How To Cut & Sew A Skirt: A Class For Complete Beginners

1. Intro : Hi Victoria and welcome to how to cut and so it's good. Now, if you've done any of my earlier classes, they were strictly pattern cutting classes and I did mention that you had to be able to solve. I had no intention of ever doing a sewing class, except I've had a few requests from students to say that they don't know how to sew the pieces together. I forget that I was a beginner wants myself. We're all beginners at some stage. So this class is for you, the beginner, how to sew a skirt. I'm going to show you how to lay the pattern on the fabric, will talk about patent markings, fabric grains. There's also going to be a, an equipment list of what you need for this particular class. But also, I've done markers, lay markers or fabric lane markers. They called for sizes from small, very small sizes right up to the curvy ladies. And so different width fabric so that you know how much fabric a major Ridge or yardage to get for this particular class. Now, along with discussing how to sew on a waist band or waist facing, we'll also go through how to insert an invisible. Now it's not that difficult, okay? And it's a lot easier than selling in a channel, is it? Believe me? Now, the only other requirement that you need for this class is you have to have your own sewing machine, of course, and you have to know how to operate it. I'm not a sewing machine mechanic and I can't show you how to operate your machine. So that's the one requirement that you do need to know. Okay? So if you're a complete beginner, do join me for this class. I go through everything step-by-step and you can even message me through the Skillshare platform if you have any queries. I mean, there's nothing more exciting than being able to make, design and make your own clothes and show off at the same time. See you in class. Bye. 2. Your Skirt Project: Your project for this class is to cut out your skirt and either a calico or fabric of your own choice. So it up using the invisible zip. And we'll end with a waist band or a fake the waist facing. And then show us your fabulous new skirt and the class gallery. Look forward to it. 3. Materials List: Okay, now let's look at the materials list. Of course, first of all, you're going to need a sewing machine and an oval locker or surgery, but you won't need these if you have that option on your sewing machine anyhow. Good-quality thread. I tend to use Goodman most of the time. Please note I'm not an affiliate of anything that I mentioned the brand off. And always use good quality polyester thread. Don't use cotton because even though you might be sewing, a natural fiber, cotton thread will eventually give out before your fabric does. Good steam ion. Please use a steam iron if you can, because if, if you don't have that steam facility, your your seams won't sit flat. Also, depending on where in the world you live, you'll have to clean out your steam iron quite regularly because it'll becomes full of junk and it'll just spray out brown on your fabric so you won't be happy. A pair of fabric shears or scissors. We will skip pattern, which I'm going to be using the a line sketch that I made in a previous class. You can use whatever skirt you want. I'm script pet new want. If you want a longer skirt, then you're going to have to add onto these links here that I've given you in the meter edges. I'll go through this in a moment. Pins. Again, good-quality pins don't make if they are too cheap, if they're really cheap and sometimes they're blunt and they actually will perforate your fabric and break the fibers. So always have a good I've had these pins probably for about I'm aging myself never probably for about 30 odd years. Now, you'll fabric marriages and yardage is for every size. I've given a layout pattern layered on the fabric. So we've got small sizes, medium sizes. Then I've got the curvier ladies here. And these are your fabric widths of described if they're going to be a folded edge. And the salvage is here. Folded edge salvage is this one here is is openly. So we've got to salvage and a salvage. And these will be the layouts for whatever size that you are. And these will be the major ridges or the yardage is at the side here. So e.g. size six to 14 UK, which is two to ten us. If you're cutting it out in a 90 centimeter or 36 inch wide fabric. It will be an openly salvage salvage and you will need to 2 m or 80 ". Okay. If I go to the larger sizes here, like a 16 to 24 UK or 12 to 20 us. On 140, 250 centimeter width fabric, 55% to 50 59 " and it'll be a folded lay salvage. Is there this is how you going to lay out your skirt and it will take 1.5 m or 59 ". And again, as I mentioned before, if you want to cut a longer skirt, you just have to measure how much longer it is. And in this instance it'll be twice that and add it onto this meter inch hail yardage here. Okay. What's next on my list? Type measures. I used metric, I trained in metric. But also you can get, let me get the same. You can actually get three-meter long tape measures. Fantastic. They go to 120 ". They're great for wedding gowns, for the trains on wedding gowns. You can also use a ruler because we're going to be measuring in from the grain line on the pattern to the straight edge or the salvage on the fabrics. You can use a ruler if you choose to. And I'm going to be using this pattern here which I made in my, I think it was a second class that I taught on pattern cutting and a line skirts. I'm going to use that for the example for this class. Pencil and eraser, or Taylor's chalk comes in various colors. I tend to use a pencil for anything and I use an HB lead. And you can believe it or not, you can actually are about marks on some fabrics. So always keep an eraser handy. Weights to small weights just to place onto your pattern before you can, before you pin it. You don't need to pin it. You can just use the weights. Also. When you're using the pencil and you're marking the dots, you only just use it very likely if you press too hard you'll make a mark. The mark will be two D. Oh, I forgot to mention that if you don't have any little hand weights, not to worry. Always just you're bound to have a tin of something in the cupboard. Just use a couple of tins just to wipe down your patent onto the fabric. But you can get some quite pretty hand weights these days. Invisible zips. Now you'll need, if you're smaller size, you'll have I've marked here you'll need a 23 centimeter or nine inch zip. Or if you're a curvy lady, you'll need a 26, 28 centimeter or ten or 11 inch invisible zip. I don't teach irregular zip, which is a channel zip. They're awful to put in and they look ugly on the garments. Only ever invisible zips now. And then you'll need a piece of fabric around about, I've mentioned here about 60 cm or 24 " of a natural fiber fabric. Now I normally use something like a silk organs or, or a boil, cotton boil. And I use it to, I haven't quite wide because depending on what piece that I'm actually fusing or my garment and I'll lay it on the ironing board, put my piece there with the fusing on top. And then I'll fold it over. An ion it not with a steam iron, iron fusing with a dry ion, not a steam iron. Okay. I'll go over this again. So as I say, I normally would use organs. I just don't have any at the moment, so I tend to use this piece of calico and you'll see how, I don't know if you can see it's quite brown now and I've written on it, this is the non-sticky side. You don't want to make a mistake and end up putting your iron on the side that you've been using because you'll have an absolute mess on your ion. You can also use an L in the press. They're great for large pieces that you're fusing. Now diffusible into lining. I tend to use a knitted fusing all the time. And I use it for coats as well, coats and jackets as well. There's a straight grain, which is the grain that just does not stretch, then