Creations with Nicole: Back to the sewing machine!

I made a skirt!

Check it out..

I made a scarf last year with this tiger print knit material and I could not let the leftovers of this fabulous print go to waist :) Here's how I made it:

I used a skirt that I already have to cut out the shape I wanted. Originally the skirt was going to be all tiger print, but when I put my red skirt next to this fabric I could not help myself. I knew I had to use some red for the back and luckily I just happened to have red knit fabric too.

After I cut the shape I wanted, I started playing with layering the print (thanks to my friend Sara for suggesting it!)

I played around with different shapes and placed them in various positions until I liked the way it looked

below is what I decided to go with, so I pinned it down and sewed the tops and sides of the pieces on. I left the bottoms un-sewn and unfinished because it adds movement and since it's knit, the material won't frey (here is a secret, knit is ridiculously easy to work with!) Ok, ok it's not a secret, but if you are looking for a forgiving fabric go for knit!

I did use a finishing stitch along the sides of the front and back panels before using a straight stitch to put them together.

Then I measured and cut out two pieces of elastic and put a finishing stitch on those. I attached the elastic pieces to each other using a long straight stitch so that I had a circle and then I attached the front of the skirt to the back of the skirt using a long straight stitch.

Finally, I sewed the elastic on very carefully. This is important: I used a large zig zag stitch that makes a dotted line looking zig zag because it is the most useful for elastic since it leaves room for stretch. To get a professional and finished look, I pinned the bottom part of the elastic to the inside of the skirt so that, if this step were shown in the picture below, the elastic would be sticking out the top. (Of course I forgot to get pictures of the most important part but I'll add some later.)

After I did the dotted zig zag stitch, I folded the elastic under so that you could not see it with the skirt facing out and I did one last top stitch along the top.