DIY Wedding: Bridal Shower Skirt

Homemade floral skirt!

 

When I first got engaged, I had ambitious thoughts of DIYing everything for the wedding, including the wedding dress. I thought it would be the ultimate project to make and then display something I made on what would be the largest scale event of my life. There were a few issues with this ambition of mine, for starters I had never made a dress before, and after doing some preliminary research, I decided against attempting to make a dress and instead settled on something a little less daunting, a skirt for my bridal shower.

 

To make this skirt, you can follow this tutorial for construction and this tutorial for installation of the zipper (invisible on the side).

 



DIY Sew: 1/2 Circle Skirt

 

To anyone still reading, I'm terribly sorry for the long hiatus. Lots of great changes in my life recently that have left me with little free time. I promise I will make a more concerted effort to keep up with regular posts in the future.

Now to the fun stuff...
 

1/2 circle skirt with waistband tutorial!

Materials Needed: 

1 1/2 yards of fabric

zipper

matching thread

sewing machine

Step 1: trace and cut pattern; use this pattern

Step 2: Fold fabric in half with right sides of the fabric touching. Trace the pattern onto fabric

Step 3: Cut fabric

Step 4: Sew up only the bottom half of one side of the skirt using a straight short stitch,  then sew up the top half of the side of the skirt with a long straight stitch (you'll be pulling out this seam once the zipper is installed)

 

Step 5: The Waistband, take this fabric piece....

Step 6: With skirt piece fabric right side out- place the waist band piece over the skirt piece waist band and sew at the top all the way around the skirt using a short straight stitch (note, do not sew over the side seam and leave a little extra waist band fabric for folding over)

Step 7: Turn skirt inside out. Iron open the seam, place zipper face down into the seam. Sew zipper into the skirt.

 Step 8: Use a seam ripper to rip the seam open under the zipper
Step 9: Hem

Finished!

DIY Sew: Tulle Skirt

I love the femininity of tulle skirts, so when I saw a few tutorials floating around pinterest recently I knew I wanted to see if I could make one for myself.

I scored 3 yards of white tulle on sale and stashed it away until I had the motivation and time to sew.

You'll also need 1 yard of white cotton fabric and a white zipper.

For this skirt I used my circle skirt pattern.

You only need the bottom piece, not the waist band.

Use the pattern to trace 6 tulle skirt pieces and 1 cotton skirt piece (make sure to trace each skirt pattern on the fold).

Pin up the side of the skirt and sew. Do this for both the cotton piece and all 6 tulle pieces.

Turn all skirt pieces right side out. 

The cotton piece will be the first layer, then layer on each tulle piece.

Sew all 7 pieces of fabric together at the waist. (sewing around in a circle)

Insert exposed zipper (see tutorial here)

Done!!

DIY Sew: Patterned Skirt w/ Invisible Zipper

One of the greatest parts about working at my job (in advertising) is the dress code: casual.  It's great not to have to buy professional clothing for everyday use.  However, every year in May I have a bunch of presentations that I have to dress up for.  Instead of purchasing new clothes for the presentations, I decided to make a few new skirts this year.

I came across this awesome fabric (below) at home goods (it's actually a tablecloth); I thought it would be great for a pencil skirt.

I followed my pencil skirt tutorial, but decided to do an invisible zipper instead of an exposed zipper.

Installing the invisible zipper:

When you are ready to sew the front and back sides of the skirt together, place both pieces together (good sides touching); now, decide which side of your skirt you want the zipper to be on, you will sew up this side first. Begin sewing your zipper side starting at the waist; use a long straight stitch for the first 7 inches, then backstitch 1/2 inch, adjust the stitch to a shorter length and then finish sewing the side of the skirt together.

Iron open the seam

Place zipper on top fo the seam and pin the right side of the zipper onto the right side of the seam allowance

Using the zipper foot on your machine start at the waist, and sew the left side of the zipper onto the left seam allowance only, stitch across the bottom of the zipper, and then sew up the right side of the zipper onto the right seam allowance only

Turn your skirt over (the good side should be facing up)

Take your seam ripper and start at the waist and move 6 1/2 inches down, gently pull out the thread until you can see the whole zipper.

When you can easily zip and unzip the zipper you are done with the install.

Now, continue with my skirt tutorial, and sew up the other side of the skirt, hem, and that's it!

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!!