elastic waist skirt tutorial

I posted about the elastic skirt I made a couple of weeks back. I wanted to share a tutorial with you guys so you can make one for yourself. I did a couple of things different when I made one for myself. 

1. Here are the materials you will need...

iron

fabric scissors

fabric marker

measuring tape

elastic (at the width you prefer..I used 1 1/2 inch)

1 1/2 - 2 yards of fabric(I got mine at City Craft in Dallas)

thread

a small amount of fabric for the pockets 

For the fabric measurements: I measured my natural waist and then a little less than doubled that number to figure out the width of the fabric I needed to cut. Several tutorials said to double the number, but I did not want the skirt to be really poofy, so I did a little less and was really happy with it. I measured 28in. So I cut 50in.

Then measure from your natural waist to a little above your knee (you can do shorter or longer based on what you like). I left a 1/2 inch bias for all of my measurements. Since I am new at this, I don't know if I need that much, but it works for me. 

For the pockets: I put my hand down and traced an extra inch around it to make sure the pockets would work for me. 

 Once you have cut and ironed all of your fabric you can pin your pockets 3 inches from the top of the waistline. You would want to have right sides of fabric facing together, but I chose to use solid fabric to make it easy since this was my first one to make. 

Sew your pockets on each side of the fabric.

Press the pockets back.

Place right sides of fabric facing together and make sure pockets are nicely lined up. You can pin the sides if you would like. Start sewing down the side of the skirt and sew around the pockets on both sides. 

When you are done sewing the sides of the skirt, you can press the seam with your iron. 

Now it is time to hem (my least favorite part). I folded the hem up 1/4 inch and pressed and then folded up another 1/2 inch and pressed. 

Once you have pressed your hem, go ahead and sew it. 

Now it's time to cut your elastic. Take your natural waist measurements and cut your elastic. Fold your elastic in half and sew the ends together. I reinforced the stitch 3 times to make sure it was sturdy. 

With right sides still facing together pin your fabric around your elastic. Your elastic is on the inside if you can tell in the picture. I first pinned the side seams on the elastic to make sure an equal amount of fabric was on each side. Remember there will be a lot of extra fabric. I put 4 pins on each side. 

Note: While you are sewing the waist pull the elastic so the fabric stretches completely straight on the elastic. This will allow for a very nice (and equal) gathering all around the skirt. I could not get a picture of this because both hands were full trying to do this part. 

When you are done, turn it inside out and ta-da you have your very own elastic waist skirt! You can belt it or wear it alone. Hope you enjoy! I would love to see pictures if you make one of your own!

Here is a pic of me with the hubby for our Valentines date. Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day!

-Lauren