How To Make Gathered Skirt With Elastic Waistband
A skirt with an elastic waistband is a popular piece of clothing for most ladies. It is beautiful and elegant. It is also easy to wear and take care of. As an amateur or an expert tailor, this is one of the must-make items for your portfolio and to grow your skills.
Making a gathered skirt with an elastic waistband is easy. You don’t need advanced sewing skills. You can easily make your pattern and start to sew the skirt. Also, working with elastic is easy and gathering fabrics by hand is easy and fast.
How To Make Gathered Skirt With Elastic Waistband?
Measure the desired length of your skirt from your skirt. Place the measuring tape on your waist and measure to your desired length on your body. Measure your waist circumference and record the measurement. Then add 1 inch to your waist measurement to get the measurements of the elastic band you need.
Cut the fabric and sew the sides together. Make a waistband and fix the elastic band into it. Pin it on your skirt and gather the skirt at the top and hold the gathers in place with pins. Then sew the elastic onto the skirt. Finish by hemming the skirt.
Step 1. You are going to need a large fabric in any material that you like, elastic tape, measuring tape, scissors, pins, a marking pen, and a sewing machine.
Step 2. Take your waist measurements and the desired length of the skirt. Place your measuring tape on your waist. This is the part of your waist that is most comfortable when you wear skirts. Bring your measuring tape around your waist to get your waist measurements. Record this measurement.
To your waist circumference, add 1 inch. This will be the length of the elastic band you will use for your skirt.
Step 3. With your waist and elastic band measurements, cut the elastic band that you will need from your elastic band roll. Bring the ends of your elastic band together with a slight overlap and then sew them together with a zigzag stitch.
Step 4. Make a waistband for your skirt. On the remainder of your fabric, after cutting out enough fabric for your skirt, you will cut a piece of fabric for your waistband. The fabric you need for your waistband is 10 inches longer than your waist measurements. Add 10 inches to your waist measurement and cut it out from your fabric.
Step 5. Your waistband is rectangular with a width of about half its length. Fold this waistband fabric lengthwise with the right sides touching. Sew the end of the waistband with a ¼ inch seam allowance. Then press the seam allowance open.
Step 6. Place your fabric waistband on your working surface with the wrong side facing up. Then place the elastic band around the fabric waistband. Fold the fabric waistband over the elastic band so that it is covered by the fabric. Then sew the edges of the fabric waistband to enclose the elastic.
Step 7. When you have your elastic waistband ready, it is time to make your skirt. Take the fabric you already cut out for your skirt. Fold the lengths together and sew to make the skirt. Leave about ¼ inch seam allowance. Then press the seam open.
Step 8. With your skirt ready, it is time to attach the elastic waistband on. To do this, you need to mark the sides of the waistband. Place it on a flat working surface, Using a marking pen or chalk mark the center-back, the front, and sides of the waistband.
Or, you can fold your waistband four times. Mark each of the corners on the waistband then unfolds it. You will have easily and correctly marked the sides of your waistband. This gives you the shape of the skirt and ensures that you don’t just attach your waistband to the skirt without a plan.
Step 9. Take your skirt and also mark the four sides. Then fix the waistband on the skirt by pinning the marked sides of the waistband to the marked sides of the skirt.
Step 10. There will be a lot of fabric hanging in between the pinned sides of the waistband and skirt. Gather this excess fabric and pin it together on the waistband.
You can easily gather the fabric by hand. With your fingers, hold a few layers of fabric at a time along the waistband then pin them together so that the tops are lying on each other. Do this all around the skirt in the space between the marked sides of the waistband.
Step 11. Bring your skirt to the sewing machine and sew the waistband onto the sewing machine. Make sure to sew the gathered fabric as it is. As you sew, remove the pins so that you don’t sew over them and either break your needle or your pins.
Step 12. With your elastic waist gathered skirt completed, it is time to hem it. Turn your skirt inside out. Make a fold on the bottom of the skirt and iron that folds flat. Make a second fold and iron it flat also. Then, bring your skirt to the sewing machine and sew around the top of the double fold with a straight stitch.
Hemming makes your skirt neat and well finished. When cutting the fabric of your skirt, make sure to leave a hem allowance. This ensures that your skirt is not shorter than your desired length.
Now, you have finished making your gathered skirt.
Step 13. You have finished making your gathered skirt with an elastic waistband. You can now iron and wear it. Stand at the mirror before you go outdoors to confirm that the skirt is properly done. You can now get fabrics in different colors to make the same skirt.
How To Gather Fabric?
Gathers create a beautiful outline and effect on any garment or fabric you are working on. As a result, many seamstresses will put gathers on pants and skirts that they are sewing. Gathering fabric is not hard. In addition, there are several ways in which you can do it successfully.
The most common method used to gather fabrics is by using gathering threads. In this method, you baste a line or two of stitches about one inch from the edge of the fabric. The stitches you make don’t have to be backstitched. Leave long tails at either end of these two stitches.
These two stitches are on either side of the seam allowance. This allows for even gathers on the fabric. When your two lines of stitches are ready, hold them on one side and pull gently. Pull one side for a short while until you feel resistance on the threads. Move to the same thread on the other side and pull gently also. The gathers form easily at the center of the threads. The longer you pull the more the gathers form. Tie a knot at the end of the threads closest to the fabric when you are done pulling.
Another method to create gathers on a piece of fabric is with a serger. When using a serger, you need to increase the stitch length and tension of the needle and thread. Also, increase the differential feed ratio,
With these settings stitch on the edge of your fabric. Take the serged fabric and observe that your gathers are quite thick. Then loosen the gathers lightly on the fabric.
You can also gather your fabric with a sewing machine. Place your fabric on the sewing machine, set it to a zigzag stitch, at a longer stitch length. Make your first stitch slowly, so that you can pull the bottom thread to the top.
When you have the two threads at the top, pull them towards you tightly and stitch your zigzag stitch over the two threads. This will create tight gathers as you go along the thread. When you finish sewing this, you can pull the threads as you gather your fabric to make larger gathers.
Choose The Best Skirt For Your Body Type
When we wear clothes, we choose clothes that will flatter our body types. Different people have different body structures. So, when you choose clothes, choose the ones that fit your body structure. There are also many different types of skirts that you can buy.
If you are an apple body shape, you have more weight around the middle of your body. You need a skirt that flatters your figure and hides the weight. The best skirt for you is a high waist skirt with a slim waist.
If you have an hourglass figure, the best skirt to wear is a pencil skirt. This is the best skirt to flatter your figure.
With many types of skirts available in the market, choose one that suits your body type.
Crafting has always been a deep-seated passion of mine, one that has flourished and evolved over the years.
I've dedicated considerable time to both studying and practicing in the realm of fashion and sewing, amassing a wealth of experience and skills.
It brings me great joy to share these insights and experiences with you all, hoping to inspire and foster a similar passion for the art of sewing.
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