Sarah's skirt

While visiting Sarah in Seattle recently, we made her a yellow stretch cotton skirt.

She wanted to make a waistband to use some 1.5" elastic. We cut the waistband the length of her waist and 4.5" wide. One end of the elastic was stitched onto the waistband, then the other end was overlapped 1/2" and stitched into place.This was folded down to make a 2.25" waistband. You will see stitching on only one side of the waistband, which you will want to have facing toward the body when joining the waistband to the skirt. Finally baste the raw edges together.

For the skirt, we used the full width of the fabric (selvedge to selvedge) and used the waist to knee measurement for the length of the skirt. For example, the full width will range from 45 - 60". The waist-to-knee measurement was 18-20". We trimmed the selvedge edges to make a smooth finished seam, which is sewn 1/2" and pressed open. Baste the top edges of the skirt to gather the fullness.

Taking this tube of skirt, pin the right side of the waistband to the right side of the skirt at the top raw edges. Ease in the fullness as the two pieces are pinned together.

Sew a 3/8" seam all around the top edge of the skirt to join the waistband to the skirt. Follow with a 1/2" or 5/8" seam to reinforce the stitching line. Once this is sewn securely, it is fine to remove the basting stitches.

Copyright©2011, Sharon Baggs