Make This Skirt! Part Two of the Gathered Skirt Tutorial

Sunday, I posted the first part of this tutorial (see it here), which showed you how to draft a simple pattern for the blue skirt above, which is similar in style to the taffeta gingham one on the right, from Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing. Now, here are instructions for the easy-peasy construction.

First, a note about fabrics. If you want super-duper fullness, I recommend using a fabric with a lot of body, like taffeta. If you want a softer look, something with more drape (like silk crepe or a soft cotton) would work better. Also, it's worth noting that this type of pattern was just made for border prints! For my skirt here, I'm using a navy dupioni ($9 a yard at AK Fabrics in New York!) The dupioni is softer than the taffeta, and you can see the difference in the photos above. For a 45" wide fabric, you'll need about 2-1/2 yards.

Also, please note that my method is a little unusual in that the zipper stops at the top of the waistband, rather than requiring a tab and button. This makes it faster and easier to construct, but it might look a little strange to you at first, if you're used to traditional methods.

Okay, let's get sewing! So you've followed the directions in part one of this tutorial, and you have your pattern pieces ready to go.

Now, on to the cutting. For a 45" wide fabric, you'll need to use a crosswise layout. This means laying out the fabric completely flat, with the selvages at the top and bottom, and then folding the fabric horizontally, so that the fold is on the right side.

Above is a picture of my layout. Note that there is a double layer of fabric, with the selvages at the top and bottom, and the fold on the right side. Make any sense? The waistband piece can go below or above your skirt piece.

Now cut.

If you're serging your seam allowances, do so now. If you're finishing your seams by pinking or zigzagging, do so after the seams are sewn.

Now, sew the right side seam of the skirt only. We'll sew the left side after inserting the side zipper. Press open.

Gather the top of the skirt. You can use the traditional method of running two lines of long stitches, and then pulling up the bobbin threads. But have you ever tried the method of using cord and a wide zig zag stitch? There's a great tutorial for it here. It's fantastic for fabric like taffeta that has a lot of body. I used it for the first time for this skirt, and I don't think I'll ever go back to the old way!

Apply interfacing to one of the waistband pieces. Pin the two waistband pieces together, right sides together. Sew along both short sides and one long side.



Trim seam allowances, cut corners diagonally, and turn right side out.



Use a point turner or knitting needle to push corners out. Press.


Next, you're going to pin the interfaced side of the waistband to the gathered skirt, right sides together.

Now, find the middle of the waistband by folding it in half. Mark that point with a pin. Match the halfway point on the waistband to the side seam on your skirt. Next, pin the ends of the skirt piece to the end of the waistband. The finished ends of the waistband will match up to the raw edges of your skirt. (This method is a little unusual, but bear with me.)


See how I'm only pinning the interfaced side to the gathered skirt, and the uninterfaced side is free?

Now, distribute the gathers evenly among the sections and pin. Next, baste the skirt to the waistband by hand or machine. If your fabric has a lot of body (like a thick taffeta), I highly recommend doing your basting by hand. You'll save a lot of time ripping out machine basting that went wrong! This dupioni I used was soft enough that machine basting was fine.

Now, stitch the skirt to the waistband. Trim the seam allowance and press up towards the waistband.

Next, you're going to hand stitch the inner waistband down. Turn the seam allowance up and pin it in place on the inside of the skirt.


Using thread and a hand sewing needle, slip stitch the inner waistband down.

Next you'll insert an invisible zipper. You need to cut off the top of a zipper, right past the upper stop.

See where I've marked this zipper in blue? Cut off the top with pinking shears.

Now, you're going to insert the zipper. Make sure to align the top of the zipper with the top of the waistband, like so:




Follow your favorite method for invisible zipper insertion. There are a lot of tutorials online, like this one. My favorite method is from issue #119 of Threads magazine, which you can order online here.

After your zipper is in, finish sewing the seam.

Now, all you have to do is hem. Remember that you have a 4" hem allowance on your pattern. So turn up four inches, press and pin. Try it on to check length. Then hem by hand or by using a blind stitch on your machine. (There's a great video tutorial for that here.)

Add a hook and eye to the top of the zipper, if you wish.

Now, as VoNBBS would say, press your skirt, freshen your makeup, and slip into your fabulous new skirt. And go show the world what you've made!

If you have any questions at all, please leave them in the comments and I will respond in a jiffy.

Sew a Full, Gathered Skirt , Part One: Make Your Own Pattern!

A lot of you went gaga over this taffeta skirt from Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing. Well, do I have a secret for you! This type of skirt is easy to replicate, no scrounging around for a vintage pattern required. This is part one of two in this tutorial. In this installment, you'll learn to make your own simple pattern for this skirt.

This is a basic dirndl style skirt. Basically, that means that the pattern is composed of two rectangles: one for the skirt body, and one for the waistband. What could be easier?

First, you need a big rectangle for the skirt front and back. Get out some sort of large patternmaking paper. (This could be actual patternmaking paper or Swedish tracing paper, which is my personal favorite. Or you can use butcher block paper or even a bunch of printer paper taped together.)

The skirt pattern piece will be 40" wide. The length measurement is determined by you. I like my skirts to be 25" long, which is just around knee length for someone my height. (Handy hint: measure some skirts you already own to figure out your preferred length.) Now, this skirt has a deep hem, so you'll add four inches to the bottom. So, this means that my pattern piece will be 40" wide by 29" long. Now, add 5/8" seam allowances to either side, using a clear gridded ruler. There's your pattern piece! (Note: this image isn't anywhere close to being to scale! I'm just amazed I managed to get it in here.)



Second, you need a long, skinny rectangle piece for the waistband.

