So I am absolutely in LOVE with long skirts rigth now! I heart these long skirts for many reasons. The main is one that maxi dresses just don't look right on me. I am pretty broad through my ribs and the maxi dresses that I have (because even though they aren't the most flattering thing on me they are SO comfortable so I own a few, ok, several of them) just kind of drop after my chest. Which then makes me look larger than I actually am. I'm not small by any stretch but I don't want to add any visual appearance of more weight, what girl does?!?
I have seen several tutorials for maxi dresses and I even went out and purchases several yards of jersey knit material. It's so soft. I'm pretty sure that I could take my leftover pieces and make a blanket out of it. I didn't want to try and make a dress for fear that I would put all kinds of work into it and never wear it because I didn't think that it looked right. So I decided to try a maxi dress instead. I was very pleased with the results. It's definitely not perfect so don't zoom in on the few pictures that I have. For some reason I got too excited and forgot to take pictures along the way. Fear not, it was super easy so here goes!
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| The finished maxi skirt |
I purchased my knit material probably 3 weeks ago. I was so excited about it but was terrified to try it because I've heard that you have to do special things to sew with knit material because it's stretchy. I do good to sew a straight stitch so I was afraid I would mess something up. I found a blog though that told me exactly what to do but I can't seem to find where I saved it to give that person credit. I had to purchase a ball-point needle. They were super cheap. Then I switched my sewing machine to a zig-zag stitch. You have to use this because the fabric will stretch. If you use a straight stitch then you may tear the stitch out creating a hole in your skirt. The bonus to knit is that it's very forgiving so any mistakes or imperfections in the skirt won't really show up. ;-)
To get my measurements and form for the skirt I took one of my knit dresses and used it as my model. I cut my material to match the existing maxi dress. The dress came in a lot at the waist. Instead of following the line in I left it wider because I knew that I was using elastic for the waistband. Once my material was cut I sewed down one side making the side stitch to the skirt.
CAUTION: When sewing knit material you have to let your sewing machine do the work. If you try to push or guide the material it will create issues. I have heard stories so I tried my best to just let my machine take the fabric in. It worked out fine.
After I had my side seam I folded to top over about 1.5". This was to allow for me to thread the elastic throught he waistband. Here is a picture of the skirt once I made my first side stitch - ignore the pinning at the bottom, I got smart... But the top is where I folded over to make the opening for the elastic waist.
Then I stitched up the other side of the skirt. Don't sew all the way up. Stop when you get to the fold over for the waist. If you don't stop before that then you will end up with a big tube because you won't be able to thread the elastic through. After sewing the other side almost all the way up I put a safety pin on my elastic and put it through the opening (sorry for the lack of technical terms, one day I may figure everything out...). Once I had my elastic all the way through I finished off the seam by sewing my elastic together to close up the rest of the side stitch.
Even though I pinned up the bottom I ened up not even hemming the bottom up. Knit won't fray (score!) so I just left it as is. My finished piece is pictured above. Not perfect but a start. So excited about making my next one. I have some black knit just waiting for some free time...
After making my knit skirt and absolutely loving it I decided I was a master seamstress and I got an idea. I had a maxi dress that I bought from Forever 21 on sale for like $15. I loved the pattern. Each time I tried it on to wear to school I started to fret because it had a slit at the top with some button detail or something. I teach kindergarten and I'm constantly bending over so low cut tops or tops with a slit in them are not ideal for teaching. So I would always hang the dress back up on the hanger. The dress is pictured below. I hadn't even brought myself to take the tags off of it yet. Well I decided to take my maxi dress and turn it into a maxi skirt.
I took the knit skirt that I made and matched the height up to the maxi dress. I then added 1.5" to the top of my skirt so that I had enough room to add the elastic without making the dress too short.
After cutting the dress into two parts it hurt my heart. I was afraid that I had totally screwed something up and instantly regretted that cut. I moved forward though. I folded over the top part and sewed a hem across. After that I fed my elastic through and sewed the elastic pieces together with my fabric. I didn't have to sew a bottom hem because I used the hem from the original dress. I literally made this dress in thirty minutes while I was watching the latest episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians. Here is a picture of my finished skirt.
It totally makes me think of a teacher skirt. My most favorite teacher ever Mrs. North wore long skirts all the time. I'm just updating the long skirt with a belt and some sassy jewelry. I have another refashion idea that I'm working on I just need the finishing piece.
Happy sewing,
Meghan
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