The Domesticated Skirt

for tutorial, scroll down and "read more"

I love being a girl.  A wife.  A mother.  A homemaker.   I’m proud of my job and this skirt is my salute to my chosen profession.  

Doesn’t that sound noble? 
Yeah, really, I just thought of the design one day and when I sketched it out, thought it looked kind of like a double sided apron. 
But I do love my life, and I also love aprons.  They’re functional, feminine and flirty.  This skirt is too.  So the name:

 Domesticated Skirt: a skirt for around the house, but way cuter than a house dress. 

 
And when your child wipes their nose and/or peanut butter encrusted face across your hip:
just open

flip around

and you’re good to go.
  
This is about as basic as sewing can get.  If you used purchased bias tape, it would be even easier, as making the tape took longer than the rest of the skirt combined.  I’m not in love with how it moves, the “inside wrap” tends to try to work it’s way out.  But I do like the look for an everyday, baking, cleaning and wiping bums kind of day.

tutorial after the jump

    The Domesticated Skirt
tutorial

I started with three coordinating cotton prints: two for the body of the skirt and one for the bias tape trim and ties.

I went with some Darlene Zimmerman feedsack inspired prints from the Granny line by Chanteclair.  THey seemed homey and, well, they were on sale.

This skirt is kind of one-size-fits-most, and I ended up needing about 3/4 yard of all three.  I wanted it to be knee length.  From my hip, where I wanted to wear it, to my my knee is about 19 inches.  I cut my fabric at 20 inches long. 

Then I measured my waist around, divided by two.  With the fabric folded in half, I marked that point with tailor’s chalk. 

I wanted the skirt to have a slight angle to the bottom, so I added half of my waist measurement to the above figure, and marked that on the folded fabric, too, at the bottom.
** so basically, you just want it to be really big, then even bigger at the bottom**

With both the main fabrics folded, lay them on top of each other plum

Use a straight edge and mark a line from the waist measurement to the knee measurement

cut along that line, both fabrics

 

Now with your third fabric, find the bias

And cut your strips for the bias tape

I used my bias tape tool to finish the strips into tape

Pin one long strip of bias tape to the top of one of the main fabric panels.  You want quite a bit of the tape to go off the ends, as these will become the ties on the finished skirt

 

Take the end of the tape/ties and fold over the raw edge

 

Then fold the entire tape in half, enclosing the folded over end.

 

And start sewing.  Backstitch, and go from one end of the ties

 

across the top of the skirt panel

 

and to the other end of the ties, folding over and in half at that tie end, too

 

Attach another strip of bias tape to the other skirt panel.  This time you don’t need ties, so match ends of skirt top to end of bias tape.
Pin and sew

 

Take your ties, fold and pin to the top right side of the panel they’re sewn to.  You need them out of the way of the needle when you sew the two skirt panels together

 

Right sides together, place skirt panels together matching ends

 

Sew both sides of skirt ( I serged them) together.
If you sewed, press seams open.  If you serged, press to one side

 

Now you’re going to need your waist (or hip) measurement again.  Take 1/4 of that measurement and mark from the outside edge of the skirt on both sides.  In order for the skirt to wrap easily, you want to close some of the top opening.

 

Sew from the edge of the skirt, following the stitch line of the bias tape, to the mark.  Repeat for the other side.

Almost done.  Pin the bias tape to the bottom hem of the skirt all the way around

 

Sew the tape in place

    

And you’re done!  Told you-super super easy.

Put it on, take your kids to the park or whip up some cookies.  Or just eat bon-bons and watch that Project Runway you recorded.  Either way, you’ve got a cute go-to skirt.  And if you get a little something on it,

no problem. 

3/19/2010 UPDATE:
Hillary Monroe made the skirt and fixed the problem of the inside coming out. "As for the "peeping" from the inner fabric - I think that could be solved with a simple stitch just above the bias tape from the corner of each side of the skirt. If you put on the skirt and mark it to where you want it to fold (and stay folded) and sew a line from the edge of the skirt to that point then it will stay. I tried the quick-step approach (ie safety pin) and it worked great - no more peeping! So a straight stitch should do the trick."
Thank you, Hillary!  I'm off to fix my skirt right now.


 

You Told Me:
3/10/2010 Katrina, "About the "inside wrap" working itself out, would it work to sew a straight seam from the top to the bottom of the skirt on each side of your hips, maybe an inch or two out, so that the two fabrics are sewn together? I'm just wondering if that would hold the "wrap" part back in place." 3/16/10 Ttfranz, "instead of having to sew from hip to knee to prevent the inside wrap from slipping, would a small button & button hole attached on either side of the waist in the bias tape work? That would eliminate having any stitching show and still keep the skirt from slipping?"



 3/17/10 Hillary Monroe, "If you sew a top stitch along the edges you might not get the under-side layer peeping out."