How to make a skater skirt

Skater skirt

Love, love love skater skirts that are popping up all over. A proper skater skirt would be a whole lot shorter than this skirt but I don’t wear very short skirts. If you are brave enough to wear a short skirt, then simply alter the length of the pattern.

Also, this is a semi circle skirt and not a full circle skirt. A

Fold a piece of newspaper from a corner

full circle skirt can be voluminous around the hips. Not great for pear shapes like me.

Cut skirt and waistband

You want to be looking for a fairly firm fabric as anything flimsy will wilt and not hold the shape. But you also don’t want anything overly dense which will stick out too much. I used something called Minimatt. Rather a strange name I know, but that’s what they called it in the fabric shop.

This is not an easy project as you have to set a zip. I used to loathe having to sew a zip but I’m going to show how I set a zipper in this link – how to set a zipper. I hand sew the zip in place first which makes a huge difference.

Skater Skirt Pattern

You can also look for tutorials on the Internet. There are plenty really good ones. Failing that, you can attach the skirt to a piece of un-bendable elastic-

Stitches sides together

You need: –

sewing machine
fabric
matching thread
sewing scissors
pins
invisible zip
zipper foot for sewing machine

You do: –

First up you need a pattern. I am a size medium or UK dress size 10. You can use my pattern and make small tweaks to accommodate a larger or smaller waist. And as said at the beginning, you can make this skirt shorter or longer by altering the length.

The only suggestion I will make is to rather cut the waist a bit on the small side. It’s far easier to cut away fabric than make it too big and have to gather it. Look at the pattern if this doesn’t make sense to you.

Take your measurements and make a pattern as per the pattern picture. Cut a pattern in newspaper. Pin pattern to fabric.

Press seams flat

 Cut skirt and waistband from your fabric.

Sew side seams bearing in mind you will be fitting a zip to the top end of one side.

Next set your zip. See how to set a zip here.

Press seams flat. Now slip the skirt over your head and check to see how it fits in your waist.

If it’s too loose, you can gently gather it. If it’s too small, cut away a tiny bit at a time until it’s

Pin and sew waistband

right.

Pin your waistband to the skirt waist. Stitch waistband to skirt. Fold waist band over and either hand sew or machine sew the waistband in place. Bear in mind the waist band must overlap slightly near the zipper so you can close it with a fastening.

Finish closure with a button if you know how to make button holes, or even easier – and more

Sew hem

attractive in my view – use a press stud.

And that’s your skater skirt complete.

For more FREE sewing patterns and ideas to re-style old clothes visit the Greenie galleries at the top of the page.

See you next week,

Greenie.

P. S. Just to help clarify the measurement on the pattern. The measurement from the corner – point X – to the lower end of the skirt – point B and point C – is 80 centimetres.

The measurement to create the waist is from the corner – point X – to point A and point D – is 21 centimetres.