Step 3: Waistband!

My skirt matches my waist. I happen to despise elastic and will suffer through putting this on over my head. (Love the pear shape body for this project. I’ve got nothing much going on upstairs and am overly solid downstairs.)  I promise, even with my 11 inch difference between hips and waist, elastic measured to your waist will go over your hips with no problems. Sorry, I’m not actually doing an elastic waistband, but you can use most of this step for your elastic casing, just make it match your skirt waist.

I saw a cute skirt on Pinterest that was full, just like I like! However, it had this lovely sash that tied into a bow at the waist. Super cute and I happened to have this scrap left over from my cutting:

To make it better, I had two scrap pieces like this going the full 60 inches of width.  some quick math, yes that’s going to come up just shy of 120 inches if you sew the two together. Which I did.  To help the fabric, which really is slippery, not walk as bad in sewing, I serged along the bottom of this new waistband.

I took the center seam of the waistband and chose a starting place on my skirt. Where the two ends meet up, the waistband is open and it’s an even hang of the left over sash which allows for tying the bow.

A finishing touch I added was a nice top stitch at the top, just to hold the waistband at the fold.  I find that a good top stitch really helps things not bubble or shift in laundering and hold their shape better. Plus, it just looks nice, with a finished touch.

Note: You probably really should interface a waistband, especially when it’s a flimsy material. This would also allow my bow to be a wee bit less floppy. I chose not to because:

1. You seriously don’t know how late it was.
2. I didn’t have any.
3. This skirt is so light and airy, I thought a more floppy bow would be preferable to a stiffer bow that was hard to tie. The waistband actually stays up just fine until you get to the tying and well, that’s probably understandable there.

I’m sure you notice the black trim at the bottom. Bonus points if you guessed that was my typical bias tape hem. This skirt is really cute but it hands rather limp because the fabric weighs ounces.  Even when you spin, it just kind of hangs there. Not only did the bias tape allow for a nice finished edge, it gave a LOT of weight to the skirt and now it literally floats when I walk. Flares when I spin. Sadly, it also causes me a few Marilyn Monroe moments, but  that’s the price a girl pays when it is windy.

Hope you enjoyed this look at my plaid skirt! I am very happy with it!

–Lady O