Tutorial: tiered skirt

Alright everyone, ready for another tutorial?

It's gonna be quite a long wordy post, but trust me - anyone can do this. You can absolutely make the thing!!

 

SylvanJade did a nice circle skirt last week, now let's learn to make a tiered gathered skirt with elastic waistband!

This will use only rectangle pieces, which actually makes it much easier (than circles) to hem as the fabric won't be warping & stretching AND is a breeze to pattern/draft

 

 

You will need all the usual supplies (fabric, thread, scissors, measuring tape, plenty of pins, elastic) Sewing machine is a plus but everything can be done by hand. *cough*an iron is the +5xp bonus, but not a dealbreaker

[full album if need bigger clicky-clicks https://www.flickr.com/photos/annaneko/albums/72157674243411091]

 

Few tips before we begin. If you're new to sewing, best use solid~colored fabric, avoid stuff with complex busy prints! Especially avoid big fancy designs: matching up a fabric's print at the seams is a pain, don't run into that roadblock just yet, yeah?

 

And this is from someone too cheap for fancy tailor's chalk or specialty pencils - I draw on fabric with soap scraps. It's visible on anything except white, is super-easy to remove/correct at any time, will never perma-stain...

 

 

 

~~~~~

Part 1 - getting ready

Grab your girl and measure desired length of skirt (from waist to hemline) The skirt will naturally flair out, add couple centimeters for this (for comparison, my finished skirt is 21cm) If you like them to sit lower, obv measure from there instead of waist

Now hold the tape around her hips, loosen it couple centimeters and see if you can easily slide this circle up and down over her hips. That number will be your waistband AND tier 1 width

 

 

 

Time to draw up rectangles. There will be 4 pieces: Tier 1, 2, 3 and waistband

waistband: 5cm x 31cm

Tier 1: 7cm x 31cm

Tier 2: 7cm x 46.5cm

Tier 3: 7cm x 77.5cm

DO NOT FORGET SEAM ALLOWANCES WHEN CUTTING OUT PIECES! Give yourself a good 1~2 centimeters

 

Yes, I'm the idiot using print fabrics, but this also demonstrates a really good point... moving around to cut in correct place so it can match up later

(in my defense, the blue parts were the perfect height, it really saved time!)

 

IF anyone making this for Dynamite or MDD or even for yourself, create your own pattern by plugging in this simple formula

Tier 1 length is maximum stretch to slide easily over hips/booty. Add on those extra centimeters, don't be shy

Tier 2 length is tier1 times 1.6 / Tier 3 length is tier1 times 2.5

 

 

On each Tier decide which side you want to be TOP (edge closest to waistband) and BOTTOM (edge closest to floor). Maybe make a lil mark on the fabric to not forget

 

Now, your fabric may not be big enuff to have one super-long unbroken tier3 piece. That's perfectly fine. Cut shorter strips and sew them together to make one long piece

 

 

~~~~~

Part 2 - assembly

So, as personal preference, I like to do the edges first instead of last step. This fabric is shedding annoyingly...

 

Set your machine to zigzag, medium~ish length/width and run along the TOP & BOTTOM of each tier (in the seam allowance extra fabric). Tier1 Top doesn't need it (it will be going into waistband)

I cut my fabric with ridiculous allowances *sweatdrop* hands aren't steady enuff to sew close to the edge, give myself extra room

 

Once the zigzags are in place, very carefully trim off any excess. Keep your scissors close to the thread without going on it.

 

 

___ Congratulations, you just learned the most basic way to finish a raw edge! ___

(bonus round, do quick ironing of all the strips, keep it neat)

 

IF you're the person w/out a machine - there's liquid Fray Check or do overcast stitch (looks like \\\\\\) on the edge of the fabric

 

Now take each Tier piece separately, fold it wrong side out, put vertical ends together and sew

 

and here I'm moving it around just right to align that print.... what a great time to learn it's not printed as perfect symmetry

 

 

If you're slightly old-skool like me, take a minute to iron out that seam. Typically the 2 edges inside are ironed flat in open position

look at that nice seam

 

Otherwise - look at that, we now have 3 neat fabric loops

 

So far so good? Here comes the 'difficult' part

Change the thread in your machine to a completely wrong color (only spool, bobbin colors don't matter). The more obnoxious mismatch to your fabric the better! Lime green, red.. whatever. This next part is helped heavily by a thread that stands out

 

IF you own a gathering-foot for your machine: you can laugh at us plebs & skip the next step.

 

The rest of us tho: set stitch length to maximum, pull some of the thread's end out to make a nice long tail

 

Lower needle into the fabric and run a straight stitch all the way around fabric loop. At the end don't cut the thread close to the seam, leave another long tail of it before cutting

DO NOT do "back and forth" at start or end of seam, DO NOT tie the lil anchoring knots or whatever else. You need this particular thread to be loose & mobile

 

 

for Tier 3 & 2 - only stitch the TOP length, Tier 1 doesn't need this step

Grab your pins, this gonna get serious.

