Pregnant Panels Skirt

 

It’s cute

It’s comfortable

It’s perfect for all your growing-belly needsBest of all, it’s super easy to make. 
It’s the…

All you need to make this skirt is about two yards of jersey knit.  I found this adorable bias-stripe at Fabric.com on clearance, so this skirt cost me all of about $6.  I use a serger, since jersey knit + sergers = true love, but you could easily use a regular old sewing machine. Here are some basic tips to know before you sew knit.  Ready to go?

Start by cutting your panels 6 inches by 24 inches.Cut a whole slew of them.
Because I was using a bias stripe, I thought it would be super awesome fun to make chevrons by alternating the panels.  However because I was using a bias stripe with differing stripe widths, it turned out to be super awesome impossible to get all my panels to line up all chevron-y.  So I did the best I could. Anyway, grab two panels, right sides together (or for super awesome fun not quite chevrons, do right side facing wrong side)And sew the panels together along the long edge.
Press seams open
Continue adding panels, pressing seams open (or really, just press all your seams at the end of adding panels).  I kept adding panels, then would periodically wrap the whole thing around me to figure out how many more panels I wanted.  My skirt has 12 panels total.Once you have all the panels you want, fold the entire thing in half and sew up that last seam to finish the body of the skirt.Square off the top and bottom of the skirt body so it’s nice and straight.If you’re so inclined, finish the raw edges.  Now cut a section of material for your waist-/bellyband about 12 inches wide.  To get the length:  you want it to need to stretch a bit to go around your waist and/or belly, so wrap around you to get a measurement and cut to size.Right sides together, fold the piece in half and sew up the short seam.  So now you have a 12 inch tall circle.  Fold that circle in half so that it’s now six inches high.And looks something like this:Figure out where you want the back of the skirt to be and match the center seam of the bellyband to that point.  Right sides together, all raw edges matching.

Sew the bellyband to the skirt.  You’ll need to stretch the bellyband as you sew, so that it catches all the material of the skirt, gathering in the skirt as you complete the seam.

So on the bellyband side you get thisBut when you fold it up in place, you have a gathered skirt belowFinish the hem to complete the skirt.