Very Gathered Skirt // DIY

Tomorrow I see my dad, brother, (and cat) for the first time since August! To say I am excited is an understatement. It has been a long few months not seeing them! 

Today we're making a very gathered skirt. I think really full skirts are super fun to wear and they also happen to be quite easy to make! And you can obviously make it with any fabric you want as long as it hangs well!

Want to learn how? Read on!

Here's what you'll need:

-2 yards of fabric (depending on the length you want, you can probably use less but I like to be safe rather than sorry)

-fusible interfacing (I used pellon 101 I think...it's one of the fabric-y kinds)

-invisible zipper

-sewing machine, scissors, pins, thread, etc.

Here's what you do:

1. Cut the main piece of fabric - a large rectangle that is about 3x your waist wide and fairly long (the length doesn't matter much at this point - we will hem it later.)

Trim down all the edges so they're pretty nice.

Don't worry about measuring much - as long as it is longer than the length you want and quite a bit wider than your waist, you'll be good!

2. Next you'll need to cut the waistband. Make the waistband about 4 inches tall and your waist + 1 inch wide. Also cut out a piece of fusible interfacing the same size.

Following the instructions that come with the interfacing, fuse it to the back of your waistband fabric.

3. Optional: fold the waistband in half and stitch along the folded edge. Then, fold it right side out and iron flat. I think this gives it a nicer, crisper look.

4. Make two side-by-side running stitches on the top of the large rectangle. Then, you will take one thread from each of those and pull to gather the skirt. Gather the fabric until it is the length of your waistband.

(Sorry for the blurry picture here)

5. Pin the right side of the skirt to the right side of one edge of the waistband.

6. Optional if you want a lining: 

Next, take a piece of white cotton lining fabric (not nearly as wide and gathered as the outside fabric) and repeat the same process with gathering a little. This time, pin the right side of the cotton lining to the right side of the other edge of the waistband. You should now have the outside fabric pinned to one side of the waistband and the cotton lining fabric pinned to the other side.

Sew along both edges of the waistband.

7. Now you have a large, gathered rectangle. Pin together the right sides of the edges of the skirt and sew up the side, leaving room for whatever length zipper you have.

8. Pin the zipper into the skirt and sew it in. 

(This picture has the waistband and the gathered part showing near the zipper. The pieces of fabric are pulled away from the zipper and should not show this much if you do the zipper correctly!)

9. Try on the skirt and decide what length you want it. Add the length of the hem you want and cut. Then, iron up the edges twice and sew the hem. 

For my hem, I did a large, 4-inch hem and did the hemming by hand. If you want a quicker version, though, you can do a smaller, machine-sewed hem.

Now go enjoy that gathered skirt!

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"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."

-Philippians 2:4

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