you've got a stretchy grain, okay? But it's a really beautiful fusing to use. Also this here. I haven't written it on the list because it's not really that important at this stage. This is called tear away. Don't, don't get it mixed up with our violin, which I believe is now called physically, I think, I think the trade name has changed. That has a grain to it. So that's really good for strengthening. Seems that you don't want to stretch. Whereas this is probably put into garments that, hey, that I made, you know, um, things like silk chiffon. And you don't want this to stay in the garment after you've sewn at all you want to do is to stabilize it as you're selling it. So if you see here, it rips very easily. It rips in any direction, slight paper. So that's called tear away, not to be mixed up with filing. We're busily. Okay, so now let's get laying the patent onto the fabric. Okay. 4. Placing Your Pattern on the Fabric: Okay, let's look at laying out your skip pattern on your fabric. In this case, I'm using my a line skip pattern and I'm using 140, 250 centimeter wide fabric. In fact, it's my calico that's 160 cm wide, so it's about 60 " wide. And I've got a folded edge and I've got to salvage is here. And you'll see that my waist span I will have to throw one away because I'm cutting. It's on the double. There'll be to cut. I'll have one pair of a back waist facing and one front waist facing because I'll just open up this piece and refold it to cut it on the straight grain. Now, you won't be cutting facings and a waist band. I'm just doing it to show you how to make a waist band and a facing on your skirt. Okay. Let's have a look. So I'm actually working on the floor because they don't have enough space on my table. Excuse me. You might see the microphone cord as well. So as you can see, I've already marked my waist band here. I've marked a little bit about a centimeter wide, three-eighths of an inch around the whole waist band. Because I'm going to be fusing that. Then block fusing, block fusing it's called, and then I'll recap it because what happens when you're fusing something? Often it will shrink in. Now, I've done the same with the becuase facing here. I've marked that a little bit bigger and I'll cut it like that. Then I'll put the fusing on it and they'd already cut it. Now, when you've got a straight grain like this here, it has to be parallel to the salvage or to the folded edge. So to make sure that it's dead straight on growing our measure from the salvage into my cut line, which is approximately 12 cm. And I'll do the same here. So it's a little bit. Move it in 12 centimeter, so it's exactly the same distance. And then put a weight on it. And then you can pin it or won't be pinning it. But if you're a beginner, it's better just to pin everything, okay? But that that stabilizes everything. And then we come to the front skirt which is on the fall. So I'll actually pull this in a little bit so you can see it under the camera. This is exactly on the foal. Don't let it makes sure that you don't pull it back from the fall because you'll have extra width here. So it's got to be right on the foal there like that. And put your weight on and then pin it. This here. In this instance I can actually just cut, be the same as my back way spacing. I'll mark around it like this here I've got room, but if your skirts wider, you probably won't have this room here to be able to do that. And so what you'll do if you don't have much room. Mike, Mark, we might still do the sexually like this here. But really up, just cut this out here and then I'll show you how to refold it. Okay? Now, in the matrix is I've given you at least 5 cm or about 2 " extra on every on every major, every yardage. Okay. But bear in mind, as I said before, if you want a longer skirt, you have to add that onto each section and allow that in your fabric link. Okay. I'll also be showing you how to mock and dots. I'll cut this section of the backscatter and the front scoot out an another piece of calico. And we'll set up dots so that I can show you exactly how to mark dots correctly and saw them as well. Okay? But then in this instance I'm actually making an a line skip. I just wanted to cover all aspects of sewing. A scared. Okay, Let's cut scared. 5. Cutting Out Your Skirt : Okay, I decided to pin my pattern and show you properly instead of being so lazy. Couple of things that I want to mention, one that's very important when I was talking about measuring your straight grain from the edge of the fabric, whether that be the salvage or the folded edge, It's extremely important and pence. So if you've got a pair of pants and you've got the straight grain that has to be on grain. So you have to measure that to be absolutely parallel to your folded edge or your salvage. And if you don't do that, quite often you'll see pant legs that are swinging is because they've been cut off grind. And that happens quite often in cheaper production when they're trying to fit the pant legs into a certain matrix in production, they'll swing it slightly off grain. You'll have a twisted lake. Nasty. Now we're going to start cutting. Now it's very important when you start cutting that you always start at the end. Don't ever start cutting anything when you put when you've laid out everything, Don't ever start cutting in the middle because quite often it happens quite a lot. I've done it myself and I'm done it on a bride dress-up, all things start cutting. And you think, oh my goodness me, I haven't left enough length for she wanted to have her dress longer or you wanted to have your pant leg longer and you start cutting in the middle. You've got nowhere to move. So always, you know, it's, I forget what the saying is now measure twice, cut once. So just thinking if you think you're not sure about anything, walk away, have a cup of tea, come back before you start cutting. I mean, this is only Calico, but when it's your actual fabric that costs a lot more money, you'll be crying and your soup. Okay, so let's cut. I don't get my microphone cord and the way and always make sure that your, your citizens or your shares a sharp, especially when you're cutting fabrics like silk chiffon. Because if, if there's a beer, a little beer on your sheers, it will, it can easily catch your fabric. It can actually pull the whole thing. Even though you've pinned it can pull the whole thing away. A very upset. When you're not chewing. Running, notching in a little, just a little fraction with your scissors. Okay. Don't go all the way into the scene, which I see patterns quite a lot. Especially on a wasteland. If you've got a narrow waist thing, you only ever not chin, just the fraction. And if it's very fine fabric, then don't worry about notching. Just put a little mark here with your assistance with your armpits are like this and I can tell you leave this here. Don't, don't map to heavily because sometimes it'll be difficult to get out. As you can see, I've got a pretty messy floor to work on here. Okay, I think I'll finish this on the table now that I've shown you how the lies marked out because my knees can't take it anymore. Actually something I mentioned once before in my pattern cutting class, one of, one of the skirts. If you've got a center back seam and it's on the straight grain. And unless you have a defined stripe that you want to keep on the center back seam, then do just swing it slightly off at the hand. Like this here. I mean, it only needs to be about a centimeter, three-eighths of an inch. And what that does, it takes it slightly off grain bottom. If you zip, it, takes it slightly off grain and gives it ever so slightly, a little bit of a stretch. Because quite often when you so straight down like this on the straight gray, it doesn't matter even if you loosen the tension on your sewing machine, it's still pack is a little bit. So this, and this is a really good way to, especially if you've got a