Sergers.  Knits.  Garments. Oh my!

These are scary words for many of our sewing friends! Do any one – or more – of these intimidate you? You’re not alone. Fear no more, this skirt is a great first project for your serger, for working with knits, for creating an easy to fit garment!  And it’s SO versatile – there are great fun prints for casual wear, solids for a more conservative look or to go with many pieces as part of a travel wardrobe, can be long, short, in between, great for kids to adults and make good gifts!

We had some fun with our fabric – confession – when we bought our fabric we thought it was a neat black denim knit look. We had no idea there was a floral print on the back!

 

So we decided to make it reversible – we’ll tell you how!  But first we decided to texturize it.  We used a pintuck foot and 2.0 twin needle to create the meandering pintucks you see on the solid side (please visit us so we can get you the right foot and needles!) You can find inspiration anywhere you look – we knew we wanted some texture but weren’t sure what … gazing down at the carpet in a hotel conference room we saw meandering ribbon like lines like this – and we knew that’s what we were looking for!  The floral print shows the wrong side of the tucks as a narrow thread line.  We’ll show you some things you can do like this – and more – with pintuck feet in another post 🙂

Now if “serger” is a four letter word for you, the thought of threading it or changing tensions gets your blood pressure up – let us help! (Here are our numbers – call us maybe?!)  We’ll get you into a FREE guide class!  And take a look at some of these Baby Lock models with automatic threading and NO tension!  If you don’t have a serger but have wondered about what these mysterious, multi-thread machines can do, come on in to any of our locations and let us show you! You can whip out simple, quick, so-in-style fashions like this – and so much more – quickly and easily with professional finish!  They are NOT just for finishing edges!

So let’s get started — we’ll do the hardest part first and get it out of the way!

To determine how much fabric you’ll need –

Measure desired length starting a couple inches below waist. You’re the designer, there’s no right or wrong length!

Measure fullest part of your hip.

Knit fabrics are typically 54″ – 60″ wide.  If you select a knit with cotton, rayon, wool – any shrinkable fiber – allow for shrinkage when buying  and make sure you do preshrink it!  Your “usable fabric” is the width after shrinkage, minus selvages. Unfortunately we have to guesstimate shrinkage before deciding how much to buy.

We made this skirt slightly A-line (wider at bottom) to avoid possible cling (vs. a straight skirt which can sometimes emphasize hips if you’re curvy – but this is a design choice and all up to you!).  It sits just below waist.  We “flared out” to about 4″ larger at bottom of front and back pieces, plus 1/2″ for seam allowance (so w could trim off some fabric. You can make yours 1/4″ if you like, about the width for a wide 3 thread overlock stitch).

 

If your usable fabric width is at least your hip measurement plus 9″ (that’s 4″ + 1/2″ seam allowance for the front and back pattern pieces) – purchase the length measured plus 1/2 yd.  Example: 54″ fabric (usable width) … Hip:  42″ + 9″ = 51″ …  Buy:  Desired length + 1/2 yd.

If your hip + 9″ is greater than your usable fabric width – purchase 2x the length plus 1/2 yd. Example: 54″ fabric (usable width) … Hip:  50″ + 9″ = 59″ … Buy:  2x desired length + 1/2 yd.

The additional 1/2 yd. allows for the band and hem allowance.  If you have some leftover, make a headband or scarf or hairtie!  If you want a fuller skirt, add to the 9″ measurement and calculate yardage from there.

That’s the math part, and the hardest part of this project for some. It’s done! Now let’s make that skirt!

1)  If using one length, fold selvage edges toward center.  You’ll create your front along one fold, back along the other.

 

2)  If using two lengths, leave fabric folded as purchased – you’ll create your front and back pieces in line along the fold.

3)  Mark your skirt piece as shown – center is on fold.  (We’ve only shown one, front and back pieces look alike – we did the same along each fold for front and back.)  We used a Chaco Liner to mark – this soft chalk marking tool makes fine lines, and is easy to brush off – and comes in several colors! Colors available throughout our stores!

