Color Blocked Skirt Tutorial

Posted by Paulette

 

One of the great things about being able to sew is making your own clothes just the way you want them. Often skirts are either too short, or too long in me. When I make my own, it turns out just right from the beginning.

I fell in love with this skirt. As is often the case, it doesn't even come in my size! hmph!

This skirt took less than 3 yards of material to make. It cost me about $14, including the zipper.

And now I'm going to share with you how I did it. 

The above is a simplified pattern for the skirt. To make it color blocked you will have to do some math. 

First, measure your hips.

Hip measurement x 1.5= finished width of skirt

Now take your measurement from just under your bust, to where you want your hem line to hit.

Length measurement+2.5inch (seam allowance and hem)

=finished length.

Now that you have your measurement for the length and width of your skirt, you can determine how much fabric you'll need.

Most fabrics are 45 inches in width.

( I wear a size 16 off the rack and so, I purchased 1.5 yards of each fabric.)

Now you need to determine how wide your stripes will be.

 How many stripes do you want? I wanted 5, so I took the length of my skirt, which was about 25 inches and divided by 5. That meant that each stripe would be 5 inches wide, right? Except the last one, which would have the hem. So I added an additional 2 inches for the hem.

 
When you sew all the stripes together it will look like this.
The broken lines at the top indicate gathers. The vertical lines in the center panel are your pleats. I made my pleats 1.5 inches across.

For the waistband, you will need your waist measurement. 

Waist measurement + 1 inch= waistband size.


You'll need that extra inch for seam allowance. (You can always make adjustments to the waistband by adding darts, before closing it up to get a snugger fit.) The length will be determined by your measurement from your bust to your natural waistline. Mine was conveniently 5 inches. One of each fabric sewn together makes 10 inches total.

Sew the pleats only 1/4 inch down. The seam should be covered by the waistband.    

You will also need a 7 to 9 inch zipper and 5 hooks and eyes. 

After you've sewn the stripes together, the skirt front to the backs, at the sides, and sewn the waistband on, you are ready to install the zipper,  the the hooks and eyes.

Hopefully I haven't frustrated you with my directions!
Good luck.