center back seam on a wedding dress or along scattering something like that. You don't want to see that puckering down the center back. So just take it ever so slightly off grain. Okay. Okay. I know I sound like a bossy old lady. I don't think any of my students have Colby bossy, but I keep thinking of things to tell you which are quite important. Now the reason I've left my shears open like this is to show you never to leave your shares like that because it's, you know, you can easily get your fingers caught in them. You can chop your tape measure off, which I have done at least three times. In this instance, caught my microphone cord. But it's actually dangerous because somebody can actually come along and just put things on top of that on a, on a cutting table. You could do it yourself and forget and pick up everything and you've cut something unwittingly. So always when you're finished with your shears or use this, especially if they're good ones, put them down carefully. Don't ever throw them across the table because you do eventually send them out of alignment. And if they would pay it, they'll cost a fortune to realign and sharpen as well. So always put them down somewhere. Close the blade and okay. So now we're going to look at cutting the facing. I was talking before about just cutting it on the fold. If you don't have if your if your skirt as wide and you don't have enough fabric lift, just use the folds of the fabric like this. So when this instance, I will have a little bit extra like this and then refold it so that it's on the straight grain. And again, you'll be doing the same as you did to the back face and you're a little bit wider. And the same with waist band as well. So just market placed on the fold. So now they're all my pieces, my facings and my wife's band are ready for fusing. She is a bit squeaky. Sahara. All my pieces ready for fusing. The waist band cut on the straight grain. Just like the waist band itself has been. My becuase facings and my friend waste facings. Now will fuse these and then we'll recap them. Okay. 6. Block Fuse the Waistband & Facings: Now if I'm doing large pieces of using, I would normally use my alma press. But I would assume that probably most of you might not even have an L in the press or a big fusing press. So this is the best way to fuse anything is always protect your ironing board with a piece of calico or some fabric that's not synthetic. Don't put synthetic anywhere near a hot iron. And then I would probably just cover it with Calico. But I want to show you that you can. I tend to use silk organs. I've got a piece of silk second here from one of my old prints. So I just wanted to show you that you can use silk or she is a natural fiber like a fine cotton or silk. Silk takes a lot of heat and don't use steam. Actually, I should put on this. No water, no steam. Okay, you'll hear a lot of people, even an industry say, no, no, it's okay to use theme. It is not okay to use steam. You do not want moisture underneath. Are you trying to seal? You're trying to fuse this onto fabric so you want dry, hot heat. Okay, So just move the iron along like this just to initially seal it and then keep the eye on it for a few seconds. You have to keep testing it anyhow. I'm just doing this in real time for you so you can see how long it takes. But this is uploaded on the hottest sitting or hottest setting. It's a cotton linen. No steam. And this is a great feasible at fuses very well and it stays adhered. Mind you don't do this underneath your fire alarm and your house. Especially if you're steaming anything of the steam actually sits the alarm off. I know it's not sealed yet, but I'll just pull it off so you can have a look, see how it's sticking, because you can never get the edges exact. Let's see what quite well, actually, they didn't take a lot. Sometimes it takes a little longer. So it's not quite sealed. I'll just give it a little bit longer, but you can see that it only takes a few seconds. I won't speed up the film or anything. I just want you to see how long it takes. And I've got a bit of pressure underneath there. That's why now when price is really good because I mean, you can put a lot of pressure on there. But again, you have to cover both sides. You don't want to ruin your ulna. Press. Beautiful, beautifully. Okay, Let's do the rest. Also. If you're going to use the same piece of cloth all the time, which I do actually I have I normally have a big piece of so-called danza and I always write on it non-sticky side. Okay. So I know I don't want to ever turn turn it turn it over and have feasible all on my eye on. There is special stuff that you can get to clean your ions. But you don't really want to have to go down that path if you don't have to mistake. Like I said, this is where we reshape In re Cattell casings and why spend. So when the sense that you can see it's still pretty much the same as when I cut it, but sometimes if it's a natural fiber, it will shrink in Ryan's have a notorious for shrinking and some silks as well. But it's always nicer to do it. This white blob fuse and re-cap because then you get a really nice edge to it. But you can see that it gets a bit rough. Once you, if you don't do this, It's my front waist facing, back, whites facing. What didn't do that notch there. And now my waist band. You can see you get a much nicer edge to it. Actually, I'm going to extend this a little bit here because this is my center vaccine. But I want to add a little piece on to show you how to do a button closure center back. Quite often I would normally bring my zip straight up and to the skirt like this here I would if I had a waist band, I'd probably bring my zip right up until the waist band, but I wanted to show you how to do a button closure. Seem to break. You just lift them myself. Enough room to do this. So you can see how it gets a bit messy when you're trying to fuse it. And then, you know, the I always pulled with tugs at some somewhere. So this is a lot nicer to do it like this. It takes a bit more time and a bit of patients, but always nicer, much nicer finish. So here I have my center front position, sightseeing. Sightseeing and center back with, it's going to have a button stand here and lecture ever seen Tibet. Okay, so let's get sewing our script together. 7. Preparing the Waistband & Zip: So after I've cut all my skirt out, I pre fold all my waist bands before I actually do anything. Now you can either just just do it like I've done here. I've just folded back about our three-eighths, three-eighths of an inch or 1 cm either side. And then I get the steam iron. Can I just do it lightly at first? Always make sure your steam irons really hot because you don't want it, especially if your iron needs cleaning, you don't want to spit out dirty water. So just do it lightly because I want my eye and touch the fusing. And also I don't want it to stick to the pin heads as well. So you can just do it like this. And then just go. Then I pre folded again like that so that my waist band is already to be inserted onto my wastes. And now you don't need you don't need to put it if you don't if you don't want to. I mean, I literally just do it like this. I mean, it's it's a straight PCE. You don't have to worry about it going crooked. So I'll go down the complete length and then go over it firmly with the iron and hold it down. Okay. Should we spend ready to? So on. The other way is if your fabrics thicker, you probably can't do that because this will get really to the care if it's if it's a thick wool or anything like that, it'll be too thick or so. So the other way is just steam at first like this. I've got my waist band folded. And then I'll, what I'll do is I'll open up one side and I'll just steam the seam allowance in like this. And be careful. Be careful you don't burn yourself. Then it's probably do it the sides of the iron doesn't touch the fusing. Then all you're going