A couple of months ago I bought a lot of bright, floral jersey fabric on super discount at Dirt Cheap. It’s been hanging out in my fabric cabinet since then, patiently waiting for Spring to kick me in the butt. Using The Jersey Skirt Tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff and the dimensions from my favorite and most-worn skirt of all time (bought on clearance over a year ago at a Gap after-Christmas sale), I managed to piece together this sweet spring skirt. I’ve been itching to wear it all week, and today it’s finally warm enough!
There's some weird light happening in my hallway this time of day.
You can see the color and pattern of the skirt better in this picture.
A few things to note:
- If, like me, you’ve never sewn with jersey before, then this simple project can prove pretty frustrating. If you look on some of your store-bought jersey items, you’ll probably notice a two rows of stitches on the hems. I wasn’t able to make this happen on my skirt for several reasons (I don’t have the manual to my sewing machine, it was after midnight when I was working on this skirt and didn’t want to go to the store, I am impatient), but it really does look more professional and will probably hold up better. I’m going to learn from this and try and take those factors into account on my next jersey project.
- I should’ve used a stretch needle, made especially for super stretchy knit fabrics like my floral jersey. Again, I didn’t want to go to the store, so I just used what I had. I did, however, experience a massive amount of unintentional scrunching of my fabric. This was great around step 3 of the tutorial, when I needed to gather the skirt, but really annoying when I was sewing down the side and hemming the bottom. A zig zag stitch may have helped with this, also. I googled it, but had a hard time finding answers. I guess only time and more trial and error will tell!
- Steps 4 and 5 of the tutorial are a little confusing if you’re using a fabric with obvious right and wrong sides, unlike the one pictured. To clarify: on step 4, the waistband should be folded in half widthwise with right sides out. Right sides are together on step 5, as you’re sewing the skirt panel onto the waistband.
- My skirt is, as I stated earlier, based on my favorite Gap skirt. To get this fit, your initial measurements will be something like 11″ tall for the waistband and 16″ tall for the skirt (mine has a 1″ hem).
