Unfortunately Oh!: Swishy Maxi Skirt DIY

Lately I’ve been having a bit of a ‘crafters block’ and the UK’s heat wave hasn’t helped. Hence why tutorials and crafty posts have been a bit thin here!

Despite the hot weather frying my brains, I knuckled down yesterday and knocked together this swishy maxi skirt (remember the bargain fabric?)

It took me around 2 hours, with a tea break. The method is fairly easy and uses just one seam, with gathers at the waistline.

Here’s a tutorial. You can use this method to make shorter skirts, too :) This works best with thinner fabrics such as cottons.

You’ll need:

Fabric (Should be as long as your desired hem width. I used approx. 2m)

Zip (I used a 7” zip)

1 x press stud

Scissors OR rotary cutter & cutting mat

Dressmaking pins

Thread

Tape measure

Pinking shears (optional)

Tailors chalk (optional)

1. Fold fabric widthways (selvedge top and bottom), right side in and pin together along the sides. Trim up the ends to make them straight and even. Leave the pins in.

2. From the bottom of the fabric, measure your desired skirt length, and cut this from the top. Set excess aside.

3. Sew up the seam, leaving enough space at the top of the skirt for placing the zip. Trim seam allowances with pinking shears to prevent fraying.

TIP: Before you sew lay the closed zip beside the seam, the pull aligned with the top edge and place a pin or a mark on the fabric where the zip ends. Sew from this point!

4. Sew in the zip. Use a zipper foot if you have it, or if the idea of machine-sewing in a zip is a bit too hair-raising (it used to be for me!) pin to the folded-in edges of fabric and stitch by hand.

5. Go back to the piece of fabric you cut off in step 2, and cut a piece for the skirt waistband:

Length: Waist measurement + 2 inches (seam allowance and overlap)

Width: Desired waistband width x 4

6. Fold the waistband piece in half, right side in, sew up the short ends and trim up seam allowances.

7. Put gathers in the skirt. To do this, I set my machine to the longest stitch length and the upper thread tension to 0. I stitched a line across the top of the skirt, about 1cm from the top, then pulled the threads to make gathers.

Gather the top part of the skirt until it is 1 inch smaller than the waistband.
Moving them along the fabric takes some time so this is a good point to stop and make a cup of tea!

8. Turn the waistband piece the right way around and press to mark the centre. Open out and fold the long sides into the centre, then fold the two sides together (like making bias binding).

You could use an iron to press all the edges nicely, but I am lazy and pinned it instead.

9. Pin waistband to skirt, making sure that one end fits snugly over one edge of the skirt where the zip opens. Sew together. You should have 1 inch of waistband overlapping at the opposite end, for putting in a press stud.