to do is just overlook, overlooked or surge the sage here, which is going to go inside your skirt. And then you can literally just place it on top and then stitch all the way through. Or you can stitch like this here and then fold it over. I'll be showing you this anyhow, these two pieces here, I'm going to go on to the section I cut with the dots and show you how the data's the dancer, so on. And also this one here I'll show you how the zip goes right up into the waist band itself. Whereas this waist band here, I'm going to show you how to do a buttonhole and button closure at the top of the Zip. Okay. Let's finish off this one here. So the first thing I do before I actually uncertainty invisible zips is I press them open like it just makes it a little easier to stitch. So I open it, then I'll turn it over. I put a couple of pins at the end just to hold it down whilst I keep some tension on here. And what I need to do is I want to get this open. I want to get this is where you're going to be sewing really close inside here with a zip foot and invisible zipper foot. Okay, So I need to stop. So I actually flatten out a little bit with the iron, but I've gotta be careful because it's nylon. I can seal it and I can, but I can read the zip. So I go down quite fast. And it's not full steam, it's any light stain. Just to open up really quickly and see what I've done there, see how I've opened it. And let's close that size. So this is what I'm trying to do too so I can get in there. Do the same. The other side, Kevin, I'm being self and the stain. Seesaw. It's just it's a little bit flatter now. Okay. Do the same with the other one. It's a little tricky to do without keeping the iron on there too long. So again, I've been flattened open. Close it up now you can see it actually closes together instead of before it was sitting like that. Okay. I mean, it's not really necessary to do that if you don't want to, it's just that it can it does help bringing the same closer together when you're stitching the SIP, but you can do it without. It's not just I find it easier like this. Okay, another little hint is when you're busy or facing patterns here, and when you're overlooking them, overlapping the hymn part, just either lock them separately because, you know, when you saw them together. E.g. if you want to take it in later on or let it out depending on how long you want to keep your scope. Once you saw this. You want to let it out again. You just need to unpick that same. You've still got your overlooking at the bottom of the facing. Whereas if you saw it up first, so at besides seeing first, then overlook at last, when you want to alter it later on. This is if you want to alter it, then you want to unpick that same. But you've also got overlooked and that you have to chop through and it becomes untidy and it comes on down. So just overlook, you're facing, your back facing and your front-facing separately before you saw up your side scenes. Now, if you're using a plain fabric to cut out your skirt, talk, ****, whatever it might be. And it's a completely plain fabric. If it looks the same on the face side, which is the right side of the fabrics turn the face side or the wrong side, they look identical. As soon as you've taken your pattern of your fabric straight away, make a mark in him somewhere. On the side thing, somewhere where it's noticeable but not too dark. And do that on every piece so that you know that that's the wrong side of the fabric. It's very easy to walk away, you know, and you've opened it up. Well, you might have a bit of a mess somewhere on your table and you come back a new thing, which is the right side of the fabric. Now you should always, when you're cutting out and you're cutting a folded lay, the face side of the fabric should always be on the inside and just get used to doing that. So it just becomes a habit and you won't get confused. But if you're doing an openly and you probably have the face side showing up if you can, if you're going to be doing dot holds or making markings on your fabric, try and turn your fabric over so that you're cutting on the wrong side of the fabric. And then in this case, if it's just a skirt that's, everything's identical, you don't have to worry about changing your pattern. But if it is a right-side-up pattern and you're going to do that and you're going to be making markings on, onto the fabric. Then you have to turn over your fabric, your patent as well, because it's a right-side-up fabric, right-side up pattern. Okay. I hope I haven't confused you here. 8. Marking Skirt Darts: Now as I said before, the pattern that I'm using is, isn't a line skip pattern, which I taught in a previous class. But the very first pattern I torture was the script block in my very, very first class. And so I've swung out the dart to make my a line skip pattern. But if you're using a skirt that has a data and I want to show you how to mark the dance, and also I'll show you how to solve it as well. So I'm just going to cut just the hip section of the skirt. My skirt as a paper on a cardboard pattern as you can see, but you might have a paper patents, so you'll have to pin it. So mark your notches, just a little mark like that. Okay. And then your dad hold, your data should be at least a centimeter, three-eighths of an inch to half an inch up from the finished art. Just do a little mark like this. You can use Taylor's texts if you want to. I just think there's a lot of work. Just use a pencil but just very fine mark. Just a little mark here. I mean, you probably won't be marking around anything because your pet and will be paper, in which case you will pin it and you'll cut around it. But you could just do this instead of notching your pattern. Looks. I've just marked it with pencil. Okay, so that's the one I forgot to mark the risks of the Darton shaped section. You can see that's all. Got little drill holes. Drill holes. Little holes here, little marks here. Okay. Let's do the back. Sorry, I tend to talk industry terms. Sometimes I forget who I'm talking to. So this is the back. You might have to dodge. You might have one dark literally marks just like that. Okay. It'd be great for you do that if it's a fine white fabric because few mark heavy Marx believed me, you can't get them out sometimes. You can see just very fine marks at the bottom. They just enough for you to see. And when you go to mark the other side or you have to do after you've cut it out, is just put a pin through each little hole. Like this. You might not be able to see this angle, the camera, sorry. And then do the same again. Just mark tinny mock. I see you've got to both sides in the same here. Okay. Sorry, I moved the camera then. They are there. You might not be able to see them. Sorry. I'll do them too dark. You'll think you can do them dark, but you cannot cut them out. Okay. I'm going to start with the little hip section that I cut out on the front and the back just to show you how to sew dots. And also we'll put the invisible zip in with a waist band. If the overlooking one side now you'll have to excuse my overlooking my oval locker proper overlord decided to misbehave just as I started this class. So I had to revert to my indices are little domestic machine. So we will be sewing waist band just onto the back section of the skirt after if someone the dance. Okay. So first of all, He's not just at the top pin there. This is the bottom where you've made the mark for your bottom of your dad, which sits approximately 1 cm three-eighths of an inch to half an inch up from the finished bottom of your dark there. Okay. So just put a pin there as well. Now this is the direction that you'll be selling in. When you do your dots and you're a beginner, just put your pins like this. But when you're actually selling seems together. This is a two-sided seems you would normally pin like this. Then you would sew down. But don't ever, ever so over pins. I