Tutorial: The Jersey Skirt

This skirt is so easy! I made these three in less than an hour yesterday.

For a child's skirt, you can probably use a t-shirt that you have lying around, but for an adult skirt you'll need to get your hands on some jersey yardage.

Before you start: Fabrics usually have more stretch on one side than the other, so be sure that you cut your fabric with the stretchy side goes around you!

1) Measure around your hips (or wherever you wear your skirts). Then cut a waistband that is 3/4 your measurement, and twice as tall as you want your waistband to be. I think mine was 26"x11". (You can also just stretch the fabric around you until it's fairly tight, but not uncomfortable, and use that as your measurement.)

2) Cut a skirt piece that is about twice the measurement of your waistband, and however long you want it to be. Mine is 25" long.

3) Using your machine's longest strait stitch, sew all the way down the top side of the skirt panel, then pull the top thread to gather, until it's the same length as your waistband.

4) Fold the waistband in half width-wise, and lay the skirt panel on top of the open edges. Try to line it up so that the skirt panel hangs over the waistband edges a little bit.

5) Sew the skirt panel onto the waistband, using a zig-zag stitch, then remove the gathering stitches by pulling on the ends of the thread.

6) Cut out two pocket pieces. Mine were 11" on the top, 6" on the bottom, and 7.5" on the sides. Make sure it's big enough to fit your hands in once sewn!

7)Hold your skirt up to yourself and mark where you want your pockets to be, then pin your pocket on to your skirt and sew on the side with the gathered top showing. For a slouchy pocket, you want your pocket to have extra fabric in the middle, so pin it about 6" apart on top, with about a 4" pleated bottom. (see second photo)

8) Sew the open ends of your skirt together, with right sides facing each other, and your done!

I love it as a high-waisted skirt, with the waistband unfolded!

Or folded down, with the ruffled edge showing...

Or if you're not feeling ruffly, just fold the band over them!

side:

For the bubble skirt, do the same as the first skirt(skipping the pockets), but double the length of the skirt, fold in half lengthwise, and sew open edges to the band.

For the grey skirt at the top, I did the same as the first skirt, but I made the skirt length 3/4 longer than I wanted the finished length to be, folded it almost in the middle (so that the bottom layer hangs down further) and sewed the folded edge to the waistband. Then I sewed a zig-zag around the skirt edges, stretching the fabric as I sewed to make it slightly ruffly.

I have quite a headache today, so I apologize if these directions make no sense! Feel free to comment with any questions :o)