Skirting the Issue with UCreate: A Single Tiered Skirt Tutorial

Sometimes you meet people…and you know that they are just genuinely good…inside and out…and then you pray that your paths will continue to cross because those are the kinds of people who you want to be around.

And that is exactly the way that we feel about Becky (and her sister Kari) from UCreate.  So we feel so lucky to have Becky here sharing a darling tutorial with us today!

I want to be able to donate as many skirts as possible so I decided to create a tutorial that will allow me to sew bunch of skirts in a short amount of time. That being said, this is a very beginner skirt.  Please enjoy this step-by-step tutorial for a Simple Single Tiered Twirly Skirt.  Its simple, fun and super cute.

Supply List: (NOTE: these dimensions are for a size 6 skirt)

Step 2: On the smaller circle iron the top down 3/4″ and sew around the circle but leave an inch open.  This creates the casing for the elastic.  (yep, I am weird and do the elastic first most of the time).

Step 3:  Put a safety pin on the end of the elastic and feed it through the opening in the casing.  

Step 4:  Connect the ends by sewing a secure zig zag stitch. 

Step 5: Once you’ve fed it through and sewn the elastic ends together, close the open in the back of the skirt.  Just sew it shut and you’re done with that part.

Step 6:  Next, grab the other circle piece you created earlier.  I hem it first, but you DO NOT need to hem knit…nor do you usually hem the bottom of a skirt first. I’m just unique and do things a bit out of order. 🙂

Step 7:  Set your machine to sew a long stitch (meaning not something really tiny)…this is called a basting stitch.  It’s very loose and will help you create the gather of the skirt.  Sew one basting stitch all the way around the top of the circle.  Then do it again about 3/4″ below the first stitch.  DO NOT BACKSTITCH!  

Step 8: Grab the two threads on one side and gentle pull.  If you feel like the strings are going to break, grab the threads closer to the fabric.  You want to hold closer to the fabric to lessen the likelihood of the strings breaking.  If they break just start with step 7 again. 

Step 9:  As you pull the strings the material will gather.  Move the gathers down away from your starting point.  Just slowly scoot them down as you pull.  This is totally a two handed job.  One hand pulls, the other pushes the gathers down the line.  This is the process I get the most questions about so I included a lot of pictures.  (I love questions, if you have any please let me know.)

Once it looks like this…push those gathers down the line.  You want to spread them around the entire top of the circle.

Step 10: Here I have half the skirt top gathered.  Rather than risk breaking the threads and having to start over, I just switch sides and start pulling the strings on the other side…thus gathering the other side of the skirt. 🙂  Like the picture below.

Keep gathering!

ALL GATHERED! 

Step 11:  Time to connect the two pieces.  Turn the top piece wrong side out and upside down.  Place the bottom piece right side out and gathered side up.

Step 12:  Slide the top part over the bottom part right sides together.   

Step 13:  Line the gathers up with the bottom of the TOP piece of the skirt. Pin the pieces together all the way around.  Set your machine back to a normal stitch (because it should be on the big basting stitch) and sew all the way around with a 1/2″ seam.  Once you’re done with that, find the long strings you pulled to create the gather and PULL them completely out. The gathers are now secured with the stitch you just created. 

You’re ALL done!  Now you are ready to make a bunch more to donate for a good cause! YAHOO!

I am so happy to contribute this tutorial for Skirting the Issue and Simple Simon.  Thanks for letting me be here today, ladies!

Thank you so much Becky!

(I’m telling you…these ladies are wonderful…the more you find out about them, the more you’ll like them!)

Hop on over to their blog today and see all the fun they have going on…every single day they have THE BEST round-up, tutorials, and ideas at UCreate!