know a lot of people do it. What it does is it sends your sewing machine, the needle out of alignment, so don't do it and it also blanch your needle if they hit the needle. So you just saw down and then pull it out. But I'll be showing you that later. Okay, so let's pin all our dots. As I said before, you might not have two dots and your pattern and your back scoop pay what? You might just have the one and just put the pin just at the very bottom of the data. The reason you never mark your data at the bottom is because especially in a light fabric, if you put that hole at the bottom, that little mark at the bottom that can still be seen from the right side of the fabric. So you don't want it, you want it to sit up from the bottom of a dot. Two notches, put those together. So pull them so you know, you've got the right angle because I never doubted that usually sit straight like this. I usually sit on an angle. So that's great. My back dots pinned, just the front ones. Now, I've marked these a little bit dark so that you can see them. Here's the front dots. Now I'm going to be selling my dots to strike down. The same with the back. But sometimes, you know, if your tummy is a little bit curvy curve is that you might want to stitch it like this. You might want to stitch it. Just bring it, bring it in a little bit like this so that what happens is it just gives it a little bit, little bit more shape on the outside. But you won't know until you saw it anyhow. But you don't want this dot to poke out at the bottom. Okay? So you might, so that's what I'm saying. If if if it is poking out of the bottom, then you're going to have to shape your dad in a little bit like this just so it's a little bit more gentle at the bottom. Okay. So these dots and then will be invisible. 9. Sewing Skirt Darts: So this is my industrial machine that I'm using. So it's quite noisy compared to a domestic. But hopefully you get the idea. This the mark for the towards the bottom of the data and it's slowing down to here. Just speck stitch. This is the question mark towards the bottom of the dark, the selling down to bringing a really narrow I can because if you bring it in, if you selling to out too far, then you go into heaven bit of a bump, a bubble here. So when you really narrow, close to the page, you're going to finish very, very narrow at the bottom. You can see the cecum there. I should have stitch it with a dark thread so you could say. So these are your thoughts, so on. Okay, I've changed it to a black thread so I can see you can see a bit clearer. I need Calico so it doesn't matter. It's not as if it's my actual fabric. So this face that I'll just show it a little bit curved. So I'd say, you know what I'm talking about? The finish of the dot. That's the mark. This has finished at the dot here. So instead of selling, it strikes a purple and a little bit, okay. The alphabet actually out because by the time it goes to your stomach, it's much more gentle. And you don't get any pointing or poking out here at the bottom. Just say this one straight. You can see the difference. One's a little bit cool. That's if you've got a bit of a curvy tummy, full autonomy. And then this one is just the strike. So those are my front dots. Okay. 10. Inserting An Invisible Zip~Pt 1: Okay. So now I press my dad's I'm just working on the BEC section now because I'm going to show you how to stitch on the waist band so that we can put the zip and all the way up into the waist band. And on the other skirt we'll do a baton and buttonhole closure. And note that I press the dots towards the center vaccine. And on the front they get pressed towards the center front as well. That's don't go to the side. They go to the center. Okay. Sorry. I'll show you a couple of ways. So remember, we pre folded days and overlap with I've locked the back of them. So the first one I'm going to show you is why it's such a good idea to pre fold everything. It just makes life so much easier. So the first way is I'll show you when you're stitching, stitching up like this and you're opening it up. Don't stitch exactly on the phone. Just come in a little bit. If you stitch right on the phone, it tends to pull it back like this here. So what you do is that that particular ball there, the indentation, just stitch ever so slightly beyond it. I'll show you what I mean. I'm going to keep the blacks radon because it's easier for you to see. Okay. See how I stitched it. Not in the fall. Just a little bit less. When you fold it back, it's still sitting really nicely. If you had stitched. Right. And the phone, it just doesn't sit as nicely. It actually pulls it. See what I'm talking about. It's lovely, isn't it? Okay. Can you see the difference? This is where I've stitched right until the curve rather than to the gray. Can you see it's not sitting as nicely. It's actually it's actually touching it. It's pulling it. Or is this It's really, really nicely. See the difference. Once I saw like the Seiji going back and forth towards the eye and all the time I came now we're ready to insert house zip. That's going to go right up until the waist band. First of all, I have to change feet. My invisible zipper foot. I've had this industrial sewing machines since I was about 18 years old. And I remember it cost me $300. In Oakland was a young girl. The man said to me, that was a lot of money. Then the man said to me, you'll have that for the rest of your life. And I think he's right. It has never given me any problems being a beautiful machine. Okay. Now, you always slips a little bit long. I'm just using it for demonstration purposes. But you always want your zip to be at least three to 4 cm longer than the finished position of the zip. That is because you need that extra length here to be able to get down as close as possible to the same. I'll show you what I'm talking about. This is the right side of the zip. Turn it over. Now you want the top of the zip. To sit quite close to the top of your waist band. Now, this is where you need to get as close as possible to the teeth here. I'm actually going to use a bigger stitch because I want to pull this apart. Eventually. I'm just going to pull a camera down to see if you can see how close this is getting. See how close the teeth the teeth. I'm holding the camera as close as I can so that you can see how close I'm stitching. Now you want to try and get it right on that folds there. Okay, so once you've done that side, one side only, pull up your zip. Push it underneath, sets inside. Make sure that you line up the top of the zip and the waist span same exact, exactly on top of one another. Like this here. Just to make sure they're in the right position. And do the same to the bottom. Make sure there's no, None of us know peccary. Either side. Make sure they're both clean, sitting nicely on top of one another. Let's just put a pin near the, near the edge here, not closed because you won't be able to get the zip down. So just put it right on the edge like this here. Then you can put some other place holder pins just on the edge. Turn it over to check that everything is in alignment with just not. Let's see here. I didn't have it lined up properly. It's better. 11. Inserting An Invisible Zip~Pt 2: So now let's close up the zip at the top. I'm picking. Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to fold that back like they're bringing, bringing this down. The fold line is that fold line is there. Again, this is why it's so much nicer if you can just prefilled everything, press and pre fold everything makes life so much easier. Now I don't like too much excess insights always just layer, layer my scene so that become so they're not so thick. And then pull us through the CIA. I suspect my other side's not exactly lining up properly. I was a little bit rushed. Might have to fold it down a little bit to match up. It's gonna be a bit a bit crooked inside. Okay. As well as layering the same hair, cutting this back a little bit here. I would also lie of a seem a bit as well. Okay. Just try and layer layer them all out so that you don't have so much bulk thickness inside. That's right. Okay. I was a bit rushed, so it is not lining up perfectly but you get the idea. So let's just taking the zip right up until the waist band. Okay, easy. These are overlooked. Piece inside. So now I will just stitch the waist band close to remove my zipper foot, invisible zipper foot. Whenever you change a foot in your machine, whether it's a domestic or an industrial like mine here. Never keep your foot on the on the on the treadle on the machine. You're likely to accidentally push your foot down and that needle can come down onto your fingers. And also when you start sewing, don't start sewing until you make sure that that foot is on there securely. You should never actually just automatically start sewing straightaway. Always take it easy because you never know what something, something might have shifted up, might be out of alignment, so just push it down. Okay, so now I'm going to one side, I'm going to top stitch it. Pin stitch, headset that look if that's what you would like or the other way is the sinks that ship sinks that just thinking between life into the scene. So you don't actually see in this picture being a bit, being a bit noisy, naughty and rough here. But you can see it because it's a black stitching. But you normally, you wouldn't be, you'd be saying this in a white thread. But then let's think stitching so you're sinking into the scene. So the idea is for it to be. Okay, so that's how you saw an invisible zip case. It just now just to recap, all dots get folded towards the center, center back, and center front. And you can make your front dots a little bit curved out if you want. If your tummy is just a little bit more curvy. And don't forget when you're sewing and invisible zip to keep everything. So as close as possible into that groove. And make sure everything matches evenly at the bottom first, you keep it nice and clean like this. Okay, so now you know how to vote. So an invisible zip and do your dots. So there's no poking out at the bottom. 12. Sewing the Sideseams: So the first operation you would do on a basic skirt and a line skirt or gathered skirt is you would sell in your ZIP first. Now I've already done it here because I've shown you how to sell and invisible zip on the previous example. But you would always overlook your center back seam separately and open them and they usually a wider seem it's usually around about three-quarters of an inch or 2 cm wide. Then the reason you haven't open scene because I have seen people do this where they close it up and then they open it. It looks ugly and it never sits nice. Okay, so now that we've got our center vaccine and zip, so and then we're going to sew up the sides scenes. And then I'm going to show you how to make a waist band with an extension for the button and buttonhole. And then after that, I will show you how to sew on a waist facing. The waist facing brings it to the waist. Waist band brings above the waist. Okay, so let's get solving the sides. 13. Sewing A Waistband: Now we're going to solo the waist band onto the skirt first before the, before I show you the facing. And the first thing you do is I've already shown you how to pre fold the waist band. But if you choose to, if your fabric is too thick, thin, use the other way which is overlooking one side. And then pre fall the other side and then fold it like this here. That just cuts down on so much Bob within that scene. But this otherwise just use this method here. It just, there's so much easier. But first of all, I beg out each end like this here. But then I lay out the scenes. So I cut away everything. I can cut a little bit here. And I also layer this a little bit as well. Might all just layer this a bit. What you're doing is you're making a gradual thinning out. So there's not so much bulk when you turn it. This is not so much bulk layer, okay. It's a gradual thickness. Whereas if I show you the other end, now if you can imagine this was a thicker fabric, this would be a lot thicker and the same. So can you see what I'm talking about is thickness there. So layer it away. That chart to cut too close to the corner. Just a little bit like this here. I have this here. I'm not sure if I mentioned about getting some clippers in the equipment lists, but you can see these are quite old. But you can find these at any craft store. Easy to get. Quite reasonable. Okay. So now we're going to place it onto our scene and we can just do one row and stitch it on. Now, I've marked on the outside I extinction wouldn't normally do that, but I just wanted to show you There's my button extension. And I've also mark my center front and my site side, same side seems. Okay. Okay, we'll start at our center front. Seem to frontier. So we're going to do is literally match it, match that same distance. Now it's about a better, a three-act, same but not quite a three-eighths Same one, 1 cm. And just put a pin mark there just to secure. At center front. Will come and do the side, same left side c. But tricky because I'm holding it up to the camera up normally do this flat on the table. Just want to make sure that you can see nearly forgot, forgot to mention something. I've overlooked my scenes together, but you can overlook, keep them open if you want. If you've got quite big scenes, you can lock them separately, but when you overlap them together at the scene goes to the back, not the front. Okay. Keep it to the back. And always make sure that the face side of your overlooking or the right side of the overlooking, as always, the one that's showing. It's not very nice when you see the, the wrong side. And I mean, I'm being a bit pedantic, but I just like to keep everything nice and neat. Okay. I'm going to have to lay this down so it's easier to, easy to do. Let's see what I'm doing here. I'm lining up my cut edge with the seam allowance on the waist band. Will you have to do is just pin. Once you've fixed the sides in the center front, it, it pretty much lies where it's meant to. Anyhow, let's turn it around and do the back. The left back sits flush with the end of the zip. Know what the end of the waist pants aren't. The same thing. Just make sure it's about a centimeter wide, three-eighths of an inch, sits up into the waist span. Keep the bulk of the same at the back and push it in as far as you can. Give me that step itself when it gets the thick part. I've done it a few times when I've been sewing a wedding dress. Luckily, it's not been in the main part and I've managed to get it out. And then the extension goes on the side here. When you have to make sure now is it's just lining up correctly at the top. A little bit. Please come back in a little bit further. Push the pin-up. I'm trying to keep it nice and flush there. That's better. Okay. So it's easy, isn't it? I've got it a bit wider there actually. Now to me that keeps it really lovely, nice and neat and clean. Let's stitch that in and then we'll do the button and buttonhole closure. So I know I mentioned before, but when you're sewing the scene, when you're putting things together, put the pins in this direction. But in this instance, I'm attempting to keep them both together, everything together. So it'll just be the one stitch and because of the way that we've already folded it on top of one another, It's going to be one stitch that'll secure everything all the way through here. And you need You need as much of the same held with the pins as possible. So this is the best way to do it in this direction. Okay, So let's see what happens. 