How to Sew a Beginner-Friendly Slow Fashion Skirt

As a seamstress, I appreciate having plenty of easy sewing patterns among some of my challenging ones.  Usually, I need to have a garment sewn in a shorter amount of time because I need the garment or one of my loved ones do.  Slow fashion doesn’t mean we want all our projects to take a long time to sew.  It is also about providing clothing needs by hand and not contributing to all the throw-away clothing out there.  Here is a simple, beginner-friendly skirt pattern that I am sewing from a pdf pattern from Peppermint Magazine.

Prepare Your Pattern

In my previous post, I showed how to use a PDF sewing pattern, so check that out if you haven’t already.  For this sewing project the sewing pattern will need to be printed, assembled, traced (if you want to), and cut out.

Choose Your Fabric

It is best to check your pattern when choosing a fabric for a garment. Your end result will depend on having the correct weight of fabric.  The Pocket Skirt that I’m sewing is great because it works with a wide range of fabrics- from linen or twill to crepe de chine or silk satin.

I have a heavy weight cotton from my fabric collection that I have chosen to use.  Fortunately, I found it at a local annual Salvation Army fabric sale. Someone donated it and the money went to a great cause.

Gather Your Supplies

I am using my sewing machine for this entire project, so I will finish my seams with a zig-zag stitch.  As of now, I haven’t invested in a serger but have always been content with this method.  Perhaps I will buy one at some future date.

You Will Need:

A sewing machine

An iron and surface to iron on

Fabric

Elastic- 1.5-inch-wide, the length that corresponds to your size in the consumption chart

Thread

Fabric scissors

Pins

The Pocket Skirt Pattern from Peppermint Magazine

Fitting the Elastic

This beginner-friendly skirt pattern gives very good instruction about the elastic, so read it carefully.  The waist stretched measurement is the width that allows the skirt to fit over your hips, so that will need to be considered.  Naturally, the elastic can be sewn to fit how much gathering you would like around your waist.  The pattern instructions advise us to try on the elastic around our waist and safety pin it, overlapping the edges by ½ inch. The elastic should sit on the waist firmly and stretch over the hips, too.

Cut Out Your Fabric

Follow the layout instructions for cutting out your fabric.  The low-waste design of this skirt makes the pattern pieces fit efficiently and neatly onto the fabric.

When cutting into your fabric, try to keep your fabric scissors close to the table as you cut.  Lifting them as you are cutting can shift the fabric too much and distort the shape of the piece.

When you have cut out the skirt pieces you should have:

• 1 front skirt panel
• 1 back skirt panel
• 2 upper side panels
• 2 lower side panels

Note– When I cut out my fabric, I didn’t have enough to cut the front and back panels on the fold, so I cut the back panel on the selvedge edge and kept 1/2 inch of seam allowance connected to it, as shown in the above picture. I sewed this seam down the length and pressed it open. There was no need to finish the seam because the selvedge edge won’t unravel.

Constructing a Beginner-Friendly Skirt

Forming the Pockets

For step one, I lined up my edges and pinned and sewed the right sides together.  There was no need to zig-zag stitch this first step.  I pressed the seam open in an upward direction.

Then, I pinned the seam allowance in place so that it didn’t move as I did the edge stitching.  You can see in the picture below that I have it pinned on the upper panel side of the seam.

In the next picture I have the one side pinned up as in step 2A.

In the next picture I pinned both sides up to show how it is supposed to look as you sew through these steps. Following the directions will get you great results, but sometimes as a beginner sewist you can doubt your ability to get there!

This will form the pockets.

Baste along one side, as in step 2B. The instructions say to use a 5mm seam allowance, which is a little smaller than 1/4 inch. For step 2C, repeat for the other side of this first pocket.

Go back and repeat all of steps 1 and 2 for the other lower side panel and upper side panel.

Sewing the Panels of Your Beginner-Friendly Skirt Together

Steps 3 and 4 are where you sew the side panels to the center front and center back panels. Match the notches, pin together, and sew the skirt pieces right sides together using a 1cm which is about 3/8 inch.

This is a helpful tip-Use washi tape to mark a seam allowance on your sewing machine. It makes it a lot more visible, and it will not leave sticky residue after it’s removed.

