I N D I A F O X X: College/Maxi skirt

In college, a few weeks ago we patterned and manufactured a maxi skirt.

The skirt had to have extra flare, an invisible zip, a waistband and must be cut on the bias.

Here are my steps on what I did and how I did it.

Step one:

We traced around a basic skirt block, marking all the notches and darts.

We extended the skirt as it only came above the knee and made it floor-length by measuring from our waists to the floor and then placed this measurement on the pattern starting from the waist.

PICTURE OF FIRST DRAFT WITH EXTENSION.

Step Two:

We again traced over the first draft pattern and we marked in the darts.

We then, from the start of the dart point, drew a vertical line downwards to the hem and then slashed up theses lines. (On the back there were 2 darts so we did this twice, on the front there was only one dart so I placed a vertical line from the point of that dart and we divided the space in between by two sections and drew a vertical line.) Seen below.

PICTURE OF FRONT PIECE WITH LINES BEFOR WE SLAHSED OPEN.

Step Three:

We then closed the darts and held together with masking tape. This automatically opened the patterns to create extra flare. This made the hem of the skirt circular.

PICTURE OF SLASHED OPEN SKIRT PATTERN WITH CIRCULAR HEM LINE DRAWN ON IT.

Step Four:

This was traced off to create our final skirt pattern. Both front and back were cut on the fold and instead of putting a straight grain-line we got out set square and placed it on a 45 degree angle and marked off the bias grain-line. I then added a 1.5cm seam allowance around the patterns apart from CF and CB.

PICTURE OF FINAL PATTERNS SHOWING BIAS GRAIN LINE

Waistband:
We cut out the 1 waistband piece on the straight grain line which was taken from the measurement of our waist on our patterns, we also added 4cm on the length of this for a button stand. We also cut out the interfacing from this too leaving 1.5cm seam allowance around the whole piece to finish.

PITCURE OF WASITBAND PATTERN.

Manufacturing

Step Five:

This pattern was then finally finished, so we chose our fabric (preferably cotton as it wasn't as difficult to sew on the bias) and placed our pieces on for the lay-plan.

We folded the fabric at a 45 degree angle so the fabric looked like a triangle and we placed our pattern pieces on the fold, pinned and cut out.

Step Six:

We then started the manufacturing process.

Firstly, we ironed out any unnecessary creases and overlocked the side seams. I then inserted an invisible zip into the side seam. We then stitched up the side seam from the hem to the bottom of the zip.

Step seven:

I then attached the opposite side of the skirt by stitching a 1.5 SA and overlocking to create a closed seam.
Note: I pinned the sides together to help with this process because when sewing pieces cut on the bias a lot of movement happens so pins help a lot!

Step Eight:

For the waistband we ironed on the interfacing to the waistband fabric piece.

I ironed the waistband in half to half the width and then turned up one side 1.5cm. I then stitched the ends of the waistband with a 1.5cm SA and bagged the waistband out.

We pinned the right side of the fabric to the wrong side of the skirt and stitched on the waistband with 1.5cm seam allowance.

The waistband was then ironed in half and we then topstitched the waistband to the skirt waist making sure there was a few centimetres left over for the button hole.