14. Sewing A Buttonhole Closure: Now there actually is a rule of way you position your button from the edge of your skirt, waist band or jacket. And it's usually half the distance of your button from the edge to the actual edge of the button. So in this instance, this is 1.751, 0.8. So I've measured about 9 mm from the edge. But it doesn't always apply to me. It sometimes I think it's purely aesthetics and design. So I'm just bringing in a fraction. Now. I want to mark the start of my buttonhole going back this way here. So I put a hole, this is for a see-through button. If it's a shank button, you have to work from underneath. Okay, so this mark here, excuse me. Now, my button hole will be a little bit bigger than my button. So I'm going to say Lilly, Lilly 2 cm in bed here. Okay. But I won't mark my button position until I've done my button hole because quite often you'll see this gap. And especially if you've got pants and your waist band is getting a little tight over time. It starts to get bigger and bigger soap. I actually force the force this rap a little bit and then I position my button so it's quite tight when it's on that doesn't have any of this gap happening. It looks really ugly. Button hole. So now that we've finished out buttonhole, we're going to mark Help button position. There was a set. I move it over a little bit like this. Bring it closer, you might see it instead of leaving it there like that, I'll bring it over because there's always tension on that button. We usually so it'll come back a little bit. I push it over like this. Then I mark the position with a needle or a pin. Market right in the corner. Bring the button, hole up the needle and then mark it with a pencil. Okay. Don't put your needle that don't move it over and then market and they with the pencil because what happens is you'll get lid all around here as you twist it around. Okay. Now will swell button. I'm using a two whole button as opposed to a shank. Just to show you how I strengthen it. Minor burger job, my button in case you missed that before I'm sewing with black so that you can see what I'm doing clearly. Just using basic Calico because it's easier for you to see instead of me using a print fabric. So you leave a little bit of a gap in there because we're going to be doing a shank. Okay? So just hopefully you can see this clearly. This is really important when it comes to overcoat, jackets and over coats. And you've got thicker fabric. Just do one more. Then I'll bring it up in-between the fabric and the button. Keep some tension on that. Put your fingers and I keep it tight. And then literally just go around it like this here. When you're doing is you're making a strong Shank in there. Okay. So it's really good if you've got I'm tight jeans, a strong fabric and your genes are pence and go back in and then knotted off. You might turn, patients would get the better of me. They're going to cut all the way through it. Okay. So this is a waist band with a button and Button whole closure. See, I've got quite a bit of tension on it. I should have taken this up a little bit higher actually, but it's not pulling back in Calc. I'm pulling quite a bit there. Okay. Now, let's so a waste. My spacing. 15. Sewing A Waist Facing: Now we're going to start on the waist facing excuse my mistake that I made before you saw me make before? I tried to fix it up. As I mentioned before, overlook your waist facing your becuase facing fears and your front waist facing. Then join the side things that you'll want to take it in or take it and it's not so bad if you want to let it out. If you've got a bigger seem, you want to let it out later on, you just have to unpick the same here and you've still got all your overlooking in place. But if you overlook this seemed last. If you want to let this out, you have the cut through the overlooking and then you've got a mess. So just overlook as much as you can beforehand. You're facing him. Unless it's a drapery fabric, then you have to leave your home alone. Okay, So let's start painting on the waist, facing. Open up the backseat. Now, this is where you can use tear away into lining along here if you want to stabilize this before you put the song. And it's a good idea to do if you've got fabric that's not stable like this, Calico is always pin your side seams first. Center front. I mean, you can also tape, you don't need to use tear away if you wanted to make keep the stable, you can put tape along there, make sure you measure waste, the waste of your pattern first and then put tape along there. This is the center back seam right there is the notch. I will seem to vaccine. Looks pretty ugly, doesn't it? Sorry. This is gamma doubles going to keep our wouldn't do this. Okay. Now what I want to show you is if we stitch all the way through here, it's not going to be very nice. So I'll show you a really nice way of keeping the back lovely and clean. If you can imagine this facing here is going to join back a little bit further beyond the center back. Same as this side here. The same won't be folding back right on that notch line there. It'll be folding back and bagging out with the zip. I'll show you what I'm talking about in a moment about here. So we're going to make a mark with the pins. Do the same to the other side. I have this pink. I can mark with the pin just there. Then we're going to use the zip foot and stitch it on first. Doing it from this side because you have to sell it from this side. But can you see the mark there is going to be sitting here. Okay. See if I can make this a bit clearer. That's where you're going to be stitching right here. See if I can make it a bit clearer the other side. So it's going to be folding back to there. Imagine you're facing is going to be turning over like this and this will be Becky like that. Okay. So what you do is take the pen out of the air, move this into position like that. Hold it. So essentially it's just, you're just moving the facing long a bit further because you're selling it at a different position and not selling it at the fold position. You'll fought for sewing it back onto the zip itself on the zip tape. Okay. So this is what you have here now you have that folding back like that there. So it's nice and clean. There's nothing buckling inside there. Okay. Hopefully I've made that clear. Now. We'll say the same first and you'll see what I'm talking about. Okay. It's going to be sitting like that. Okay, at this stage and actually start doing a bit of layering on my scenes. Because I want them. When I fall back to things, I don't want to let bulk and lysine. Same here. Now what I'll do is I'll change back to my normal foot again, a case, and now we're going to close out the whole way. So now this is about a quarter inch seam or 7 mm are probably a bit wider. So let's see what I'm doing here now see how that's buckling like that. I'm summing from the side because it's got the fusing on it. So from the side that's got the fusing on, then this will come back here like this. You fold everything back like this here. Really family. And then start selling all the way along. I might trim down one of those things just to take a little bit of thickness. Why seem to be too bad actually. Now, sometimes you might need to trim this notch in here. Fabrics really like linen or like the, this Calico. Because what's happening is this is a tight edge. So when you fold it through the other side, you want it to open up inside. And if it's still tightened side that it won't spread. Let's have a look and see. I'm naughty on, I'm using my screwdriver. I wouldn't do it if it was real, real screwed. Let's see if I've got it exactly. My pencil mark there. So it's pretty exact. I could have brought my seem a little bit lower so that it wasn't so may see at the top there it's a little guppy. Could have made a bigger scene. But can you see what I'm talking about? Isn't that nice and neat? Makes it a really lovely turn back. So instead of taking it right to the edge, or sometimes people will leave that loosened, then they'll switch it, enhance the chat afterwards, but you don't need to. Isn't that lovely? It's nice and clean and side. Okay, so now what we're going to do is we will pin stitch this back. Oh, let me turn this machine off. Okay. So you can see the waist facing been stitched on. Give it a price now. Now you can actually, so another seam on top there, you can make it a top stitch seam along there. Or you can even stitch through and make it a feature line through there as well. Now we have our finished skit with our waist facing. See how neat buses turn it around. See it's such a nice finished, so it just takes a bit of work just to pull the facing along a bit further. And then bag that out first and then your waist fake wastes same. And then pins that shipped back to Meg, give it a really, really nice edge. It's a nice firm age. It's lovely, isn't it? Then you just catch facing on the side seam there. Okay, Let's have a look at it on the stack. 