It is a bit image-heavy so I have reduced all the photos to clickable thumbnails. Click on them for full-size detail if you need to!
Materials:
~2yd fabric
Fusible interfacing for waistband
1 invisible zipper
1 set of skirt hook and eye
Directions:
Step One:
Cut out your pieces. The skirt body should be 2x your hip or so. The ruffle should be 2x the hem of your skirt. Pin and sew your ruffle pieces into a big loop
Step Two:
Press open all your seam allowances
Step Three:
Overlock the hem, press up, and sew
Step Four:
Sew your skirt panels into a tube, leaving the zip opening unsewn. Gather your ruffle to the hem of your skirt and stitch.
Step Five:
Finish the inside edge with an overlock
Step Six (optional):
Topstitch the ruffle to help it lay flatter
Now for the zip!
Step Seven:
Iron the coils of your zipper flat. You should be able to see the two rows of stitching when it is ironed flat
Two rows of stitching:
Step Eight:
Align with the seam allowance at your skirt opening, pin, and sew
Invisible zippers from most craft stores in the U.S. actually come with instructions :P I don't have an invisible zipper foot (they are pretty nifty!) so I can't show you the proper way to do it ^^;
Here is me using a regular zipper foot though:
You just have to be careful not to stitch too close to the coils, or the zip will be difficult to close!
When you are done, it should look like this:
Now comes the waistband!
Step Nine:
Cut your waistband WxL from fashion fabric where W=2x finished width +seam allowance and L=finished length (your waist size)+ tab (about 1") + seam allowance
Cut your waistband interfacing WxL where W = 2x finished width and L=finished length (waist size + tab). Do NOT add seam allowance to the interfacing!
Step Ten:
Fuse your interfacing to the waistband
Step Eleven:
Press up your seam allowances
Step Twelve:
Gather your skirt to ONE seam allowance of your waistband and stitch
Step Thirteen:
Now comes finishing the ends of the waistband. I did one end of mine before gathering because it is easier to show what is going on, but it is better to do it after gathering for a neater finish.
First, turn the waistband right sides facing together and stitch
Trim the corners and seam allowance if necessary
And turn right side out
Here is it being shown after gathering:
Haha I was watching Dead or Alive (the movie) on my lappy... SUCH an awful interpretation of the video game, but I still like to watch it on occasion. Moving on...
After trimming and turning to the right side (and topstitching):
Step Fourteen:
Topstitch the waistband to finish it off. Now just sew on your hook and eye closure to the tab and you are finished!!
Any questions or comments are of course welcome in the comment section! I hope this was clear and helpful to everybody :)