You want your waistband length to be your waist measurement plus one inch of ease. For a 29" waist, your length measurement will be 30".

Now for the width, which will be 1-1/4" finished.

So. Make a rectangle that is 1-1/4" by 30". Now, add a 5/8" seam allowance all around.

Those are your two pattern pieces!

My only disclaimer is that the measurements I'm using here were developed on my body. (I'm 5' 7" and a ready-to-wear size 8, in full disclosure.) You can definitely still use these guidelines if you're a different body type, but you might need to futz with them if you're petite or plus size. The smaller your waist, the fuller the skirt will be, and vice versa. Luckily, this is an easy pattern to customize. If you're a big and beautiful lady, you might want a longer pattern piece to get more gathers. If you're very thin, you'll probably want to decrease the width of the pattern piece so the fullness of the skirt won't overwhelm your frame. And, obviously, if you're petite or tall and willowy, you'll want to change the pattern length accordingly. Anyone who wants to can wear this type of skirt, no matter if you're shaped like Tinkerbell or Julia Child or Beth Ditto! That's the lovely thing about this type of pattern. The only measurement that's crucial is the waist measurment, so be sure to get an accurate one.

Next up, look for the second part of this tutorial, which will walk you through the construction of the skirt.

"The Full, Gathered Skirt"

My fourth finished project from Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing! I was going to make it in cotton gingham, as the book suggested. Then, well . . . I discovered that there is such a thing as silk taffeta gingham. Cotton would no longer suffice.

"A gathered skirt is just about the most useful skirt you could have . . . it's becoming . . . it mixes with all your blouses and sweaters . . . A beginner should make it in about four hours. As you get more experienced, it will take even less time." - VoNBBS

This skirt took me, um, longer than four hours. In fact, my husband turned to me last night and said, "Are you still working on that?" The reason for this was two-fold: 1) I kept messing up. And 2) I was really really good about following the directions. I basted by hand! I made gathering stitches by hand! And - you're not going to believe this - I overcasted all the seam allowances by hand. It was terrible. It took forever.

Here's a view of the inside:

The gathering was the part that kept tripping me up. Seriously, if you're going to gather with taffeta and then baste it to a waistband, I really recommend doing all the basting by hand. Seriously. I basted it to the waistband (the first time) by machine, and it was a sorry sight. The gathers were all uneven and crazy-looking. I had to rip it all out and redo it by hand.

But anyway. This skirt is extremely fun to wear. Because of the stiffness of the taffeta, it stands out as though I were wearing a crinoline.

Besides using a different fabric than the one recommended, I also did my usual alteration of shortening from tea length to knee length. Also, for once I actually had to make a vintage pattern smaller instead of larger. Doris was a wee bit more voluptuous than I, so I took 3 inches out of the waistband pattern piece by slashing and overlapping. I left the skirt piece the same size since it was just going to get gathered anyway.

One thing I've been doing with my VoNBBS projects is to use the same color seam binding on all my hems. This has gotten me to think of the garments as part of an integrated collection. I like it.

Here are inside views of three of the garments, so you can see the seam binding:

VoNBBS closed the instructions for this pattern with the following directives:

"Press skirt on wrong side. Now, turn to right side and - quick! - freshen your makeup, slip into a sweater or blouse - then, your skirt - and show the world what you made - and at such a saving!"

Thanks, VoNBBS! Next up is the "bonus project" from the book - the backless halter dress featured on the pattern envelope above.

Remembrance of Pattern Owners Past

The "full, gathered skirt" pattern (with backless halter dress variation)

I love finding little remnants of the previous owner of a vintage pattern - a receipt, a newspaper clipping, or some handwritten notes. Three of the patterns I own from Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing came from the same owner. (They all came from one estate sale, according to the eBayer who sold them to me.) I've started to feel like I know her in a certain sense.

Let's just say her name was Doris.

Here are the things I know about Doris: She lived in Illinois. She owned at least five of the fourteen patterns from Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing, so I like to think she also owned the book itself. She bought her patterns at a shop called Wieboldt's, where patterns were NOT RETURNABLE, according to a black ink stamp on the envelopes.

According to Wikipedia, Wieboldt's was a chain of department stores in the Chicago area:

Wieboldt Stores, Inc., also known as Wieboldt's, did business as a Chicago general retailer between 1883 and 1986. Wieboldt's was known for their good values, unpretentious merchandise, and multilingual sales staff. The stores were especially popular among ethnic, working-class shoppers who could not afford or did not like to shop at the big downtown department stores. Wieboldt's former slogan was "Where You Buy With Confidence!".

(Yeah, you better be confident, because that pattern is NOT RETURNABLE.)

Doris liked to write fabric suggestions on her pattern envelopes, along with cryptic numbers:

Linen- Red - 4.17 - 22 -1/2 oz.
4.54 White Jersey

She owned the bolero pattern, which had a short-sleeved variation, and she was so bold as to draw in long sleeves in scrawly blue ink right on the illustration. On the back of the envelope, she wrote with a firm hand: Long sleeves.

That Doris knew what she wanted.

Doris, interestingly enough, was a voluptuous lady - for her time. She had 41" hips in an era of 34" hips. When I look at her patterns, I sometimes wonder how she handled that. Did she feel out of place? Was she always on a diet? Or was she proud of her body? (Well, if she was confident enough to buy a non-returnable pattern for a backless halter dress, perhaps there's our answer.)

Anyway, as I'm making the "full, gathered skirt" from VoNBBS, Doris from Illinois has been on my mind often. Next, I'm going to move on to the backless halter dress variation from the same pattern (which is a "bonus" project in VoNBBS). I hope to wear it with the same aplomb that Doris would have.