Next, I trimmed my seam to make it less bulky. This was not in the pattern instructions, but I decided to trim because the fabric is a bit heavy.

Then, I used my sewing machine’s zig-zag stitch for step 5 to protect the seams from fraying.

Step 5 also instructs us to press the vertical seam allowances toward the center front and center back. In the picture below you can see the seam allowance being pressed away from the side pocket, towards the center.

Topstitching Your Beginner-Friendly Skirt

There is an optional step to topstitch along the vertical seams. If you are a beginner seamstress, you may want to make it simpler and omit this. Then again, it is a good chance to learn a new skill.

My recommendation for topstitching is to not trim the seams after steps 3 and 4. Overlock or zig-zag the seam allowances and press them toward the center of the garment. Turn your skirt right side out, pin along the seam you will topstitch. I almost always pin a seam I’m topstitching because it keeps it from shifting around while I’m sewing.

Stitch a narrow and even seam, going slowly to keep it neat.

The below picture shows topstitching on the right side down both sides of the back seam of my skirt.

Sewing the Front and Back Together

Next, to sew the front and back together, I placed the right sides together and matched up the notches and pinned. I matched up the waist and pinned. Then, I matched up the hem and pinned. I placed pins in a few more places to keep the layers lined up.

Inserting the Elastic

The instructions for The Pocket Skirt read that the waistband should be turned over 5 cm. or about 2 in. and then turn the raw edge over 1 cm. or about 5/8 in. This makes the finished waistband about 4 cm. total width. Because my fabric is more of a heavy weight cotton, it made it difficult to turn under the raw edge. After I sewed the seam for the waistband, I couldn’t fit my elastic through the casing.

With a little patience I fixed this frustrating mistake. I ripped the seam out with my seam ripper and tried a different method. First, I finished the raw edge with a zig-zag stitch. Then I folded down my waistband and pressed it at about 1 1/3 inches or 4.5 cm. width. This ensured a crisp, easily sewn seam and a bit of extra space for the elastic to make it through the casing.

I sewed a straight stitch around the waistband leaving a three-inch opening to allow the elastic to be inserted. I followed the instructions for The Pocket Skirt for inserting the elastic, sewing together the ends, and sewing closed the opening.

My elastic fit through the casing perfectly as you can see in the above picture.

The final step for finishing up the waistband was an optional step, but one I believe is important. To “stitch in the ditch” is simply making a short row of stitching vertically on one or two of the seams in a waistband through the fabric and elastic. This ensures that the elastic doesn’t twist out of place in the waistband.

Hemming Your Slow-Fashion Beginner-Friendly Skirt

Finally, we are almost finished with the skirt! I find the finishing step of hemming a garment to be really satisfying. Following the instructions for The Pocket Skirt, I made my hem. I pressed up the bottom about 1-1/4 inches, or 3 cm., and then pressed up the raw edge about 3/8 inch, or 1 cm.

After pinning the hem in place, I stitched close to the folded edge.

The last step was to give the hem a final press.

And here is the end result!

Final Notes on This Beginner Friendly Skirt

Sewing this skirt did turn out to be simple and straightforward, I recommend it for a beginner. Though I used my measurements to choose a size, it ended up being a bit too roomy for me, I will go down one size the next time I sew up a Pocket Skirt.

I did have need to change the waistband a little by finishing the edge and then just pressing it in place and then straight stitching the casing. The directions for the skirt advised to press in the raw edge, but my fabric was much too thick to make a nice casing. I think I will use a much lighter fabric for my next time sewing this skirt.

Sewing Without a Pattern

If you are looking for sewing projects that don’t require patterns, there are many options. They can range from clothing to household items, like napkins, to small personal care items, like scrunchies!

This kind of sewing is ideal for using up scraps of fabric that we don’t want to waste. I have often used up all manner of sewing scraps from my collection in this way.

Check out several of my sewing projects where I show how I utilize fabric that I have loved too much to throw away! Here is my Beehive Clothespin Bag. Here is my Hand-sewn Boro Patch. And check out my Teapot Cozy here.

In Closing

Please ask me any questions that may come to mind about this pattern and leave me a comment. What pretty fabric do you want to sew this lovely beginner friendly skirt up in? What is another slow fashion sewing pattern you have sewn?

Much Love,

Courtney