Lace Skirt Tutorial

In August, I had the great opportunity to make bridesmaid skirts for a wedding.  The Mother of the Bride is a friend of mine and she brought me the fabric she'd picked out and asked me if I could make some skirts with it, to her specifications.  The Bride's sisters were going to be in cute green Downeast skirts, and the Bridesmaids were to wear pink skirts that were to be similar to the Downeast skirt, but a little longer and a little poufier.  

Cute Kylie, one of the sisters of the bride:

The bridesmaids were super-cute girls, too!  

I made the skirts out of a beautiful white lace the bride's mom found, layered with a pink lining and a top layer of light pink tulle, all attached to a black elastic waistband.  

They were pretty simple to make, though making 5 at once took a bit of patience.  All that tulle to cut!  :) 

I didn't have a pattern, so I figured out a mathematical formula to have each skirt look the same as the rest, but still fit each bridesmaid.  I took each girl's waist measurement and calculated what the hem should be.  

For the lining layer, which was a little narrower than the lace and tulle on top, I multiplied the waist measurement in inches by 1.12.  The lining was 24.5 inches long. 

(Waist Measurement x 1.12) + 1 = Hem Width for Lining

For instance, this piece of lining was 33.6 inches by 24.5 inches, for a girl with a 30 inch waist.  Make sense?  (And yes, the fabric in the below picture was cut a little crooked.  Oops!  I straightened it up before sewing it, though. :) )

The lace and tulle were the same size as each other, and slightly larger than the lining.  The equation for the lace and tulle is: 

(Waist Measurement x 1.36) + 1 = Hem width for Lace/Tulle

The length for the tulle/lace was 26.25 inches, so the scallop on the lace would be more visible over the solid pink lining.  So, for a girl with a 30 inch waist, the lace and tulle was 40.8 inches by 26.25 inches.

Who says you don't use math in every day life, right?

For each skirt, I cut two lining pieces, two pieces of lace, and four pieces of tulle.   

So, here's how I made the skirt.  

After everything is all cut out (the biggest part of the whole process), sew the two lining pieces at the sides (using half inch seam allowances), with right sides facing together.  Trim, finish (I zig-zagged) and press the seams, then sew a narrow hem on the lining.  

Next, sew the two pieces of lace down the sides (right-sides-together).  Trim, zig-zag, and press the seams.  I didn't need to sew a hem on the lace because it had a lovely scalloped finished edge.

Then, sew the 4 pieces of tulle together on the sides.  (I didn't get a picture of this step...oops!)  The tulle layer is doubled up so the pink would show (with only one layer, it was nearly invisible).  Trim, and press the seams.  

After your 3 skirt layers are sewed together and hemmed if needed, prep the waistband.  I think the elastic I used was 3 inches...it may have been 2.5 inches wide.  The length of the elastic was the girl's waist measurement + 1 inch.  (So, for a girl with a 30 inch waist, that would be 31 inches of elastic).  

Fold the elastic in half lengthwise, with cut ends together, right sides facing each other.  Sew together with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.  

Press open the seam in the elastic (on a cool iron setting so you don't melt it!) and stitch the sides of the seam down.

Layer your tulle layer and lace layer together the way you want them, matching up side seams where possible.  (Put the lace inside the tulle "skirt").  Machine baste the top of the lace/tulle skirt.  Pull threads to gather the fabric to the size of your waistband.  Adjust gathers the way you want them to look and pin the lace/tulle skirt to the waistband.  Sew the skirt to the waistband, pulling slightly on the elastic as you sew, so your threads don't break when the elastic stretches as you wear the skirt.  

As the lining is slightly smaller than than the lace/tulle layer, I gathered it separately.  Repeat the above process with the lining, making sure that when you pin the lining to the waistband that the side seams match up with the side seams in the lace/tulle.  Sew the lining to the waistband slightly above the stitches where you sewed on the lace/tulle, again stretching the elastic a bit as you sew.  

 

Trim the excess fabric inside the waistband (I wish I'd gotten a picture so this makes more sense--there will be a ton of fabric above your stitches on the inside of the waistband, because the fabric was gathered.  Trim it close (like 1/4 inch) to your stitches so it looks nice.  Zig-zag it if you want (or serge it if you've got one of those fancy sergers!).)

