Simple Custom Fit

A-Line Skirt

The Ubiquitous A-Line Skirt.

Made by you, to fit your measure-

ments, simply.

Because it’s why we all want to

learn to sew.

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 Simple Custom Fit
A-Line Skirt
Isn’t this the very reason we all wanted to sew in the first place?

♠♠ We want a skirt that is flattering to our chunky bum

♠♠ We want a skirt that is easy to make, so it can be a quick project for an intermediate
sewer or a satisfying project for a beginner (that has PRACTISED HER ZIPPERS, please see the
tutorial and do the practise, it will be so worth it)
♠♠ We have seen some fabulous fabric that we want to use and pants would just be too
loud and silly.
♠♠ We are tired of making cushions and toys.

The A Line Skirt – Perfecto

Unfortunately for a fully grown adult woman, 1 metre of fabric isn’t going to cut it, yes you
aren’t actually 2 metres around the middle, but the bottom of the A will be wider than your
hips, smarty pants, you are going to need that extra fabric.

I am not going to give you a pattern for this project, you know why? Because you are mak-
ing this to fit! I am a different dress size on my thighs, my hips, my tummy and my rack, so off
the rack clothing is loose in one place and tight in another and ALWAYS too long. Not a good
look. This is going to fit YOUR curves and be the exact length you want. It’s like a miracle. And
here is how we do it.
What do we need to buy? What should we have at home already?

♠♠ 2 yards/metres of light to medium denim, home ♠♠ Sewing machine

dec weight fabric, corduroy, or light quilting weight fabric ♠♠ Ruler, tape measure and straight edge to draw
if that’s what you fancy (does NOT work well with shorter against or quilters rule
skirts as there is little weight to hold it down). Any heavier ♠♠ Scissors or rotary cutter & cutting mat
than medium denim may be a problem, heavy denim may ♠♠ Coordinating thread
not sit as well as lighter weight and becomes awkward ♠♠ Sewing pins
around the zip ♠♠ Pattern weights, or use pins if you don’t have them
♠♠ A 10” regular dress zip in a coordinating colour, or ♠♠ Sewing needles
an 8” invisible zip in a coordinating colour ♠♠ An invisible zip foot for your machine if you are
♠♠ The free FTLOC zipper tutorial – download it from using an invisible zip
our website. You will need to practise (this is technically ♠♠ Tailors pencil/tailor’s chalk or 2B pencil
not something you need to “buy” as it is a free download) ♠♠ Iron and ironing board (towel on a table if you ab-
♠♠ Paper, art paper, butchers paper, whatever, just solutely must)
big enough to make a pattern on, if you need to you could
tape pieces of A4 paper together but a craft sketch book
How do we prepare?
or the Ikea roll of paper for kids is ideal
As soon as you get home from buying your fabrics, throw
them in the washing machine on a warm cycle to remove
the sizing chemicals and so it won’t warp the first time you

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 Simple Custom Fit
A-Line Skirt
wash it. Then put it in the dryer if you have one. W= B= F= L=
+1” Seam Al- +1” Seam Al- + 1” hem
Finally iron it lowance lowance
+ 1” or 2” for + 2” to 3” for + ½” waist + ½” waist
Instructions for your very own Custom skirt comfort comfort seam allow-
ance
seam allow-
ance
= =
Measuring your round bits: you need to measure twice Divided by 4 to Divided by 4 to
around and once for length. Best done in your undies, so make pattern make pattern
you can draw spots on yourself. = = = =
(1) (2) (3) (4)
First Measurement will be your “waistband “: Your waist in
this instance is not your bellybutton, is not the narrowest Grab your quilters rule or a tape measure and long flat
part of you, but it is where you would like your skirt to sit. If item to trace along, a pencil and your paper.
you want to use your jeans as an example, go ahead, put
on the jeans that sit in the best place. Get a tattoo gun or OK you will draw a quarter of a skirt pattern. Why? Be-
a texta and make a spot on your side exactly where that cause the pattern will be pinned to a folded piece of fabric,
line will be. Measure around yourself here. Please fill in the the straight edge will line up exactly on the fold, giving
handy chart that I spent so long on below to help transfer you a front or back, you will cut this out twice.
these measurements to a 2 dimensional pattern.
B E Look carefully at the drawing left,
This will be measurement W for Waist. 1” you are going to reproduce this on
A
your paper. Including the strange
C F double headed doubly bent arrow
Second Measurement will be your caboose. Measure the
widest part. Get a tattoo gun or a texta and make a spot that indicates that this line needs
on your hip or saddlebag exactly where that line will be, to lie on the fold.
directly under the spot you made before.
First we do the dots on the left
This will be measurement B for Butt. edge

