The Allie Skirt ~Tutorial~

About a week ago I received beautiful knit fabric from Girl Charlee.  Talk about SCORE!!  I was so excited to start sewing with it.  I had spied this cute skirt from Shabby Apple and knew I wanted to recreate something like it. 

Using my new Girl Charlee fabric in Koi Orange I got started on this pretty simple skirt -- which, yes, I named after myself because I thought it worked well.

Here's how to make your own:

MATERIALS

1. 1 1/2 yards of knit fabric (Cotton knit, or jersy knit)

2. Other sewing notions

STEP ONE: Fold your fabric in half and cut out two pieces your knit fabric 60" (w) by 25 " (h).  

I wanted my skirt to hit a couple inches below my knees, but I'm pretty tall -- almost 5' 10".  So for those of you shorter you might want to do 20" - 22" for height.  Measure to see what would work best for you.

STEP TWO:  Cut out one piece for your yoga style waistband.  You can choose the height to be either 12" or 14".  I choose 14", but now I'm thinking maybe I should have chosen 12".  

To get the correct width, measure your waist and subtract 1 inch.

STEP THREE:  With right sides together, pin the skirt pieces on top of each other and sew in place.  Use a straight stitch, on a very wide setting (3 1/2).

Then fold the waistband in half (14" or 12" sides together) with right sides together and sew in place with a wide straight stitch.

STEP FOUR:  Make gathers at the top of the skirt.  Set your machine to stitch at it's longest length, then stitch 1/4" from the top going around the entire top of the skirt.  I did just the front piece, stopped, then did just the back piece..  Then go around again at 1/2" from the top, front, then back.  This will leave you four long threads to pull to gather up your skirt.

STEP FIVE:  Gather your skirt by pulling on the strings, cinching up the whole skirt.

 STEP SIX:  Place the waistband inside skirt, lining up middle seam with the middle back of the dress.  The right side of the waistband should be facing the wrong side of the dress.  

Pin in place, zigzag stitch the waistband onto skirt below gathers.

STEP SEVEN:  If you want, trim off the extra threads that were originally holding the gathers in place.

STEP EIGHT:  Fold waist band over at the middle so it lines up with the skirt.  

Then fold under the waistband 1/2" and pin into place.

STEP NINE:  Sew waistband onto skirt using a zigzag stitch. 

STEP TEN:  Hem the skirt.  

You can actually hem your skirt however you want -- or do no hem at all.  I've seem people use a double stitch, a zig zag, or a straight stitch.  

This time I did something I never do ... consulted my sewing machine's user manual -- crazy, I know.  It recommended using a vari overlock seam for knit jersey materials, such as I was using.  So I switched out my normal foot for my # 2 sewing foot and tried out the vari overlock seam.

 I really liked the way it held everything so perfectly.  

All done!

I love this skirt -- firstly, I hardly ever sew for me so that made it really fun.  Second, it was a really fun, quick sew, which I did in a quick afternoon while my babies were napping.  Third, I Love Girl Charlee knits.  

And fourth, I found it very versatile. 

 This is my casual "Day" look.

And if it needs to be dressed up so I can party around at night, here's another look.

Okay, so I learned a little something once I got home to edit my photos.  I like my hand on my hip.  All my photos I was doing this.  Hmm, I guess I need some modeling tips. Ha, ha. 

If you make an Allie Skirt, please let me know, I'd love to see it!

For more:

Follow me on Blog Lovin'

or Facebook