Toile Diary; Long Skirt

Long Skirt;

The shape of my long skirt will be very tight fitted  but stretchy. I started off by tracing off a basic skirt block.

I then made only a few slight alterations, I took out all of the darts, the 2 at the back and the one at the front by measuring the length of the darts and then taking that off the length of the skirt at the top. I did this on both sides and then added about another 30 cm onto the bottom to make the length of the skirt ankle length. I didn't take any of the skirt in at the bottom yet as I am going to do that and measure it properly when I have made the skirt at the skirt is going to be very tight fitted at the bottom around the ankles.

I then made sure I used some stretchy lycra material as that is what I will be using to create my final garment, so I then cut out my 2 pieces, each front and back piece were cut on the fold and as the garment was supposed to be stretchy and very tight fitting so just the one front and back piece was all that was required, no zips or seams or splits.

I then put my 2 pieces of the skirt together.

After sewing the front and back piece together with a normal sewing machine and foot, I realized that I probably should have overlocked the two pieces together rather than sewing them together, as the lycra was that stretchy and it would have to be stretched to be put on, it might not hold with just a normal sewing line so I think on my final garment I will overlock it together just to be sure.

I then patterned for a waistband, I did this by measuring the length of the top of the front and back piece, adding them together and then deciding I want my waistband to be about 3cm, I drew an oblong the length of the front and back waist added up and at 6cm wide. I also added on a 1 cm seam allowance on each side.

I then cut it out of the fabric andfolded it over, I then overlocked the two sides together with a 1cm seam allowance so that the piece was folded over the show the 3cm band and was attached at each end to make a circle. I then pinned it onto the top of my garment, making sure that where I had sewn the waistband together  met the seam where I had sewn the skirt together.

I then overlocked the waistband onto the garment. I really liked the effect of the waistband and I will definitely use this type of finish on my final garment, although I realized after I'd sewn the waistband on that I had sewn it on inside out and the seam was showing on the right side, next time on my final garment I will make sure I don't do this.

The finish I will do at the bottom for my final garment I only managed to do on a sample piece as the machine wasn't working properly, this is the simple final I want at the bottom of my garment;

I think that this is a really nice and simple way of finishing a garment, especially a long skirt and as my material is going to be stretchy I think it will be a very simple yet effective way of finishing the bottom and compliment the material and garment very well.