Then you need to draw a spot, using the same method, G

along the side of your knee/leg where you want the skirt
to go to.
Now Measure between your waist spot and your knee
area spot.
This will be measurement L for Length.
But on the way you will collect the measurement from the
waist spot to the butt spot, because this will tell you where
to shape the waist to accommodate your buttocks.
This will be measurement F for Fatty Boomsticks.
D
1) Draw a dot a couple of inches down from the top
of the paper on the edge. This will be spot A
2) Draw another dot 1” above it. This will be spot B
3) Draw another dot below spot A, how far below
this will be determined by measurement (3) from the table
above. This will be spot C.
4) Draw one more dot down the edge of the paper,
how far below Spot A will be determined by measurement
(4) from the above table. This is Spot D
5) Now you will draw two arrows pointing to this
edge, and then draw a line between the arrows. This is
common sewing markings for “Cut One On Fold” which
we will go into later, but I want to be sure you have ar-
rowed the correct edge.

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Now we measure out
1) From Spot B you will measure out from the edge
using measurement (1) from the above table, this will be
Spot E
2) From spot C you will measure out from the edge
using measurement (2) from the above table, this will be
Spot F.
Now it’s time to draw
1) Link Spot A and spot E, in a gentle curve, because
that’s how you are built, your skirt should be too
2) Draw a line from Spot E, through Spot F and con-
tinue it until the line is as long as measurement (4) from
the above table. This will be Spot G
3) Draw a curve from Spot D to Spot G for the hem
If you find your waist and hip measurements
are similar, you will have to tweak the angle
at the bottom of the skirt to get more of a
flare.
Make a mark on your pattern 10” below the CHOP CHOP
mark labelled C.
Draw a line perpendicular to the edge from
the mark you just made. Make a mark direct-
ly below spot F.
Make a mark 3” to the right of that dot, this
will be mark H.
Draw a line starting at mark E, through mark
H, bypassing mark F entirely, forming a new
skirt edge to the right of mark G. You may
find it curves gently outwards as your hips do.
The length of this line will be as long as meas- wrong side of fabric
urement “4” in the table above and this will
replace the mark G from above. We need to line the left straight side of the pattern up per-
Now draw a curved line connecting marks
D and G. Take the edge of one pattern piece that has the arrows
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You will need to make something called facing now, just
to make the skirt tidy.
1) Get some baking paper/trac-
ing paper and a pencil.
2) Copy the top 3 inches of the
pattern you just made, directing the
same arrows as the other piece to-
wards the same edge. And that’s IT!
Now cut out your skirt pattern and facing pattern with
scissors (not your fabric scissors, other scissors, let’s not
blunt our fabric shears please). To make things quicker
during fabric cutting, make a copy of the pattern by trac-
ing around the edges onto more paper.
Can you believe it? You made a pattern! Time for a Jaeger-
bomb because you are fabulous, and you can call yourself
Patternmaker.
It’s the next day, and I know your head hurts darling, take some ibu-
profen and drink heaps of water. Bacon and cheese toasted sand-
wiches may or may not help. Come back to this a bit later when
you feel better. Xxx
This is NOT the way you are “supposed” to do it, you are
supposed to cut everything out and then sew, but because
we may make adjustments to the skirt, we may also have
to make adjustments to the facing, and we don’t want to
have to cut facing out twice, so we will do it MY way, OK?
Selvedges
Take your fabulous
fabric and fold it in
half right sides to-
gether where the
middle of the skirt
will be, if you have a
pattern you must pay
attention to the way
you want the pattern
to fall.
pendicular to the straight edge of the fabric (often called
the selvedge), on a fold.
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A-Line Skirt
pointing to it, lay that edge along the fold of the fabric and
use pattern weights or pin carefully in place right side up.
Take the second pattern piece and use fabric weights or
pin it on the fold right side down.
Cut out both pieces carefully using your fabric shears.
At this point I would suggest you zig zag around every
raw edge on that fabric, it won’t be seen after the skirt is
finished and it will stop the fabric from going fluffy and
gnarly at the edges. A more attractive effect would be to
wait until the seams are sewn and using pinking shears to
cut within the seam allowance.
