DIY Sew: Knit Pencil Skirt

This past weekend I went to a Reggae festival in Austin, and as I own absolutely nothing that would allow me to fit in with the ultra liberal crowd, I decided I would try to make a skirt for the occasion.

I purchased 1 yard of extremely bright fabric from the fabric fairy $7.99
Then all I needed was some thread, scissors, measuring tape, an old pencil skirt(for tracing purposes) and a sewing machine
To start I laid out my fabric with the right sides touching, then I placed an old pencil skirt over the fabric and traced, I added 5/8ths an inch to the sides for the seam allowance, and two inches to the top for the waistband

After tracing, I cut

Then folded the waistband down 1 1/2 inches on both pieces and sewed

Next I penciled in the darts, drawing two, each 2 inches by 7 inches (on the back piece of the skirt only)

I sewed up the darts with a straight stitch

Next with right sides together, I sewed up both sides of the skirt using 5/8ths inch seam allowance and a zig zag stitch

Last step: I hemmed to my desired length

Finished!

DIY Sew: Elastic Waist Skirt

Yay! So excited to share my journey in creating my very first skirt! I found this video on pinterest, and followed along to make my creation.

Here's what you'll need:

1-2 yards of cotton fabric
elastic
safety pin
scissors
thread
iron
sewing machine
measuring tape

Take your hip measurement, add 8 inches to this measurement, and divide by 2, this will be your width
Cut 2 pieces of fabric equal to your width by 20 1/2''(adjust to your length liking)

Pin fabric right sides together

Sew up both 20 1/2" sides using a 1/2'' seam allowance

Press seams flat

For the waistband, fold from the top 1/2''; press

F

old down another 2'', press

Pin in place and sew all the way around leaving a 4'' opening (for the elastic to go through)

Measure elastic around your waist and cut(I wanted mine to be snug on my waist so I shaved off two inches from my waist measurement)

Attach safety pin to elastic and thread through skirt gathering as you go, use another safety pin to pin the end of the elastic to your skirt

Sew elastic together overlapping by a 1/2'', sew back and forth a few times

Close opening, begin where seam starts and sew closed

The only thing left now is to hem the bottom!

Fold bottom up 1/2'' press

Fold bottom up another 1 1/2'' press

Pin, and sew

Finished!!

DIY Sew: Fabric Belt

So, although my sewing class advertised that we'd be making a fabric covered belt, we never did! I was so determined to make one, I decided to attempt one on my own.
Tops this should take you about 15 minutes

Materials:
fabric
2 D rings
scissors
tape measure
Safety pin
sewing machine

Measure your waist, then add 10 inches; next measure the length of your D ring and multiply by two and add a 1/2 inch; take these two meausrements and cut out your fabric

Fold fabric in half and pin

Sew

Turn the fabric right side out, to do this pin a safety pin to the end of your fabric and thread it through

Fold in fabric a 1/2 inch on both ends and sew

In order to maintain the straight shape of the belt, I decided to sew two lines into the fabric longwise, each a 1/2 inch from the ends

Next, string in both D rings, fold over by three inches and sew

Complete!