16. Sewing A Curved Hem: I'm just about to do the him I've got a four centimeter him on this. That's about 1.5 ". So mine is a slightly flared him because I've got an a line skirt here. So this fabric, It's calico and it won't mold easily like any denim jeans or gardenias. They, they don't bend around if it's a wide scene, even if it's a narrow seen. So what you can do is I've put a large gathering, threat, gathering stitch. It's loose. Both ends. It's not not x that story. There's just loose buy things. And I just do that on the curves section of the hymn towards the sides. And I pin up as much as I can. So I've got a reference point. Now, even on a silk chiffon, if you've got a twelv millimeter half an inch him. And you want that to be the full width even all the way round. You don't want any sort of bubbles. Are any points sticking out like this. You have to just ease it and gently so that it goes around the curve without any ugly I'm points like that. Usually if you have a very deep, deep facing, you'll have a turnip, you'll have a very, you'll have a separate facing. And always looks a lot nicer than trying to do this. See so many just gently easing it in so you can take it out after you've stitched him closed. My iron. Sometimes I'm filming in my printer which is behind me, decides to talk. So embarrassing. Okay. So you can see what I've done here. I've just ease it and gently. And it sits a lot nicer on the edge of the hymn. But as I say, if it's a, if it's a wide him, I'll show you on another skill that I've done. If it's a wide gamut, I've made a separate facing and stitch through and it looks really lovely. So here I've got the center back where of stitched up ended up as much as I can. But then I've got I'm coming to the curved section and I'll have to start easing the human. So you can imagine if it's a really defined curve, it takes a lot of easing. If it's a wool, it's much better because wool actually stains and you can, you can actually steam and more quite a lot. And it sits beautifully at moles, beautifully guardians cottons, they don't just gently easing. Okay. I think then you can machine or hand stitch along here. And then you can take out your thread. But now I'll steam it, will do the rest of the scared and then I'll steam it. Now I know this heme is going to be level because this is my own skirt. And I've tested this pattern before, but I would normally not do the Him until it's been labeled on the stand or labeled on my body. So if it's an array on fabric, you definitely have to label before you overlook anything. Okay, hymns already pinned up. Steam it. Now I've stitched the hill. I'm just giving it a final press. I'm pulling. I'm just going to pull. So now you still have a really lovely finish to the Him without any points. And there's the easing. So it looks a lot nicer, doesn't it? So again, I'll pull pull the top one, which is the one that I pulled initially to cause the easy. When pull the bottom one out. Don't forget, don't, don't stitch right on top of your gathering threat because you'll never get it out, stitch above it or below it, but really just stitch right there, right through the overlapping. Okay. But not not on top of the gathering three because you might get it out. So here you can see the finished him. This is the inside. So say we all the easing is being kept at the top there where the gathering thread was. But all the him at the bottom, the finished age is all nice and smooth. And that wouldn't happen if you didn't do the gathering threat. This is not a very curved him, but when it's a very curved him, this really does help quite a lot. You don't want to see things like this poking towards the Him. So it's lovely and smooth, isn't it? Gives it a nice finish. Bit crooked there. And now the JavaScript, this is what I was talking about before that if you have a deeper him on, this is the sketch that I did in my previous class about how to make a swing skirt. And this has got a very deep him, especially on the back, has a very, very deep him. So that would be pretty tricky to do if you wanted to do the gathers at the top there. So it's much easier just to do a separate facing. And the beauty of this is it makes the skirt, it gives the weight at the ham. And if you have a look at my previous class, the swings around beautifully because that white just really helps the Him. Beautiful and wedding dresses. Okay. The only thing with having a separate facings, even if they're narrow separate facings as they take an enormous amount of fabric, if you want to fuse them as well for extra weight, it really does take a lot of work, but they sit beautifully. 18. Review & Thankyou: You saw in your first sketch. It's pretty exciting. Let's recap what you've learned in this class. Okay? So first of all, you've learned how to lay your pattern on the fabric correctly using the correct grain lines and how to measure in from the edge. You've learned where to cut first, not in the middle of the array, but at the end of the Lay Theory important. You've also learned how to him if it's a slight curve, how to ease it in so there's no puckering anywhere. You've also learned how to say the side seams. So a wet my waist span with a button closure and also a waist facing. But most importantly, you've learned how to insert an invisible zip. So it's not that difficulties that. But bear in mind that even though this is omega, this, this is a skid class. It's not only for skirts. You can apply the skirt, waist facing, you can apply it around the neck with a St. of beck and visibles that you can apply that to an arm hole with an invisible zip down the side seam. It's the same with the waist band. You can apply that to a nit treatment. An arm hall. You can bring it bring the button closer up on the shoulder. It's not only for a skid, it applies to so many different areas of sewing, pattern cutting. And also don't forget you have all your marriages and yardage is on the diagram sheets that I've supplied underneath the resources tab as well as your materials list. So whatever width fabric you're using and what size you are, the meters and yards are all at the end of each diagram of each layout. Okay, so now I have a favor to ask of you. My students, all of my students, in fact, I would really love it if you could post a review of this class because it helps me as a teacher to know if I'm on the right track on, might not have clarified something clearly enough, or you might have some suggestion. But if you do post the review, it really does help other students to know if they want to take the class as well. Plus it helps Skillshare as well. So I really hope that you've gained a lot out of this class. I hope that I've clarified everything for you, but as I said, please let me know. But I do appreciate you taking my class. Thank you so much. I really look forward to seeing you in my next class coming up. Bye. 19. Bloopers!: Finally, you've set off for goodness sake, How can I forget 2 s ago? Okay, so now you've sown your fist top. Top. Okay, So now you finally saw in your first top, for goodness sake.