 

We started with 1/4 of the hip measurement plus 1/2″ seam allowance — because your fabric is on fold and will be twice as wide when opened.  We decided to brush some away at top and redraw the line in an inch or so toward waist as the body narrows.  We marked the +4″ flare at bottom and used our 24″ quilting ruler (get it here!) and Chaco Liner to draw the straight line you see.  We went edge to edge on the fabric, so just one line to cut. The original markings we didn’t want were easy to brush off!

 

4)  Set up serger for a wide 3 thread overlock stitch.  Stitch length 3.  Cutting width will depend on thickness of your fabric.  Test on some scraps until you like what you see!

5) (Optional) – pin baste or stitch baste seams  to check fit. Pull in at waist if desired.

6)  Place right sides of fabric together and – serge seams!  You can trim off a bit of fabric if using 1/2″ seam or serge right along the edge (if you’re using the 1/4″/ 3 thread wide width seam allowance).  To guide your fabric check the markings or grooves on your presser foot – they will align with needle positions – you can just guide your sewing line toward the needle mark.  We’ve shown the mark corresponding to the left needle with our tweezers –

Press as stitched, then press to one side.

To make ours reversible, we edge stitched the seam down on the floral side. We used a foot with a center blade and opening the width of our machine’s feed dogs – an Edge Joining Foot or Stitch in the Ditch foot (but not the straight stitch version!  We’ll help you select the right one – come see us!).  We moved the needle to left a couple positions to stay on the edge – here’s how each side looks —

 

7)  Cut the band.  It’s just a rectangle!

How to measure how big around?  Wrap the fabric around you crosswise – the (typical) direction of most stretch – to see what’s comfortable wherever you want it to sit – and add an inch (1/2″ seam allowance).  Make sure you stretch it a bit (as you would elastic), it should be a little smaller than your skirt top – it uses the stretch – negative ease – to fit close (and keep your skirt in place!).

We wanted our finished band about 4″ (plus seam allowance) so we cut it 9″ by the length we got measuring above.

8)  Place right sides of fabric together along 9″ side and serge. Press seam to one side.

 

9)  Fold band in half, wrong sides together.

10) Mark band and skirt in quarters as shown with pins. Skirt side seams are two marks, center back and front the other two.  For band start with seam and do same.

 

11) Pin the quarter marks of band and skirt together.  Your band is smaller than your skirt – you will stretch as you serge – stretch the band between the quarter marks so it’s stretched to match the skirt segment you’re attaching it to —

 

 

Finish by serging about an inch over your initial stitching. You can lower the blade if desired for this last inch to prevent cutting previous stitching.

12) Hem it!  You have some options here —

Trendy ITY (Interlock Twist Yarn) knits don’t ravel – you can leave them unhemmed if you like!

You can hem with a coverstitch – a common ready to wear finish – 

Many sergers have a coverstitch option – the Baby Lock Ovation or Evolution,  and Janome offers a great cover and chain stitch machine to supplement your serger, the Janome Coverpro 2000CPX!)

Since you won’t need the stretch in the hem, you could machine stitch the hem, or use a twin needle on a sewing machine for a coverstitch look.

Create a wavy lettuce edge with the rolled hem on your serger  (particularly effective with sheers – how about a sheer overlay to your skirt?)  

Here’s our other confession – we didn’t buy a long enough piece of fabric – that’s why our skirt pieces go edge to edge!  Every mistake is an opportunity to find a new workaround! Since we wanted it reversible, we wouldn’t want a hem shown on the floral side anyway. So we just switched to a narrow 3 thread overlock stitch and serged the bottom edge.  And you can do that too!

13)  Wear it!  And show us! We’d love to see your versions – feel free to share with us on our Facebook page!

We’ll be giving you another easy serger skirt option soon, we’ll use a pattern, and feature a foldover top.  Want to try on your own?  Here are a couple patterns you might like, easy to use –

And if you don’t have a serger (yet!), you can sew these on your sewing machine.  Use a narrow zig zag – we often use .5 width and 3.0 length – so your stitch has stretch, or try some of those overlock style stitches.  But we know once you start serging – you’ll never go back!