Knowing how to hem a skirt is a really useful skint girl skill. If you find a skirt in your size and you love the fabric or the colour but not the length, you can still have it and alter it to make it perfect for you! More choice is always good.
Personally I love short skirts. (But not so short my butt cheeks hang out the back). Worn with leggings, tights or over-the-knee socks and boots in the winter and over tanned legs in the summer. But I've only got about 3! So I'm trying to build up a huge and interesting collection over time.
This one was given to me by Scott's sister to use as fabric for something, ages ago, but I knew straight away it would make a cute little skirt. A couple of weeks ago I finally made the chop during an "I've got fuck all to wear!" moment 5 minutes before my friend was due to pick me up. Obviously I didn't have time to hem it so it frayed all over the place but I loved it!
I've placed the rest of the fabric back on for this picture so you can see the original length. It came down to my calves - I hate that length, it makes me feel like a dinner lady! With busy fabric like that I think less is more anyway.
Here's a close-up:
So this is what it looked like after the chop. Wonky! Never mind.
Today I finally gave it a proper hemming, after doing the same to that denim coloured skirt you could see on the table in my last post.
How to hem a skirt:
1) Put the skirt on and cut it about an inch longer than the length you want - or get a friend to do it. Take it off again and lay it flat.
2) Mark the length you actually want it on both side seams. I measured 17 inches. Fold the side areas under to where you've marked it, making it look like a hem. Iron it flat so it creases and use a pin to keep it in place. Now you'll have a pin in each side and the rest will be flapping down still.
3) Mark the length you want at the front centre and back centre in the same way. Stand in front of a mirror with it on to work it out visually. Skirts sit differently on different sized bodies. I seem to need to make the backs slightly longer for it to look right while it's on - I don't know if that's normal(?)
4) So now you'll have 4 pins in your skirt, evenly spaced. Turn the skirt inside out, if you haven't already, and use your iron to smooth the rest of the hemline into place so the bottom of your skirt looks neat and straight.
5) Load up the sewing machine with thread that matches closely to the skirt colour. Undo the pins and unfold the hem (I'm did this so backwards...but it works). Trim the fabric neatly, about 1.5 cm away from the ironed crease. Use a zig-zag stitch all the way round the skirt, right on the edge of the fabric to prevent it from fraying in future.
6) Fold the hem back up again. The crease will still be there so it'll go back into place easily. Sew it down with a straight stitch, using your fingers to keep it folded down. I don't sod about with tacking and pinning the whole thing, it takes too long! Do it as neatly as possible by going slow if you need to. I keep the edge of the fabric running exactly under the edge of the zipper foot to keep it even.
Turn it out the right way, give it a final iron and hey presto!
Lovely new skirts! <3
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