Refashioning a Too-Large Skirt with Bias Tape.

I'm still working through the host of clothing that I've been given or acquired to upcycle. A few posts from the last few weeks: Tunic Refashion for me, knit shirt for a little guy, Bike Shirt for me.

Continuing with that theme, here's a skirt someone gave me. It's a bit big. And long.
Here’s the before. (Please excuse the mess. Must sew, you know!)






What I did: I shortened the skirt and then made the waist smaller by taking in one side seam. That way I did not have to work with the zipper, which was placed in the other side seam. Then I finished it off with some homemade bias tape. I bought the chevron print fabric I used to make the tape in South Carolina.

I used a skirt that fit me to decide how narrow to cut the skirt. I also used it to gauge the length. Note: My skirt was full, almost like a circle skirt. I had to fold the skirt in quarters and cut it so the edges aim up, otherwise it would’ve been longer at the edges than the middle. Though this is not a circle skirt, a tutorial to read on circle skirts can help understand why it is shorter at the sides than the middle. It is not cut like a pencil skirt.


I drew some chalk lines on the skirt to show where to cut. (Now is the time to make sure to fold it in quarters and cut it like a circle skirt.) To do this, folded it in quarters and took a string the length I wanted and drew a curved line from the waistband this length. Does that make sense?

I opened up the waistband with my seam ripper so that the new side seam would eventually hidden from the waist. The skirt is lined, but I left the lining attached at the waist, save the part I ripped out.

After I opened the waistband, I pulled the lining up. On the wrong side of both fabrics, I pinned the new seam on both the lining and the exterior fabric.

I zig-zagged the raw edges. The exterior is made of linen, so it would ravel badly without zig-zagging. (No serger here.)


The lining is shorter than the rest of the skirt, so I was able to leave the hem intact.


I used homemade double fold bias tape to finish the raw edge of the skirt. To start, I pinned the binding to the wrong side of the skirt.


Then I sewed with the binding facing up on the wrong side of the fabric. That way I was staying as close to the edge of the binding as possible. I ended up with the pins on the wrong side (meaning I couldn’t remove them easily while sewing.)

Then, I dealt with the seam. I stopped sewing an inch or so before the binding would require a seam.

I tried measuring, but ended up doing some trial-and-error seams to figure out what length would was required so the binding would lie flat along the hem.

I clipped the excess and then pressed the seam open.

I sewed the whole thing down on the wrong side of the binding/skirt.

Next, I started on the right side. I re-pinned the whole way around and began sewing, keeping my stitching as close to the edge as possible.

I love the way the hem turned out. It’s subtle, yet very unique.

And it was a way to use some fun fabric to make something for me.
I thought of a way to use up scrap fabric from the skirt and from the trim fabric I’ll share later this week.