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Monday, January 28, 2013

Refashioning a Too-Large Skirt with Bias Tape.

before and after
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!)too large skirt refashion (3)

skirt refashion from too large skirt (30)
skirt refashion from too large skirt (16)



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. skirt refashion from too large skirt (29)

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.

2 comments:

  1. Howdy! I know this is kinda off topic however , I'd figured I'd ask.
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  2. So cute! love taking skirts in that are too big! I did a whole episode on this coming up in my Refashion it show this next season! thanks for linking up to I spy Refashion! I've shared your link on my FB page!

    ReplyDelete

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