Hello! Welcome to Make Thrift Buy, episode number 27!
And as always, this is the show where you, the audience, send me in pictures of cool
things you’ve seen on the internet, and then I do my best to recreate them.
So today’s challenge was sent in by both Cheese and Apple.
Seriously? Either, that's a weird coincidence, or...
I've now got sentient food subscribed to my youtube channel...
Anyway, a cheese and an apple wanted me to try and recreate this skirt.
Which I found on a couple of cheap wholesale sites from $13 - $30.
So – let’s begin!
Now I had this theory that this skirt was just a square circle skirt. Okay that didn’t
really make any sense at all, because how can you have a square circle
– but stick with me.
First off I chose my fabric. This is a non-stretchy tartan fabric that I got for free. Well, it's
secondhand. When people know that you’re into sewing, it turns out there’s a lot
of people who have fabric they don’t need anymore stashed away in their basements.
Now I wanted the shortest part of my skirt to be approximately 15 inches long, so I cut
out a square that was 40 by 40 inches. Then, I simply folded this material in half,
folded it in half again… so that I had this. Then I took my waist measurement – 30 inches
– and I divided this by 6.28. This gave me approximately 4.7 inches. So,
I drew a quarter circle with a radius of 4.7 inches onto this corner of the fabric, using
some chalk. Then, I cut this quarter circle out, cutting
through all layers of fabric.
I then unfolded the fabric, and I have this!
Then I tried the skirt on for size and for some reason... this happened.
Now I know that my circle skirt maths are right, so, at first I thought this was all
my fault – that it was due to the fact that I didn’t put any pins in the fabric here,
and then cut this circle out pretty haphazardly…
BUT WAIT GUYS – NO – IT’S NOT MY FAULT because then I actually read on this website
that it’s the fabric’s fault, due to something called “bias”.
Which is, bascially, how your fabric stretches diagonally. And according to this website,
cutting on the bias will cause your fabric to stretch. So they actually recommend taking
4 inches off your waist measurement and THEN calculating your circle radius!
So, I should actually use a 26 inch waist measurement.
Well, now I know that for the future. But unfortunately, I’ve already cut out my fabric
IN THE PAST.
But, never fear, I haven’t ruined my fabric, because this is totally fixable – and let
me show you how I fix it!
So I cut straight up here - which I was intending to do anyway - and then I folded the raw edges...
over until the circle’s circumference is about 30 inches, which is my waist measurement!
So, I put a mark on these two points, pinned these extra pieces out of the way, and then
I continued!
At this point, I also hemmed the bottom of the skirt. First, I overlocked all the edges,
then I folded the edges over about 1/2 an inch, and then I sewed over the top using
a straight stitch. Now I know that not everyone has an overlocker machine, so if you do want
to try out this project then check out this video here, which gives you 3 different ways
to hem a skirt!
The next step is to cut out my waistband.
I cut out a rectangle of fabric that is 4 inches wide, and my waist measurement, plus
2-3 inches, long.
Today, I’m making a cheat’s version of a waistband.
With the wrong side of the waistband facing UP, I fold it over in half length-ways. Now,
the right side of the waistband is on the outside.
Then, I simply sew, using a straight stitch, down this edge.
Now to attach the waistband to the skirt - with the skirt right-side up, I line the sewn edge
of the waistband up with the raw edge of the waist.
Then I sew the two pieces together like this. And I’m going to be sewing directly over
the top of the stitches that I made when I constructed the waistband.
I also make sure that I unfold those folded-over edges on, that I made earlier to resize the
skirt, before sewing over the top of them.
I then go over these stitches again with my overlocker to make it look neater on the inside,
but again, this is not a necessary step if you don’t own one of these.
Then, I unfold the waistband and... this is what it looks like attached to the top of
the skirt.
Then I fold the skirt in half, right sides together, so that the two un-sewn edges of
the skirt line up.
And now I'm going to insert my zipper!
So I grab my zipper, which is about 6 inches long, line it up with the skirt (with the
waistband at the top) and now I’m going to sew basting stitches from here to here,
and NORMAL length, straight stitches, with a backstitch, from here to here.
After sewing the skirt back together into a loop, I press the seam open. Then I lay
my zipper down on top of the seam, so that the teeth of the zipper match up exactly with
the seam.
And then I’m going to sew the zipper onto the skirt like this.
It helps, when you're inserting a zipper, to use a zipper foot, but if you don’t have
one, then you can carefully use a normal sewing foot or even hand-stitch it in.
Lastly, I carefully cut through the basting stitches to remove them, setting the zipper
free! And I’m done.
So – how does it look? How did I go?
[music plays]
So my conclusion is OBVIOUSLY: [scissors snipping sound effect]
Make this for yourself! If you already know how to make a circle skirt,
this is even simpler - because the most difficult thing, I think, about making a circle skirt
is hemming that curved edge - and this doesn't even have curved edges!
Anyway, thank you all so much for watching, give me a thumbs up if you enjoyed this, and
I'll see you all next time. Bye!