Pleated Maxi Skirt!!!

So I am back at it again! Another D.Y.O (Do Your Own) tutorial. First off I would like to thank everyone that took the time to look at my last post, I hope you enjoyed it. My new project was not the easiest but you can still do it, no patterns are required to make this pleated maxi skirt. The materials I used are based off my size and height. I am a size 6-8 at 5'1 1/2. I bought 1 3/8 yrds of the chiffon and 5/8 yrd of the jersey knit, used a yard of elastic, a sewing machine , iron and cloth cover. I had a little too much of the chiffon but I'd rather have too much than too little. To get the length of  the skirt just measure the length from you waist to your feet. To get the width you want to take your waist size or measurement and you can double that. **I'm still working on doing these tutorials so sorry if a few tips are missing, this project was long so I tried to make it brief.
                                                                                 
                                                                             Enjoy!!!

1. First step once you have all your materials is to pleat your chiffon fabric. The pleat size is up to you. I chose to do about 1 1/2 pleat. You are going to iron the pleats in and go in a accordion style folding. (I used to hair clamps to hold them in place when folding.)

2. Using the hair clamps really helped me when folding to fabric to pleat the fabric. Also when pleating/ ironing the chiffon you do want to use a cover cloth when ironing the pleats that way you don't burn the fabric.

3. At this point I have finished pleating my chiffon. I am now making the mini skirt that goes under the chiffon out of jersey knit. I used an existing skirt to figure out the skirt size it wanted.

4. Once I had the desired size and length of the mini skirt I went ahead and hemmed the bottom of the shirt. I made a 1 1/2 inch hem.

5. & 6. Once I had my hem measured out went ahead an pinned it so I could sew it next.

7. I sewed the hem down.

8. Once the hem was sewn down I sewed the sides of the skirt together. 

9. I cut a section of the extra jersey knit to in the waist band.

10. I put the cut piece of jersey knit with my pleated chiffon to make the opening for the elastic to go in. I used to elastic to measure out how much width I would need.

11. I then sewed it down, still using the elastic band as reference. I left extra material along the seam so I could sew the mini skirt to.

12. Once my band was sewn together, I took my elastic and used a safety pin to feed it through the band.

13. I am feeding the elastic by feeding the safety pin through. ( pinned the other end of the elastic to to the opening.)

14. I have fed  the elastic all the way to the end.

15. Then I took both ends of the elastic to sew together.

16. I took the mini skirt and pinned it to the extra fabric below the band and sewed it together.

17. I did a rolled hem on the edges of the skirt so they didn't fray.

** Instead of closing the skirt I left it open to create a thigh high slit by over lapping the fabric when sewing the waist band which can be seen in the pictures below. Enjoy!!!

I also have another little side project going on. I have started making glass bead bracelets!!! I want to eventually make other pieces like necklaces and earrings too but I thought I'd start with bracelets. I have been  receiving good feed back about them. I have sold a few of them, they're only going for $5 right now. As you can see they look great when you stack them so you may want more than one. You can purchase them from me or go to my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/Probs3125

Enjoy!!!

 

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Printed Shorts Cuff D.Y.O (Do Your Own)

The shorts from Pinterest

                                                                                                                                       

This is one of my first D.I.Y. postings so bare with me I'm new to this. I have posted the steps I took to make shorts along with some pictures of the completed shorts. I got the idea to add the print to the shorts from Pinterest. I have made jean shorts before from old pairs of jeans so I figured why not go the extra step and spice them up.

1. Cut the jeans into a good short length you would prefer. I left  few inches on mine because I knew I wanted to cuff them.

 2. I cut out my printed fabric... 4 inches wide and 22 inches long making sure it fit all the around the jean and space to give.

  3.I took the fabric and pinned it to the shorts making sure the the wrong sides were pinned together. ( the printed side should be facing you)

4. After pinning the fabric down I used my machine and sewed down the fabric along the side seams to hold the jeans and fabrics together.

5. This next step may be a little tricky. Once the fabric is sewn to the shorts, I turned the shorts back inside and I put them on so that way I can roll them to the perfect cuff. Then when I had my desired cuff, I sewed the cuff down making a single stitch on top of the cuff to hold it in place.

***BONUS- If you have extra fabric left over you can add it to the pocket if you want! 

If there are any comments or questions feel free to leave them. Hopefully my directions weren't too hard to follow. I will be doing more D.I.Y. or as I like to call them Do Your Own projects as well so be on the look out!! Enjoy!!