 

Take Tier3 loop, at the TOP section (where we just sewed a random straight line) place one pin vertically at the seam (where we joined the ends), place another pin vertically at the opposite fold (so it's at exactly halfway point of your loop, if we were measuring it)

Now, rotate this strip, refold it so those 2 pins are next to each other and place pins at the new creases. Your loop should now have 4 pins sticking up at equal distances from each other, perfectly dividing the loop into quarters

 

set Tier 3 aside, grab Tier 2. You will be doing the exact same thing here: spacing out 4 pins evenly. However, on Tier 2 you need to do this for both TOP and BOTTOM sections (thus 8 pins)

Tier 1 only needs the pins on the BOTTOM edge

 

 

 

Quite a few might see where I'm goin' with this & probly wondering if it's too late to run out & buy a gathering-foot

 

We're going to be doing this from the bottom up: take Tier 3 make sure it's still turned inside out, TOP edge facing up. Tier 2 should be right side out, BOTTOM edge facing up

edges of Tier3 TOP are to be aligned to Tier2 BOTTOM. Match where the vertical seam is, pin pieces together. Now match up pins of Tier 3 to corresponding pins of Tier 2, pin fabric together at those points

 

You should now be looking at something like this. The difference in length between the loops is how gathering will go down

 

Next - GO GENTLE AND SLOW - cannot stress this enuff

Remember how I made you leave extra long tails of bright thread? Wrap that bright thread around your finger and pull. Again, BE GENTLE, the last thing you want is for the thread to break & then you're gonna have a bad time

 

Ok, see whats happening in your hands? As you pull the thread, Tier 3 is starting to gather. Keep hold of the thread wrapped around your finger & gently push the ruffling fabric with your other hand. Spread out those lil ruffles as evenly as you can

 

There's a reason we have 2 long bits of thread - you can pull to gather from both ends. Gives a bit less stress & easier to redistribute

Be mindful of whats happening to Tier 2. Remember, this is only 'shrinking' Tier3's extra fabric to align with fixed numbers of Tier2

 

All the extra fabric now gathered? Hook your fingers into Tier2 & pull the fabric taut. Everything appearing where it should be, no extra drooping or pulling?

 

Grab the pins! Stick pins into the fabric vertically pinning Tier3 to Tier2, you want to secure your new lil ruffles/gathers!

 

Now, an extra step for the novices. Sorry but if you run straight for the machine now you might catch pins under the foot and things will shift & get wrecked

Grab needle & thread, baste that sucker down! Keep the orig "4 pins" in, but take out the rest. Flip everything right side out and check everything still looks even. Nobody wants a lopsided skirt!

 

Ok, basting in, pins out. Return your proper~colored spool to the machine, return straight stitch to correct length, sew!

 

Now we're repeating this entire thing with Tier 2 and Tier 1

Tier 2, turned inside out TOP edge lining up to Tier 1 BOTTOM, turned right side out & do that gathering thing

 

___Congratulations, you just learned how to gather/make ruffles! ___

(bonus round: take a minute to remove all basting & temp stitching now, before moving on. Aren't you glad that obnoxious color is so easy to tell apart from proper seam?)