SEW!
All seam allowances are ½” unless indicated.
Pretty much the first thing you will do is insert a zipper, let’s
get this bit over with shall we? It’s all fine, take your time
and refer to our tutorial. Did you do your zipper tutorial
and practise until you are sick to death of zippers?
This bit will be a lot quicker and easier for you if have done
this.
Zip Insertion: grab your zip; we are going to insert an in-
visible or centred zip. Having access to, and practised the
tutorial we have provided will make this job a LOT easier.
Centred Zip
You will need your 10” zip to make an 8” closure so we can
have the bulky zip pull above the edge of the skirt when
stitching in place so it doesn’t warp the straight stitching.
1. Pin your skirt right sides together along one side seam.
Make a mark 8” below the top edge of the garment
along one raw edge.
2. Stitch from the bottom hem of the garment with a ½”
seam allowance up to the mark you made, back stitch
a few times at that point, then lengthen the stitch to
the longest setting possible and stitch to the waist.
3. Press the seam open.
4. Make another mark on the wrong side in the middle
of the seam 8” from the waist.
5. Place the zipper teeth directly and exactly onto the
seamline, making sure to put the zip stop on the dot.
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You will have a couple of inches overhang. Pin the zip
in place.
6. Putting your stitch width to the widest zig zag and
the stitch length to 0, starting at the bottom of the zip
you will stitch a few wide holding stitches right across
the top of the coils every 1 ½ “ which holds it in place
while you stitch the zip to the seam.
7. Flip it over to the right side so that you are looking at
the seam and can see the zip hanging over the top like
a nosy neighbour. Change your machine foot to the
zipper foot.
8. Stitch down one side, across the bottom, and up the
other side of the zipper. For more meticulous detail
see the zippers tutorial but take care not to hit the zip-
per stop or you will break your needle.
9. Take your stitch ripper and gently, so you don’t make
holes in your fabric, pick the long basting stitches out
from the front centre of the seam, as well as the hold-
ing stitches, to release the zip. Pull all the threads away.
Done, how easy was that?
Unzip the zip pull so that when you trim off the top in a
later step you don’t lose the zip pull.
Invisible Zip
This is even easier, we put in the zip first and the seam sec-
ond. Three things you need to know.
A. The coils are on the WRONG side of the zip, so the
flat bit of tape is the front/right side
B. You will think the instructions are Wrong All Wrong
until it’s sewn in place, just have some faith.
C. You cannot do this without an invisible zipper foot
unless you have experience in doing this.
1. Firstly you need to press your zip open on low heat.
Gently pull the coils open and iron so they stick out.
2. With one piece of your skirt right side up, lay the un-
zipped zip Right Side Down on it along the right edge,
with the zip pull at the top, a bit more than ½” from
the top, lining up the edges and pin in place, so the
right side of the zip lines up with the right side of the
raw edge of the fabric.
3. Lowering the invisible zip foot, place the coils in the
LEFT groove and stitch with a regular stitch length to
the bottom of the zip, the machine will have to stop
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as the foot hits the zip pull at the bottom, so go slow
at the end.
4. Place the other piece of fabric Right Side Up and place
the unattached side of the zip Right Side Down on the
edge as before, pin in place. So left side of zip along
left raw edge of fabric.
5. Stitch from the top to the stop using the invisible zip-
per foot with the coils in the RIGHT groove.
6. Attach the regular zip foot.
7. Fold the two pieces of fabric Right Sides Together with
the zip at the right of the seam.
8. Stitch a seam from the 2 stitch lines anchoring the zip
to the fabric (which should have ended up more or
less in the same place) to the bottom.
9. Press the seam open. You are finished your zip and I
bet you are feeling very smug.
Now you will need to shorten your facing pattern from the
sides to match the skirt, otherwise it won’t sit right.
Are you happy with the length? Does it need to come up?
Imagine it 1” shorter, because the hem will bring it up that
much. If it needs to be shorter even than that, trim the
skirt. Remember, you need to leave 1” hem, so chop 1”
longer than you would like it to be.
CHOP CHOP Part 2
You will need to cut out 2 pieces of facing using your mod-
ified (or not) pattern pieces.
Folding the fabric in half again cut two of the facing pieces
on the fold, as before.

