Fitted Skirt Session 1: Introduction & Taking Measurements

Welcome to the Perfect Fitted Skirt class. I'm going to teach you all you need to know how to make a skirt that fits you absolutely perfectly. Plus, you get to choose all of the elements that you would like to put in there, such as darts, a specific hem, a different waistband, a slit if you want it. So let's get started. The first thing I wanna talk about is all the tools that you're going to need to get this done, okay?

So as far as supplies go, the first thing you need is to pick some fabric, okay? You'll need about probably two yards, just so that you have a little bit extra. You probably won't use all of that, but just in case you need to recut, it's good to have a little extra on hand. So we've got fabric. We're also going to need a zipper.

When you're doing a fitted skirt, it literally fits you perfectly. You're using a woven fabric instead of a stretch fabric like a knit. So you can't just stretch it to get it on. So you're gonna have to have a zipper to be able to get in and out of it because it's structured. So we've got a zipper here.

As far as the notions that you're going to need, we're gonna need scissors to cut our pattern out. We're gonna need some pins to pin our pattern to our fabric. We're gonna need a seam ripper of course because even though it's our best friend/worst enemy, you're probably going to need it at some point. So keep that on hand. You also are going to need a ruler, and possibly a French curve if you have it.

Once we get to the section where we're drafting the pattern, I'll explain what the two of these things are for. The French curve is not necessary. I'm just pretty bad at sketching a curve, so sometimes it's helpful to have a little template that you can follow. So that's what that is for. We have a measuring tape here because we're gonna learn how to measure ourselves, so that we can make our skirt fit perfectly.

The worst thing is when you get a pattern, and you try to make the size that it says on the pattern, and then it doesn't fit and then you have to alter it. So we won't be doing any of that in here. We're just going to measure ourselves perfectly, and we'll make the pattern to match. We're also going to need, for the tracing of the darts that we're gonna make, we can either use these tools right here. This is some wax-free tracing paper, and there's this really cool tracing wheel here.

So I'll show you how to use that. Again, not necessary. We also have an iron-off pen right here. And you can also use that to transfer your darts. When we set the zipper, you're supposed to baste.

And I am not a fan of basting because then you have to seam rip. So there's this great stuff called basting tape that's a little bit of a cheat. And so I'm gonna show you how to use that, so that it's very easy to install your zipper in one step instead of two. So we'll talk about that. You're also going to need some pattern tracing paper.

Now, this is actually not pattern paper. This is exam table paper. And because I write a lot of patterns, I get this just on Amazon. It's literally the stuff that's spread across the doctor's office booth when you go and you sit in there. So exam table paper, it's really cheap, and you can get it by the case, and then you can have a lot on hand.

So we'll be using this to draft our pattern. But the first step we need to talk about is how to measure yourself properly, okay? So I'm gonna grab my measuring tape. And I have a dress form right here. We are going to talk about the perfect way to measure yourself.

So let's just open this up here. Now, we want to measure our waist first. Now, our waist is basically, even though it is technically the smallest part of you, so my waist would be way up here. Even though it's the smallest part of you, when you're making this skirt, the waist is where you want your skirt to sit. So if it's high waisted, then you're going to do it up here, which would be right here.

And it's labeled waist very nicely on this dress form. But if you want it to sit a little bit lower, then you're going to measure right down here. So a good way to do this is by trying on your favorite pair of jeans, or a skirt that you already have. And see on your body where it sits, and then measure that part of your body, and that will be your waist measurement. So we're going to just use the literal waist here.

So we're going to measure the waist, okay? So we have about 28. We're also going to add some ease, so I'm just gonna write that measurement down for now, okay? So we've got 28. All right, now, we're going to measure the hips.

So on these dress forms, it's really easy. There's kind of a little divot that you can use. But when you're measuring your own hips, you want it to be literally the widest part of you, okay? So remember, ladies, we have a booty back here, so we want to make sure and measure around the widest part of our booty as well, okay? All right, so here, we have 39, okay?

Is the hips in this case. All right, the next measurement we want to measure is your waist to hips, okay? So again, remember, if I measured my waist way up here, then I want to measure from here to where I measured my hips. If I decided to move my waistband down a little bit, then I'm gonna measure from here to here, okay? So we're going to just do a regular high-waisted skirt on this guy.

So we're gonna start right at the waist, and we're gonna measure right to the hip, okay? So we'll start right there. That is seven inches, okay? Again, if I was moving it down to here, and I want it to sit here, I would lower it, and I would measure to my hip. In this case, it would be five.

But we're gonna do a high one, so this is gonna be seven. So I'm just gonna write seven. The last number we need is the length, okay? So what we want to do is we want to start at the hip. We already have the measurement from waist to hip.

So we've got that marked. So we're gonna start measuring at the hip. And then you're just gonna let it hang, and you're gonna decide where you want your skirt. So it looks like, mm, about 15 inches is probably gonna be good for this one. So I'll write down the length is 15.

All right, now that we have all of our calculations for our measurements, we can go to the worksheet that you have that's available as part of a download for this class, and you can choose whether you're doing the fitted, the faced waistband or the attached waistband 'cause the calculations are just a little different. So get that out, plug your measurements in, and do your calculations. And in the next section, we're gonna talk about how to draft your pattern.