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Tweed and Tulle Skirt

This is instructions on how to make a tweed and tulle skirt like mine below! There are lots of pictures, but they're necessary so you can see what's going on. In case you don't want to see how to make the skirt, here are large pictures of the finished item. Instructions are below.

Materials:

Enough Tweed (or whatever fabric you want to use) for the skirt. For my skirt I bought 75cm of Tweed that was 150cm wide, and didn't use it all - I'm quite small, but the fabric I didn't use would have made the skirt wider.....so I can't imagine anyone needing much more. If you want a shorter skirt you can buy less.

Some Tulle or any netty fabric - I bought 50cm off the roll, and didn't use it all.

Some cotton fabric to match your main fabric (optional) - just a little bit in case you find the tulle a bit scratchy and need something underneath. I haven't done this.

One 6 inch zip.

Sewing thread to match the fabric.

Pins, scissors and tailor's chalk.

Here's all my stuff ready to go:

Instructions:

Firstly you need to measure yourself. I measured myself loosely - I held the tape-measure a little bit away from my body so I could gauge how loose I wanted the skirt to be - it can't be the same measurements as your body! Or you won't be able to move!

Measurements you need to take:

Low on the waist (over the pelvis bone) for where the top of the skirt sits

Hips

Height between these two (mine was 6 inches - hence the length of the zip - but measure in cm for consistency)

Length you want the skirt (length from the hips down - mine was 25.5cm)

How wide you want the skirt at the bottom (mine was 112cm all round)

Next you need to fold your tweed in half, and chalk out two shapes on it.

The first shape should measure (top of skirt measurement divided by 2) + 3cm along the top.

It should be (height between hips and waist + 3cm) deep,

And (hips measurement divided by 2) + 3cm + 2cm along the bottom.

The second shape should measure (hips measurement divided by 2) + 3cm along the top.

It should be (length of skirt + 3cm) deep,

And (width at bottom divided by 2) + 3cm along the bottom.

The extra 3cm are to give a 1.5cm seam allowance for each piece. So when I say turn in the seam allowance, or stitch, or something, it's 1.5cm :)

I hope that doesn't sound too confusing! The shapes are shown chalked out below, which I hope will make it all crystal clear(!):

Next, cut the shapes out. The fabric is folded so you get 2 of each shape. The smaller one is the waist band and the larger one is the skirt.

Pin together each waist band to each skirt, right sides together, along the sides closest in length, and sew. Then pin and sew one side of the skirt together. It should look like this:

Press all the seams, and also turn in the seam allowance just on the waist band section of the remaining open edges. Pin and stitch together the open edges ONLY on the skirt section, leaving the waist band open.

Pin the zip in place on the turned in seam allowance:

Stitch, then pin on the other side and stitch:

Now turn in and press half the seam allowance on both the top and bottom edges of the skirt. Turn in again and press. Pin in place:

Stitch. What you have now is a skirt you could wear! The ruffles added are not structural, so if you want to stop now you can! Here's the skirt:

Now for the ruffles. You need to chalk on your fabric (folded in half), two strips. Draw them 13cm wide and the same length as the bottom of the skirt piece, but draw them on the fold of the fabric, so that they end up twice as long when you cut them out. Like this:

Cut them out, and also cut two strips from the tulle - make these the same length, but 15cm wide instead. No need to chalk these out, just cut long strips.

Here's the cut ruffle strips:

Next, turn in and press the seam allowances on the tweed strips, along both long edges. On one long edge of each strip, pin the seam allowance down, and stitch. Along on other long edge, put the tulle under the seam allowance and pin:

Stitch this down. Here's the two strips - a view of both sides:

Next, pin the two strips with right sides together, along the short ends, and stitch together, but only the top section (don't stitch together the part where there is just tulle):

Now pin this long circle around the skirt, placing the seams of the ruffle on the side seams of the skirt, and folding parts under and over each other as in the picture below:

Here's a close-up to show how it's pinned:

Using a contrasting coloured thread, tack the ruffle in place with a running stitch, and remove the pins:

Now stitch the ruffle in place, and remove the contrast thread. The skirt is finished!