I bought some space-themed fabric with the intention of making a skirt, but I wasn't sure exactly what skirt to make, so I just got 2 yards and let myself stew on it for a while. I knew that I wanted a skirt that was very full and that went down to about my knees. I decided to experiment with drafting the pattern myself, and see how much of the fabric I could use.
I started with a piece of fabric that was about 44 inches wide and 2 yards long. I tore off a strip of fabric about 3 inches by 44 inches to serves as a waistband. I also cut a piece of fusible interfacing for the waistband. I then used an old pocket pattern to cut out one pair of pockets (I was only planning on putting in two side seams, and didn't want to deal with adding a third seam in center back for the zipper, nor attaching a zipper into the same seam as a pocket, so I only cut one pocket). After cutting the pocket I tore the fabric to get another straight line, and tore it again along the center fold to get two pieces about 22 inches wide and just shy of 2 yards each for the skirt front and back.
Red Line: Waistband
Green Lines: Pocket and squaring the fabric
Purple line: Front and Back of Skirt
Time to start sewing! The first thing to do was add the zipper. I am VERY fond of invisible zippers. I started using them a few years ago, and I think that they are much easier to install than traditional zippers. However, my collection of invisible zippers is pretty sparse, and I didn't want to waist a 20 inch dress zipper on a skirt that only needed 6-8 inches. There is also an international pandemic going on, and I didn't want to go to the store just to get a matching zipper. So I found a regular zipper that was an appropriate size and color and gave myself a refresher on installing a lapped zipper. I added a little extra room to my seam allowance and got the lapped zipper in without too much difficulty. While installing the zipper I also closed up the seam under the zipper so that the left side of my skirt was mostly done. Moving onto the right side of the skirt, I sewed one half of the pocket to the skirt front, and the other half to the skirt back. I was feeling fancy, so I then understitched the pocket to the seam allowance. Once the pocket pieces were attached I could close the seam on the right-hand side of the skirt.
Adding the Zipper and Pocket
Time to attach the waistband. So at this point I had one very large tube of skirt, and one much smaller rectangle of waistband. I held the waistband up to my waist, noted the overlap, and added a few inches for turning the ends and allowing the edges to overlap. I divided this into halves so that I could evenly distribute the waistband to the front and back half of the skirt. I used pins to mark half-way points in the skirt and band, and kept dividing and adding more pins until each was marked down to the nearest 1/8th segment. I then matched the pins from the skirt to the band, and pinned them together. Since the skirt has much more material than the band, I pleated the extra fabric and pinned it into place. It doesn't really matter what direction the pleats go as long as they are uniform. I decided to have them point the same way as the lapped zipper, and kept them going the same direction all the way around the skirt. Once everything was pinned I stitched the skirt to the band. Then I folded the band in half long wise, folded up the seam allowance from the bottom, and hand stitched the back of the band inside the skirt.
Starting from the center red, match the pins to evenly distribute the pleats across the waistband.
Phew! Time to hem the skirt. Since I had the selvage on the bottom of both the front and back of the skirt I just had to fold it up once and stitch near the bottom. One side of the selvage is white with details about the fabric printed on it, so I made sure to fold up at least that amount all the way around the bottom.
Last step! Add a hook and eye to the waistband above the zipper. Once I did that the skirt was done! It's not often that I finish a garment in an afternoon, so that was exciting. I lost track of exactly how much time I spent on it, but I was done in a day, and that is worth celebrating.
Tada!
With almost 4 yards of fabric in the hem this skirt has a great swirl factor, and I would definitely try it again. Next time I would add another pocket on the left side, and probably add a center back seam for the zipper. Having only one pocket is not quite enough room for everything that I want to carry, and if you put any weight in it (like a cell phone) the whole skirt tilts to one side. I might also make the waistband an inch or two wider for aesthetic reasons.
Material: 2 yard Space Fabric
Pattern: Self-Drafted!
Notions: Zipper, Fusible Interfacing, Thread
Hours to complete: Afternoon
First worn: Walking the dog to the park last Sunday.
Total cost: I lost the receipt for the fabric, but probably $15-25 for all of the supplies depending on how good the fabric sale was