 

~~~~~

Part 3 - waistband & hem

We're so close!

 

 

Hemming comes first. There's no need for a quick fitting before sewing here, as we were using fairly symmetrical shapes; the hem is guaranteed to be even

 

Now there's 2 options.

Option 1 - the easy-peasy variant, also makes great decorative touch

Get either bias tape or wide ribbon in a complimenting color to the skirt (plz don't use sheer ribbons here, it will be terrible. Also avoid flimsy satin ribbons)

 

Bias tape already comes folded. The ribbon tho: fold in half lengthwise & press (the new crease will be a great guideline in 5 seconds)

 

The raw edge of Tier 3 BOTTOM lines up to the crease in the ribbon & is sandwiched inside it. Baste or pin secure, sew at the ribbon's edge (not at the crease). Done! Move on ahead to waistband

 

I'm not doing it with this skirt, here's a visual anyway

 

 

Option 2 - 'proper' way to finish a hem otherwise

Remember how I originally zigzagged the edges? Fold up 1cm, zigzagged part towards the inside, baste & press if desired before sewing on the machine

Nice clean hem, done!

 

NOW you can do lil fitting to make sure the skirt is shaping up proper length. At this point the only way you can shorten it is via Tier 1 (raising it up into the waistband or trimming off)

 

 

Ok, an iron really is gonna be like superhelpful here

Take your waistband strip, fold it lengthwise (right sides out). Not in half tho! Ideally you want more of a 2/3 and 1/3 ratio happening. PRESS!

Now flip to 2/3 section and fold it's raw edge in (wrong sides of fabric together) about 0.4cm, PRESS AGAIN

This has been important prep work (if you haven't an iron, just draw all these markings. I'm gonna be using the pressed creases as my guidelines)

 

Sew waistband into a loop just like we did with all the prev tiers. This loop should be exactly same length as Tier 1. Vertical edges at that seam don't need any finishing otherwise, they'll all be covered up

 

Grab the skirt, make sure it's once again right-side out. Tier 1 TOP is matched to the 1/3 part of waistband - right sides of fabric together. Sew together

Now just like we been doing again and again - flip the newly attached layer up so everything is right sides out

 

The 2/3 section part of the waistband should be facing inside of the skirt (it's been pressed, so the fabric already knows where to go) Fold that last lil raw edge (the few millimeters we pressed before) of it carefully into the inside and baste like woah

I'm legit holding the skirt inside-out and trying to show whats happening. The red line is pointing out the seam of Tier1~to~Waistband we did seconds ago

 

That final lil fold for me lines up couple millimeters above the seam, try to make yours do same

 

ALL the raw fraying edges should now be safely hidden inside the waistband. When sewing, try to stay very close to the inside fold, thus placing your new seam less than a centimeter above the first seam

 

PRESS and baste this sucker down (I press things a lot... it just makes life so much easier)

BUT MARK ONE SPACE, When you're gonna sew the final long seam securing the waistband together, DO NOT sew the part between these 2 pins. (you need a small opening thru which to thread the elastic)

 

How finished waistband looks from right side

The seam is one we just did, the shadow line under it is the first seam holding strip to Tier1

Some people recommend placing the final waistband seam "in the ditch" (thus both waistband seams are sewn on top of each other?) but that level of hassle isn't worth it

 

 

Almost done! grab a safety pin, get your elastic and feed into the waistband thru that lil hole we left

 

If your elastic was cord or thread kind - just tie to edges together and tuck into waistband

 

IF by some bad luck you just realized your elastic is too thick to fit... *facepalm* thread in a sturdy ribbon instead, your girl is now wearing drawstring skirt

 

Elastic done! Try skirt on your girl, just in case. It gets on alright and sits well?

Now you can carefully handstitch that small hole shut

 

 

___Congratulations, you have now made a full skirt!!___

 

 

 

 

Hope this was helpful & everyone learned new things! Totalz show me if you make stuff yourself!! ♥♫

 

 

PS: anyone not yet sick of me and would care for more tutorials? I'm good at skirts, bows and braiding ridiculous hairstyles (as prev snaps of Her Grace may have shown) Lemme know!

Edited October 24, 2016 by Guest

Awesome, thanks so much!

Great tutorial! I have a whole backlog of things to sew and seeing this helps encourage me to tackle my sewing basket full of things... If you're having another tutorial, a bloomers one would be nice. I haven't had a chance to check the site so I apologise if you already did one.

This was only my 2nd ever tutorial (flower crowns 1st), but bloomers is a good suggestion for next one!

 

heh, i feel u on backlogs! There's all these things piled up screaming "remember how u started us and then wandered away?? come back!!"

This was only my 2nd ever tutorial (flower crowns 1st), but bloomers is a good suggestion for next one!

 

heh, i feel u on backlogs! There's all these things piled up screaming "remember how u started us and then wandered away?? come back!!"

 

Hahaha... I feel like a hummingbird some days, darting from one thing to the next. My to do list is as long as my Pinterest board and I feel like I need several lifetimes to finish. LOL. Maybe we should have a DD tutorial challenge where we post a list of stuff we plan to do and are required to do one a month or something... mind you my RL babies tend to usurp my doll time and I'm sure there are lots of legit stuff that distract us. Life happens. I still love this hobby though with how much it incites creativity.

Good idea.

well done! Thank you for the tutorial.

... I didn't realize serging/finishing edges was that easy... for my current project I've been cutting 1/4" strips of interfacing and ironing it to the edges of the fabric The edges look great but it took so much time and now I'm a little embarrassed.

 

Fantastic tutorial -- now I know how to do gathers, too!

... I didn't realize serging/finishing edges was that easy... for my current project I've been cutting 1/4" strips of interfacing and ironing it to the edges of the fabric The edges look great but it took so much time and now I'm a little embarrassed.

 

Fantastic tutorial -- now I know how to do gathers, too!

 

interfacing.. on all the edges?? Wow, what are you making? Doesn't it add too much extra bulk?

Where (or why?) did u get the idea for interfacing edges?

... I'm making a kimono... the polyester crepe lining/the main fabric itself was fraying so much during my first attempt that I had to throw the whole thing out and start over. I googled something like, "how to prevent fraying in large pieces of fabric" -- I have fraycheck, but I wasn't going to sit down and fraycheck every single piece of this thing. Interfacing was one of the things that was recommended and it was what I had on hand. Not sure about the bulk yet... hopefully this doesn't turn out to be another failed garment that I have to get rid of