that have more than 14 stitches to select from have a 'knit stitch', or can be called a 'stretch stitch' or 'elastic stitch' look for these terms in the Index and it will give you directions on how to set up your sewing machine to sew on knit fabric. We had 3 different kinds of machines brought to the sewing group and each one had it. A serger was used in the sample below.

I took each girls waist measurement (this was were they wanted the skirt to sit - not the smallest part of there body) and then I measured there Hips (there widest part) just to make sure that I made that part wide enough. Then I measured how long they wanted the skirt.

With Garment Designer I was able to quickly drop these measurements into the program and print out a pattern for each. Using a few simple rules. This particular design because of the stretch of the knit and the design of the fold over waistband required 6 inches of negative ease. Which means that for a 28 inch waist I actually needed a 22 inch waist so I simply selected the points and brought in the side seam until my quarter measured 5.5 inches.


For fabric you need the length of your skirt times 2 plus 20 inches. - so for a 23 inch long skirt you will need 66 inches - around 2 yards of fabric.

You cut the front and back pieces on the fold one of each. And you cut one waist band piece. You can fold the pattern piece in half and cut that on the fold also. Both the Front and Back pattern pieces are the same so instead of printing the pattern twice, I cut one for my front, then picked it up and moved it and cut a 2nd for my back.


With right sides together, sew the side seams of the skirt (remember to use the Stretch Stitch on our sewing machine).



With right sides together fold the Waistband piece in half so the side seams come together. Sew the side seam. So you end up with a tube.



Turn the waistband right side out. Fold in half lengthwise with wrong sides together. So you end up with a half width tube with the wrong sides not showing.



With right sides together pin the raw edges of the waistband to the raw edge of the top skirt. Making sure to pin all three edges together.


Sew the waist seam all the way around making sure to catch all three fabric edges.




That's it your done!



If you are a size 28 inch waist and want a 23 inch long skirt you are in luck - Click here to download the PDF pattern pieces to make this skirt. Click here for directions on how to print the pattern and tape the 8 1/2 by 11 sheets of paper together to get a full size sewing pattern.

If you would like custom sized pattern pieces of this skirt with your measurement for $5.95 you can request a Custom Order at my Etsy shop.



7 comments:

StarFireBoutique said...

Very neat skirt. Always wished I could sew. I'm visiting from Toucan tribe. Welcome!!!

CK said...

Did you SERIOUSLY just whip that up?? It looks SOOOO good! I want one!!! It looks way comfy!!!
-CK

CraftyMummy said...

Great skirt! I love stretch but so far I haven't been brave enough to try sewing it. You made it sound easy though.

Sonia Valdez said...

@StarFireBoutique - Thank you. It's never to late to learn to sew, it's not as hard and one might think it is.

Sonia Valdez said...

@CK - Yes, that skirt is Seriously that easy.

Sonia Valdez said...

@CraftyMummy - Thank you. Stretch isn't that much harder than a cotton, just have to remember not to pull on it, and even if you do it just bounces back or single layer creates wonderful ruffles.

This one was very easy - one of the girls that came had never fed fabric through a machine before - never sewn at all, and her skirt came out great.

Jenn Erickson said...

I love the style of that skirt! Ahhh, you're making me want to brush up on my sewing skills!

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