Elastic Waist Skirt Tutorial

Sunday morning, I made this cute skirt. It was super-easy, and it's really comfy to wear! So, I put together a little tutorial to show you what I did. When I read other people's blogs, it seems like I am a slow sewer, compared to others, but you can make this in a morning or afternoon. I promise! :)

Step 1- Prep and Gather your Materials

• First, measure your waist where you want the skirt to fit. Write down your waist measurement.
• Next, measure down your leg how long you want to skirt to be. Write down your length measurement, this will also determine how much fabric you need to buy.

You will need:

• Elastic. I recommend the 1.5" or 2" wide kind. I used some fancy elastic with a ruffle on the edge that I purchased on my NYC Shopping Trip! You will need your waist measurement plus an inch.
  
• Knit fabric, 60" wide. If your length measurement is 18" or shorter, you will only need 1/2 yd of fabric. If your length measurement is 19"-27", you will need 3/4 yd of fabric. Please pre-wash your fabric.
  
• Thread that matches elastic. (You may also want thread that matches the knit fabric.)
  
• Pins
• Chalk pencil
• Ruler
  

Step 2- Sew elastic waistband

• Try your elastic on where you want the waist of your skirt to be. Pull it a little snug. Mark where the ends overlap. Then, use a zig-zag stitch to sew over both of the overlapped ends.

Step 3- Cut knit fabric

• Cut the long edge of the fabric to your length measurement. My length measurement was 20" (I'm pretty tall), so I marked that along the length of the fabric (you can use any marker for this, it will be hidden), and then cut.

Step 4- Sew side of skirt

• Sew closed the side of the skirt using a zig-zag stitch. You should end up with a big tube of fabric. Since we are using a knit, we do not need to hem the bottom. (You can if you want to.)

Step 5- Marking the skirt and elastic into 8ths

• In order to evenly gather our fabric, I like to mark it into 8ths. Lie your tube flat, then fold it in half, now fold it in half again. Then, mark the edges at each fold-- I used pins with red ends. You should end up with 8 pins.

• You'll also want to mark your elastic. I fold it, and then used a chalk pencil to draw lines. Again, you should end up with 8 markings.

Step 5- Gathering the skirt

• Now, we'll gather the skirt. Using the largest straight stitch on your machine, sew 2 rows of stitches next to the top of the skirt. Leave long tails of thread, and leave the pins in.
  
• Then, hold on to both threads and gently pull the fabric to gather it all around.
  

Step 6- Pin the skirt to the elastic

• Pin the skirt to the elastic. Match up your pins and chalk marks, and adjust gathers evenly.

Step 7- LAST STEP! Sew the skirt to the elastic

• Finally, sew the skirt to the elastic using a zig-zag stitch. Make sure to use a thread color that matches your elastic, and it will blend right in to the elastic band.

That's it! You're done! Turn your skirt right-side-out, slip it on, and take it out for a twirl!
As always, let me know if you have any questions, and please share if you make one of your own!