Patchwork Skirt

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Hello there! Happy back to school time. It’s me, Kathleen, from Fearlessly Creative Mammas again to bring you another fun sewing project. This one is super easy and perfect for you to make for back to school. I made this really cute Patchwork Skirt and I’m loving the way it turned out so much. It’s super comfy too, so that is a huge plus.

You can make your skirt with whatever colors you like, but I picked black, gray, yellow and cream. I picked these colors because I didn’t have anything in my wardrobe with yellow.

For this project, you will need 1/2 yard of 7 different patterns of cotton fabric, matching thread and elastic for the waistband. If you’re a super tiny person, you can get away with 6 kinds of fabric. If you’re a bit bigger, then get 8 or 9 kinds of fabric. I think I’m pretty middle of the road in my body type. Not skinny, but not larger either. I wear a size 8 jeans.

This project started forming in my head last summer, it’s just taken me this long to get to it because of a wedding and moving. One of my wonderful friends had a skirt similar to it, but she didn’t know where it came from originally, so I just examined it and came up with my own plan.

For each piece of fabric, cut the fabric 3 inches wide at the top and 5 inches wide at the bottom. For the length, measure from your waist to where you want the bottom of the skirt to hit and add 3 inches.  You want to connect the top and bottom with a straight line. Here is a tip and what I did, cut a piece of posterboard or cardboard and use it to trace each piece of fabric. Then you only have to actually measure one time.  You can see the traced lines on the fabric.

I used my rotary cutter to cut out the fabric instead of scissors. You can use either. I also used a quilter’s ruler that I put on the line I traced to run the rotary cutter up so I made sure my lines were straight.

This is most of one side of my skirt cut out so I could figure out what pattern I wanted to follow.

After everything was cut out, I pinned each piece together, with the right sides together, in the order I wanted the fabric.

This is the front and back of the skirt pinned together but not sewn yet.

To sew the skirt, you simply use a straight stitch, close to the edge, and sew it up each seam.

When all of your pieces are sewn together, iron the seams on the wrong side of the fabric, like the picture below. If you’re using a serger, you don’t have to do this, but I’m not sure about how you actually use a serger, so I won’t give you any instructions on that machine.

Next, we are sewing the casing for the elastic. I measured the elastic around my waist and then cut it 2 inches smaller than my waist. Fold the top of the skirt over a small amount to hide the edge, iron it all the way around and then fold the fabric over enough to cover your elastic, pinning as you go. I used 1/2 inch elastic, but most of the time I use 3/4 inch elastic. Sew the casing in place, at the very edge, leaving about 3 inches open to thread your elastic.

Thread your elastic through the casing you created and then zigzag stitch your elastic ends together. I zig zagged the ends four times, to make sure it doesn’t pop open when I’m wearing the skirt. Wouldn’t that be embarrassing? I can only imagine and that’s all I’d like to do. Next, sew the opening of the casing closed.

Now to sew the bottom up. You are going to do the very same thing with the bottom of the skirt as you did with the top elastic casing, except you don’t leave an opening. The goal is to make it look finished. My hem is an inch wide.

This is the finished product and as I said, I really like it. I can wear it to church or to just kick around during the day. I have a few trips planned in the next few months and this will go with me for sure.

What do you think? Is this something you feel you can make? What colors would you pick? Please come on over to Fearlessly Creative Mammas and see what else we’ve been up to. It’s been a busy summer!

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Kathleen Clegg

Owner/Publisher/Creator at Fearlessly Creative Mammas

I live in Southeast Idaho with my wonderfully supportive husband. We have three grown kids and three beautiful grandkids. I love to spend time with my family, travel, create recipes, craft, sew, camp, hike and take photos. I’ve been blogging at Fearlessly Creative Mammas since April 2012, but blogging in general since February 2011 on Pebble Pirouette. My favorite place to be is the beach and although I own a home in Idaho and land in Alaska, I truly hate the cold.

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