Simple Gathered Maxi Skirt Tutorial

You may remember that I made a maxi skirt a little while ago. It was so cute and so comfy that I thought I would make another one and I had the perfect fabric just waiting for me (got it from a little local shop – The Fabricker)! It’s seriously like wearing pajama pants in public, but much more attractive (although I’m still not very fond of the name – why ‘maxi’? It sounds like a feminine product). I’ve had a couple of real-life friends ask me how I came up with the pattern, so I thought I would do a little tutorial to show you guys what I did. There are a total of 4 seams (plus one gathering seam) in this skirt so it comes together pretty quick and easy!

First off, you need:

• 2 yards of jersey fabric
• 2″ wide no roll elastic
• ball point needles
• scissors
• thread
• marker/sewing pencil
• walking foot (optional but very helpful)

The seam allowances I used were about 1/2″ – I was not very precise as jersey is very forgiving. Back stitch all seams unless otherwise stated.

You will need your waist measurement (x) and the skirt length measurement (y). Add about 1/2″-1″ to your length measurement to allow for the hem and the attachement of the skirt top to the waist band.

Take your waist measurement and multiple it by 2 – this will allow you to get the gathers at the top of the skirt. You are creating a rectangle that is 2(x) by (y). Check the selvedge of your fabric and make sure to cut off any edges that look bad. The past two jersey fabrics I’ve used have had a glued (?) edge that needed to be removed before I started sewing.

Cut all pieces of fabric.

• The waist band is 5″ thick by (x) wide.
• Your skirt body is 2(x) by (y). Here is the easiest way I saw to cut the pieces from the fabric. Lay the fabric out on the fold, selvedge edge to selvedge edge. Cut your length (y) and waistband.
• You can also cut your elastic to be the length of (x) at this time.

Next up, the waistband. Fold the fabric in half long-ways and sew up the long side.

This will create a casing that will just fit the 2″ elastic.

Bring the short ends together and sew just the inside half of the casing together, allowing for enough room to thread the elastic through.

Thread the elastic through and overlap. Pin.

Sew several times so that the elastic lays flat and trim off any excess elastic.

Pull the waistband so that the elastic lays flat within the casing. Hand sew the opening shut.

Now to finish the skirt – set your machine to the longest straight stitch and baste, close to the top. Do not backstitch.

It will look a little wonky when you are done, like this.

You can see that waistband is much smaller than the top of the skirt, so gently pull the top basting threads, distributing the gathers across the top of the skirt, until…

The waist band and skirt top are the same width.

With the skirt still inside out (seam on the outside), place the waist band inside the skirt, with the raw edges matching. Pin.

Sew, with a zig zag stitch, just below the basted stitch, careful not to catch the elastic. Trim any extra bulk in the seam and iron flat. Hem if desired. I chose to fold the bottom edge up about 1/4″ and zig zag stitched it in place for a clean finish, but since jersey doesn’t fray, this is not a necessary step.

Enjoy your new maxi skirt!

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Related posts:

1. WIP Wednesday: maxi skirt and booties
2. socialite skirt
3. Reversible Pocket Sling Tutorial (with padding)
4. Pocket Diaper Tutorial
5. Simple Kid's Sundress