The key to making almost any kind of zippered skirt without buying pattern after pattern is to start with a well fitted yoke. The yoke is the upper part of a skirt that fits over the hips. You can attach many, many kinds of skit to that (ruffled, pleated, flared, tiered, A-line, etc...) and each time end up with something that fits perfectly. Usually, I'll pull a yoke off of a skirt I like and then use that over and over again. Today's yoke comes from one of my favorite Japanese pattern books. The skirt attached to it is box-pleated and has a black bottom border. I made it to wear while giving blood tomorrow, the colors are Halloween festive.



The pieces for this skirt are pretty simple: four yoke pieces (front, back, front facing and back facing), a big rectangle for the skirt cut to the width of the fabric, and a skinnier rectangle for the border, plus a zipper for the side.

The skirt construction is pretty straightforward.

• First, I attached the border to the skirt, folding over the border in half and sewing it to itself at the skirt-border seam line to form the hem. I left a little folded over border facing open at the edges so that I could hide the side seam when I sewed the whole thing together.
• After that, I sewed my back and front yoke pieces together on one side.
• Next, I box pleated the skirt to the size of the yoke (spacing evenly) and basted the pleats in place.
• Then I attached the skirt to the yoke, leaving one side open. I then sewed that side shut, using basting stitches for the upper 8 inches so I could add my zipper.
• Lastly, I sewed in the zipper

Labels: projects, sewing, skirt

posted by Alison 10/29/2009 10:48:00 AM : (0) comments : splink