Now you just need to pin the other side together and More Sewing – Finishing off.
stitch together, with a seam allowance of ½”. Basic skirt
finis. Press the seam open. Great idea to zig zag around the fabric, once again, to pre-
vent the fray. Or pink it after attaching.
Fitting Time
We need to attach the facing to the skirt, and here is how
Here’s where you figure out if it needs to come in or go we do it.
out.
1) Right sides together, pin one facing piece to an-
Too tight around the waist? It can go out. other at one of the sides. Sew a ½” seam. Press open.
Straight open edge
Cut ¼” at a time off the top edge of the skirt until it feels 2) R i g h t
stitch of facing
OK. No more than this at each fitting please, you don’t sides together,
next to zip
want it to get too big too quickly. pin the facing
to the skirt, with wrong side
You will then need to trim down your facing pattern at the the unsecured of facing
top edge in exactly the same way. side of the fac-
ing at the same
Too loose? It can come in. side as the zip. right side of
skirt
Try it on inside out and pin a little closer (not too tight, you 3) S t i t c h
will need to move AND sit down). Sew a closer seam on the waist ½”
the side without the zip. If you have taken it in a whole lot from the top.
you will need to trim the seam allowance to ½” away from You could do it twice if you were being fastidious or if you
the seam. are really active or hard on your clothing.

Have you heard of a seam ripper? It’s a lethal little friend. 4) Clip off the excess zipper tape protruding above
Rip out your stitches on the side that DOESN’T have the the seam allowance
zip, pull all the annoying little broken threads out and
away. Take care not to rip into your new seam. Press the
seam open.

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 Simple Custom Fit
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5) Every inch clip a little into available for you to do a fancier hem, but a simple one is
the seam allowance; this is so that described below.
it sits nicely around the curve of
your waist. Do not snip across the Fold the hem under ½” press. Do it again, fold the hem
stitching (did I even need to say under ½” and press.
that? I worry about you if I did)
Take it over to your machine and run a line of stitching
close to the top of the fold or you can use a slip stitch as
6) To keep the waistband from being bulky and sit- illustrated.
ting poorly, understitch the facing to the seam allowance.
To do this we press the seam allowance and facing togeth- Slip Stitch
er away from the waist line.
7) 1/8” from the waistband you will now sew the fac- BOOYAH! You are done!
ing to the seam allowance. At each end you will tuck the
½” seam allowance on the facing under so it sits well. Trim all the loose threads. Have
a party to show off your mad
seam skillz.
allowance

1/8” understitch
wrong side
of facing
Upload your photos of your skirt, preferably with you
wearing it, to our Flikr page.

wrong side
of skirt

8) Now pop the facing to the inside of the skirt and

press, it should sit smoothly.
9) You should have caught the side seam allowance
of the facing in your line of stitching. Press it flat under-
neath and hand stitch this edge to the back of the zipper
with slip stitch to keep it from flapping around and looking
bad. For more information on slip stitch please refer to our
tutorial.
under
Slip Stitch
stitching
right side facing to zip
tape
of facing WE ARE SO
CLOSE TO FIN-
ISHING!

We just need to
wrong side hem now. Yip-
of skirt pee! We have a
handy hem-
ming tutorial

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