Coolarama’s Keira Skirt – Tutorial

Hello! I’m making the Simple Sew Keira skirt.

^{I’m only a beginner so I can’t give you an expert tutorial however I’d love to share how I made mine.}

^{The pattern was kindly sent to me by Simple sew patterns and the fabric was provided by white tree fabrics.}

^{I chose to make a size 14 from the size chart which states finished measurements.}

^{The pattern uses 1.05 meters of fabric, maybe a little more if lengthened, and 1.05meters of lining fabric. Also needed is a 10″ invisible zip and some iron-on interfacing. The Seam allowances are 1.5 cm unless otherwise stated.}

^{I followed the instructions as provided with the pattern and lengthened the skirt length a little.}

^{Here goes…….}

^{I cut the pattern out and traced off an extra copy of pattern pieces 1 and 2 as you need two of each.}

^{following the cutting layout, illustrated in the instructions, I cut the lining and main fabric and transferred the pattern markings (using tailor tacks).}

^{You need 2x pattern piece 1 in your main fabric and 2x pattern piece 2 in the lining fabric. All pieces are cut on the fold.}

^{For the waistband you need 1x pattern piece 3 in the main fabric and 1x pattern piece 3 in fusing.}

^{Pattern piece 1. Front. With right sides together fold the fabric in half matching notches A. Stitch down the short black line reinforcing the end of the stitch line. Repeat for Pattern piece 1 Back.}

^{Open up the front and back pieces right side up.}

^{Match up notches B to B and C to C and pin in place.}

^{Flatten out the front pleat on the back as below and again pin into place.}

^{On the Machine stitch the pleats in place within the seam allowance.}

^{Next I prepared the lining pieces matching notches E to D.}

^{Pin the pleats in place then within the stitching line machine stitch them in place.}

^{With right sides together join the front and the back pieces at the seam on the right hand side.}

^{Give it a press and finish the edges.}

^{As with the lining…. Right sides together pin the side seam in place.}

^{Stitch the right hand seam.}

^{Press, then Finnish the edges. At this point I also overlocked the other side edges too}

^{Apply the fusing to the waistband and with right sides together pin it in place along the top edge of the skirt and stitch in place.}

^{Open out and press.}

^{Next…….. Right sides together pin the lining to the other edge of the waistband, then stitch in place.}

^{Give it a press.}

^{Understitch the lining in place by folding the lining seam allowance back onto itself and very close to the seam line stitch the lining to itself.}

^{Zip time!}

^{Position the zip o.5 cm from the seam edge with the first zip teeth just below the fold of the waistband, pin then baste in place.}

^{Instead of basting and pinning I used wonder tape.}

^{Stitch in place with an invisible zipper foot.}

^{Do up the zip and mark where you want to match the waistband seam.}

^{Undo the zip baste into place. Do up the zip to check it matches then stitch it in place stopping close to the zipper pull.}

^{Open out the skirt……}

^{Right sides together flip over the lining to cover over the zip. Pin into place. t}

^{Then with a regular zipper foot (From the top of the waistband to the bottom of the zip) stitch close to the zipper teeth to attach the lining to the main fabric with the zip sandwiched between the two.}

^{repeat on the other side of the zip.}

^{Now to stitch up the back seam on the lining and the skirt. Open out the skirt and lining with right sides together. Lining to lining, skirt to skirt.}

^{With a regular zipper foot start at the bottom of the zip from the last stitch you made on the main fabric and stitch down to the hem. Repeat this for the lining.}

^{Turn again by another 1cm pin into place and machine stitch.}

^{Pin the waistband to the lining.}

^{With a machine basting stitch stitch the lining to the fabric.}

^{Lastly stitch the waistband down by very carefully stitching into the seam line. I don’t have a stitch in the ditch foot so I used an open toe embroidery foot so I could see what I was doing.}