high low skirt:: tutorial

Here is the tutorial for the skirt in my last outfit post.  I snagged this skirt at a thrift store for $2.  It is a very basic elastic waistband skirt, but I liked the color and the fabric (polyester- lightweight and doesn’t wrinkle easy).  I knew it would be way too long on me, but I figured I could tweak to be what I want.

The waistband of the skirt was too big for me, so I took it in.  It was really simple.

Just take your seam ripper and unpick the waistband stitches only about an inch or so.

Grab the elastic inside the waistband and pull it out until you have the right fit in the waist.  Mark or pin this place.

Stitch up and down on your elastic at the point where you marked and trim off any excess elastic.

Push the elastic back inside the waistband and stitch up the section that you unpicked, making sure to back-stitch when you start and end to secure the stitch.

If you don’t have a skirt like this to begin with, they are really simple.  To get the look of this skirt, start with a basic elastic waistband skirt.  They are just two long rectangles with the width wider than your waist.  Sew up the side seams, fold the top down as wide as your elastic, sew the top fold down (leave a small opening for your elastic), insert your elastic and you are set to follow along with these next steps…

Try on your skirt.  The length of the skirt should be how long you want the back of the skirt to hang.  Pin the front of the skit at about knee level, adding a little bit for your hem.  I would suggest getting someone to pin this for you rather then trying to pin it yourself while you are wearing it…..like I did.

Now hold the waistband in the center front and center back and lay it on a flat surface, lining up the side seams.  Start cutting from the shorter end, curving it down to the longer back end.  When you get a little past the side seams, start cutting all the way to the bottom of the waistband, making a subtle curve.   If you cut more of a straight diagonal, the back low part of your skirt with look too pointed.

Now just hem the skirt.  My skirt was two thin layers, so I did a tiny rolled hem on both of them.  The top layer was more see-through than the bottom layer, so I made that layer about 1” longer because I liked the look of it.