Basic Lolita Skirt - Illustrated Tutorial

A tutorial based off the one by the wonderful Miscy (click for link). I tried it out during Christmas and ended up making three skirts... when I could hardly sew on a button before! I thought I could illustrate more of her instructions for other noobs like myself. I hope this is useful!


Materials needed:

ღ Sewing machine + Thread
ღ Fabric (~2.50m / 2-3 yards)
ღ Trimming (e.g. double lace)

ღ Measuring tape + Ruler + Chalk + Scissors  + Iron


Instructions:

Measure your waist and multiply it by three (e.g. 70cm x 3 = 210cm). Now mark with chalk where this length comes to in your piece of fabric. Decide how long you want your skirt to be. I am 156cm / 5'1" and I used 50cm / 20".

You should have a big rectangle that measures (your waist x 3) by the length of your skirt. In this example, 210cm x 50cm.


Fold this piece of fabric in half and cut so you have two identical but smaller rectangles (110cm x 50cm).

Match both pieces of fabric and sew a small straight stich on the sewing allowance line you have drawn as a guide. Zig zag close to the straight stich to make a more proffesional looking edge.

Cut the excess of the sewing allowance as close as you can to the zig zag stich you have just made.

Nice! Separate both parts and iron your new seam to one side. You will have a very long piece of fabric, three times the lenght of your waist. Now to gather!

Lower your thread tension and set your stich lenght to the longest. Sew two straight stiches both along the red line and parallel to it.

Take hold of one of the threads and slowly, really carefully pull the other. This will form a small gather. Continue to do this along the whole lenght of your piece of fabric. Don't pull one thread and then the other, it has to be the same one you keep pulling. When you finish, pin it down to the waistband! Straight stich down.

Turn the piece of fabric, so you are now looking at the right side of it.

Fold the waist band into itself and press it down. Straight stich over the gathered edge carefully (because this stich will show on the skirt. This is called topstiching). The gathered fabric of the skirt should be looking neat and finished by now.

[Lace hemming] Pin your trimming upside down along the length of your skirt and straight stich down.

Fold the trimming under and press down again. Straight stich and you should have a neatly trimmed bottom hem.

Sew the sides of the skirt together three quarters of the way, then hem each sides separatedly. Sew hook / button to close up the gap.

Enjoy your new lolita skirt! ٩(｡•‿•｡)۶