Clip all your threads, shake it out, iron it, and you've got a pretty layered lace and tulle skirt!

Simplicity 2475

I got a great blouse from Old Navy for my birthday. It has sweet little red butterflies all over it. I knew it would look great with a red pencil skirt.

To make it, I pulled out my go-to pencil skirt pattern, Simplicity 2475. I used it before to make a yellow pencil skirt:

That yellow skirt was the first clothing item I'd made from a pattern in nearly a decade.  It was rather nice as I made my red one this time around to see the improvements I've made in my sewing skills.  The first time around I was frustrated by the pattern-ese language in the directions.  The second time?  I tossed the instructions aside entirely and did it my own way.  :)

It's pretty simple, but that's the point with a pencil skirt, no?  It does have cute kick-pleats in the back to jazz it up a little.  I really like them.

I capped off the outfit with some cute off-white heels and had a cute springy outfit for church this week. Now if spring would actually come...

Pink Linen Skirt

My brother-in-law got married last weekend.  My new sister-in-law had all of her sisters and sisters-in-law make skirts out of the same pink linen fabric to wear for the wedding pictures; sort of a bridesmaid-esque deal. Here's mine:

I used McCalls 5591 for the skirt. I think the box pleats worked well with the drape of the linen, giving the skirt a little life.

We were supposed to wear it with a white top.  I fudged it a little and wore this white cardigan over a gray undershirt.  I thought the necklace was perfect for tying the whole look together!  

Plaid Skirt

I got some vintage fabric from my mom when she came to visit awhile back, including this cute green and cream plaid. I thought it make a cute skirt, so I gave it a whirl. There was just barely enough fabric to get this skirt out of it, plus enough to cover a headband out of the scraps.

I felt a little like I was dressed like a little kid, with the maryjanes, headband, and school-girl skirt.  But, it's also a very vintage look, sort of a late-30s, early 40s co-ed look.  Anyway, it was fun to make and fun to wear.

Yellow Skirt and Flower Pin Blouse

Quite awhile ago, I saw this dress in Anthropologie.  On the mannequin, it had a matching flower pin pinned to the neckline.  It was gorgeous.

Anthropologie is WAY out of my price range.  But, I tried on the dress anyway.  Sadly for me/fortunately for my budget, the dress was too short. 

I got the idea that I would try to copy it.  It shouldn't be that hard, I thought, it's basically just a white blouse and a yellow skirt.  I got it into my head that it was a pencil skirt, though I later realized that it wasn't quite.  I went looking for some yellow light-weight corduroy.  I couldn't find any.  I found a lemony-colored corduroy, but it wasn't what I wanted.  I wanted as close to the original dress' color as I could find, since it's primarily the color that I fell in love with. 

I evenutally gave up on corduroy.  I found a similar color of cotton twill in the bargain section of Denver Fabrics (only 2.95/yard).  And, I bought a basic pencil-skirt pattern from Walmart (Simplicity 2475) 

Here is the result:

It's not quite the same effect as the Anthropologie dress, but I like it anyway.  And, I like the kick-pleats in the back.  So, I made the skirt and the flower pins.  I already owned the blouse.  I think the ribbon flowers I made tie the whole outfit together well.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  What do you think? 

Heather Baily Print Skirt

I got a bunch of really cheap patterns awhile back and some fabulous Heather Bailey fabric, so I thought I'd try my hand at making myself a quick skirt.

I love this outfit. I got a whole new outfit for very little. I made the skirt, I already owned the shirt, shoes, and purse.  I got the necklace for FREE at Kohl's (thank you $10 off $10 coupons!).  And, as a superfluous splurge, I bought the blue flower ring at Target for a few dollars. 

I actually altered the skirt from what the pattern dictated.  It wanted the front to be a seam, and I didn't think it looked very good.  Plus, I like there to be a band at the waist (the better to hold my tummy in... :)  ) and this one didn't have one.  So, I changed where the zipper went so the front part of the skirt didn't have a seam and added a 3 inch wide waistband at the top. 

I'm loving my new skirt!