Knit Striped Skirt {Tutorial}

I’ve mentioned quite a few times lately how much I’ve fallen in love with Quincee’s Boutique, and I’ve never set foot in their store. They regularly post new items and outfit inspiration on their facebook page, and I recently fell in love with this ensemble.

The skirt looked easy enough to remake, and I had some golden yellow knit on hand that I thought would make a great cardigan. But, two sets of too-small sleeves later and I was out of the needed fabric to finish my sweater. And, of course, my Joann’s is out of that color and won’t have more for a few weeks. And my surrounding towns are flooding, so just heading over a half hour to get more is out of the question. So what’s a girl to do?

Use accessories to bring in the yellow! Scarf: Ruffles ‘n Such. Tank: Slubby Ruffles made by me. Cardigan: Vera Wang from Kohls. Leggings and boots: Maurices.

The beauty of this skirt is that it took about an hour (could have been faster if my regular sewing machine wasn’t being cranky), used less than a yard of fabric and didn’t require any notions, and is super comfortable to wear. Want to make one yourself? All you’ll need is a half a yard each in contrasting fabrics. I used a Ponte Roma Solid Knit from Joann’s in dark gray and black. It has very teeny tiny ribs in it, a nice amount of stretch and is really soft. It’s normally $12.99/yard, but I had a 50% off coupon, so this skirt cost me $6.50.

I started by cutting my material from selvedge to selvedge so that the stretch would go the width of my skirt (that way I could pull it up over my hips without needing elastic or a zipper). I made my strips 6” wide, so there were only three stripes and them my waist band on the skirt. If you wanted to do thinner stripes like the inspiration, I’d say to make them 3 or 4 inches wide. I also cut out an 8” strip for the waist band.

To sum that up: I cut out two 6” strips in the gray and one 6” and one 8” in black.

With right sides together, sew your skirt body strips together. I just did the full length of the material and treated it like a piece of fabric later to cut the skirt pieces out of. I used my serger, but you can also use your regular machine and still have your skirt turn out nicely. If you aren’t familiar with sewing with knits, or were planning on using a straight stitch, please read THIS post about how to sew with knits. If you use a basic straight stitch you’ll risk breaking your thread when you pull your skirt on or while walking.

I then top stitched along one side of each seam. When I looked closely at the photo of the inspiration skirt, it looked like the fabric slightly layered on the strip below it, and it was all because of top stitching. By just stitching along one side of each seam (make sure you do it along the same side on each seam), you give it that finished layered look. I used a knit stitch on my regular machine to do this.

Using a skirt that I like the shape of as a pattern, I cut out my skirt. Keep in mind while doing this that you’ll still be adding a 3.5” waist band to your skirt.

After cutting out one piece, I used it as the patter for the back of the skirt. Make sure that your skirt will fight you somewhat tightly at the hips at this point. If it will be large, make it smaller or else you’ll risk your skirt falling off.

Once your skirt is sized pretty closely to what you’re wanting, fold your waistband strip in half length wise so it’s only 4” wide (or tall at this point, depending on how you’re looking at it) and line it up with the skirt, fold lining up with fold, and cut it continuing the curve you started with the skirt. Then use it as a pattern to cut another one. Unfold it and sew the pieces together, right sides together. Note, at this point you won’t be sewing a straight line—it’ll curve into the middle and then curve back out. Then sew the two end pieces together the same way you just did, so you’ll have one continuous loop. Try the waist band on. If it doesn’t have to stretch to get over your hips and sits loosely where the waist of your skirt will sit, take it in. This will be what holds your skirt up. Once you have it sized right, make sure that your skirt matches it in width. If it doesn’t trim off however much you need to.

Sew the skirt at the side seams. Then sew your waistband on by folding it in half horizontally so the seams from sewing it together fold over themselves and you don’t see the stitching and sew it to the top edge of the skirt. Check out THIS tutorial for a more in depth tutorial of what you’re doing. Then just add a hem and you’re finished!

(The skirt doesn’t actually pull funny to make the bunching… I just forgot to straighten it after setting up the tripod, picking up my toddler, putting him back down, getting the camera set up, and then taking pictures. Oops!)

I’m really happy with how the skirt turned out and you can’t beat the $6.50 price! I’ll have a lot of fun playing with different outfit combos for it, and once my Joann’s gets more yellow knit it, I’ll finish the cardigan and share it with you!

Thanks for stopping by!

This post is a part of my Top it Off series where I’m making one new piece of clothing or accessory to top off an outfit each week in 2012.

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