The finished skirt!

It’s my niece’s birthday and she’s getting a cute skirt with snails on it. Been thinking about doing something with the leftover fabric from the onesie and I reckon a birthday present is a good enough excuse for spending a couple of hours at the sewing machine. I always try to learn something new or refine an old method with each garment I make. This time I tried making a French seam to hide the overlock seam and I’m pretty happy with the end result (just can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner!?). I also tried a new way of making a “waistband” from the same piece of fabric as the skirt, without cutting.

For once I thought I’d include a how-to.

Material: Fabric of your choice, elastic band and thread.

1. Measure and cut the fabric. Fabric width = width*2, Length = length + ~4cm (hemline) + ~8cm (for the waistband). Adjust waistband size according to the size of the elastic band (the band I’m using is 2cm wide). The length of my elastic band is 50cm and the length of the finished skirt is 30cm. In theory this should fit a 1-1½ year old. Fingers crossed I’m right :)
2. Pin the fabric with the wrong sides facing each other and sew. If you’re working with a patterned fabric, don’t forget to match it when pinning together. I’m using the overlocker for this seam.
3. Iron, fold inside out and pin it face together. Give it a good press before sewing together.
4. Fold inside out again, press and admire your work! Apparently this is called a “French seam” (learnt that from Great British Sewing Bee).
5. Time for the waistline! I start by overlocking just to make the fabric a bit more manageable (it just keeps folding round and round…). I’m using another, more manageable fabric to show how I went about doing this.
6. Fold down ~1cm and press.
   1. Fold over once more. Measure how big you want your waistband to be (mine’s 3cm).
   2. Fold again and press.
   3. Open up the folds. Fold up ~1cm from the skirt towards, and up onto the waistband.
   4. Press and fold it all together again. See picture for how it should look like.
   5. Sew the fold you made in step 6.3. Press the fold up like in the picture.
   6. Now sew it all together but don’t forget to leave an opening for the elastic band. Sew from the face side in order to make a neat and even seam. This is what the end result looks like.
   7. …and this is what it should look like from the wrong side. Neat and nice there as well.
7. Put in the elastic band, sew it together and close the opening.
8. Press and sew the hemline. Give it a final press, admire the skirt and feel good about yourself :D

Step 2. Pin the fabric with the wrong sides facing each other and sew.

Step 3. Iron, fold inside out and pin it face together.

Step 4. Press and admire!

Step 6. Fold down ~1cm and press.

Step 6.1. Fold over once more. Measure how big you want your waistband to be (mine’s 3cm).

Step 6.2. Fold again and press.

Step 6.3. Open up the folds. Fold up ~1cm from the skirt towards and up onto the waistband.

Step 6.4. Press and fold it all together again. This is how it should look like.

Step 6.5. Sew the fold you made in step 6.3. Press the fold up like in the picture.

Step 6.6. Now sew it all together but don’t forget to leave an opening for the elastic band. Sew from the face side in order to make a neat and even seam. This is what the end result looks like.

Step 6.7. …and this is what it should look like from the wrong side. Neat and nice there as well.