Two Hours, Two Skirts--Too Easy!

Here's how I put the skirts together:

Warning: May contain traces of nuts!

I've been sewing for about 30 years, I'm just telling you it took 2 hours to show off:) Allow yourself at least twice as long as that, and if it starts to drive you nuts, take a break and come back to it later. This is supposed to be fun.

1. Front and back of skirt, right sides together.

• pin at right angles to the line you're going to sew



• sew a 1 cm seam, using straight stitch


• pull out pins before you come to them--if the sewing machine needles hits a pin it's not pretty.
  
• use reverse at each end of the seam to secure your threads
  

2. Do the same for the other side seam

• I should say, press seam to one side, but I'm naughty and I didn't do that.
  

3. Neaten the edges of each seam using zig-zag stitch

• use the widest setting on the zig-zag and let the needle just swing off the edge of the fabric.



• this isn't just about being tidy, if you don't finish off your edges they will unravel when the skirt is washed.
• you also need to neaten off the top and bottom edges of the skirt with a row of zig-zag.
  

4. Turn the casing down at the top of the skirt and stitch in place.

• leave a small opening so you can thread the elastic through later.


• I use a green pin at the start and a red pin at the end to remind me to leave a gap--too many times I've gone too far and had to unpick it.
  

5. Turn up the hem and stitch in place.

• I like to use the guide-lines on the base plate of the sewing machine to keep my stitching even.

6. Topstitch along the top of the casing and the bottom of the hem--this is cosmetic--it just makes everything look nice and crisp.

7. Measure a length of elastic to fit snugly around the waist when slightly stretched.

• I used 3/4 of the waist measurment plus 2 cm for the overlap
  

8. Thread the elastic through the casing, sew the ends together and stitch the gap closed.

That's it--skirt done!

I'll put up a few tips for threading the elastic later.