Tuesday 17 May 2011

Long and unwearable to short and cute (with a tutorial!)

Look at the fabric of this skirt! Once again I grabbed something in a charity shop that didn’t fit because the fabric was so lovely. It’s too small in the waist, to long, there is a button missing and some of the fabric is torn around where the buttons were sewn on. Apart from that, it’s gorgeous!
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Fleurs, fleurs, fleurs, Les Anemones!
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First thing I did was remove the waistband – sometimes that’s all you need to do to ease a tight skirt. If you have a skirt that is too small, you can lay a skirt you have (that fits you well) on top of your too-small skirt to see how much of the waist you need to remove to make it fit.
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Once you’ve removed your waistband, normally you can just hem the top and say-no-more but this fabric is a little flimsy and I wanted the waist to be a little more substantial.
I traced the curve of the waistband onto fusible interfacing and cut a piece an inch wide. I ironed this onto the top edge of the skirt.
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Now you need to fold down your waistband and sew. Because it is cut on a curve, I needed to do a bit of snipping…
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And then iron it down…
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and sew…
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If you are feeling fancy, you can ignore this last step and trace the line of your new waistband onto some stiffer fabric and cut it a strip an inch or so wide to make a facing. You can then sew this to the skirt face-to-face, fold it to the back and hem neatly. This way would be much neater on the inside and you could use something contrasty and exciting! I’m a bit lazier than that though.
Because I had cut off the top button on the waistband I needed to add another and this meant another buttonhole. I won’t bore you with a how-to because the interweb is littered with them.
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Et voila, it fits!
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And after cutting it down to knee length and a hemming session later…
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I love my new summer skirt, now if we could only get some warmer weather!
Beccy

6 comments:

  1. Well done! You have enough cuttings to make you a little matching wristlet, I bet!

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  2. Thanks for the tip about cutting off the waistband and refitting.

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  3. I just found you from refashion co-op, I love this skirt! Am now a happy follower :) Reana Louise x

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  4. Thanks everybody!

    FabricsNQuilts - I bet I have enough to make a matching hat and bag! - too much? Heehee! The wristlet would be very cute though, watch this space :)

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  5. I found you on refashion co-op as well. Good instructions. I'll be back to see more.

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