Start Dreaming: Skort to Skirt Tutorial

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This was one of my very first little sewing projects I tackled. Learned a TON from it! So glad that I have found sewing. It is really fun! I think the reason I like it so much is because I actually FINISH something. You know that I mean? I am a mom of 4, homeschooling, keeping up with the house, throw in a few critters and a busy Husband. Nothing I do ever gets finished. Except now I can say I finish things a LOT because of sewing. Woowho!

First off, this is a photo HEAVY post. First tutorial… I took pictures of everything and I only used half of them here! Ha! Secondly, all pictures were taken in a hurry with my phone. Some of them don’t look so well. Sorry!

Materials:
1 too short skort
1 old nightgown, dress
or approx 1yd of 60in fabric

PLUS:
thread
sewing machine
pins
bandaids <- - yes… get them

And the desire to have an adventure with your sewing skills is always a bonus.

Now to get to work!
Grab a snack while you contemplate your plan of attack.

Wait… no… you have a plan here.
Cut out the inside shorts of those skorts.

Be careful of the inside pockets!!!
Oh and my fingers look grotesquely bent in this photo. Weird…
At any rate, cut carefully along the inside pocket with scissors.

Now figure out what length you want to cut down your skorts. I wanted the back pockets intact. Originally I thought making the front shorter than the back would be cool, but I couldn’t figure out the logistics of the nightgown so I just went for straight across. Hehe…

Ta Da! Now you have some really, REALLY short skorts.
I used my handy-dandy-sewing-ruler-thingie (that’s the technical term) for cutting as close to a straight line as I could. You might want to use a fabric marker to make a line though. Might work better.

It’s the nightgowns turn on the chopping block. I didn’t want the strip of buttons down the front so I just cut straight across from that point.

This next photo shows how much wider the nightgown is from the skorts.
(Ahem... maternity night gown. Thank you.)
Time to pull out the iron and set up your hem! I made my hem about 1/2in because I wanted to make a ruffle. Use pins to hold it after you iron and be sure to have that box of bandaids handy now.
(You think I’m joking don’t you? Get the bandaids!)

Now, at this point I had a bleeding finger. (Thank you bandaids for protecting my white patterned fabric!) I wanted a little ruffle where the skort meets the nightgown, so sew your longest regular stitch at the bottom of your oversized hem that you just made.
(If this doesn’t make sense, just keep reading… you’ll see it. I hope!)

Not sure how to gather an item?
Check out this pinterest pin for detailed directions.

Here’s three steps in one photo. Are you ready? After you’ve done your gathering stitch pull on the bobbin thread (bottom thread) to gather the skirt together (A). Be sure to check the width of the gathering to the skort (B). And than tie off the gathering thread with a few knots to keep your gathers from skoo-tching (yes, another technical term) around on you while sewing (C).

A somewhat tricky part. Remember how I wanted the cute ruffle (from above) peeking over the skort? Well, this idea breaks all logic (for me) of attaching a gathered item to a non-gathered item. So… here goes…

Line up your skort and nightgown hem. Both items should be wrong side out. Put the nightgown under the skort and pin. (In retrospect I think both of the items right side out with the nightgown on top would have made for easier sewing… live and learn. You should try it that way though. You can see the gathering stitch line better and cover it with the attaching stitch.)

Here I zipped away attaching them together, sticking myself with more pins and I did an overlap stitch at the bottom of my skort, but forgot a picture. It really isn’t necessary.

Oh and I also attempted to break my machine by letting a pin sneak past me. Don’t let them do that…. grrrrr…

And there you have it! (Notice, no bandaids on the fingers? It’s because I took this picture a few days later. Hehe… I did get to finish the project in one day though! Without interruptions I think this should take less than 45 min. Maybe… should… let me know! Hehe…)

PS- Yes, I made the upcycled tshirt in the photo too. That was my FIRST ever sewing project. Love it… but never wear it because it says “I Wanna Ride” all over the back of it. Hehehe… Whoops! It’s one of my Hubby’s unwanted motorcycle tshirts.

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