Maternity Skirt 101

My favorite jeans to wear are the Secret Fit Belly jeans from Motherhood.  I love the spandex top that gives me full coverage and sucks me in at the same time.

I really wanted a skirt (or 5) that did the same thing.  However, despite my searching, I couldn't find any.  So, I took matters into my own hands and produced this

Cute, no?  I loved making it so much, and it really was so easy, that when I made my next skirt, I took loads of pictures so you all could make this skirt too.

So, here it is, my first tutorial (which means when you have loads of questions because my instructions were clear as mud you better ask).

To make any of the pictures bigger, just click on them.

Super Cute and Sassy Maternity Skirt

Materials
2ish yards of skirt fabric - anything that has a nice drape
1/4 yard swimsuit fabric - you want something with good stretch.

First thing you want to do is either find a skirt pattern you love, or a skirt you love.  This is going to be the template for your pattern.

I took my jeans that I love so much, folded them in half and laid them out.  I then put the skirt I love, again folded in half,  on top of the jeans so I could make my pattern.

Next I got a piece of wrapping paper (my favorite thing to make patterns with) and traced the top so I could have something to pin to the fabric.

This shows my layout.  Now I knew what shape to cut the skirt part in, and how much of the stretchy fabric I would need.

Next, I pinned the top of the skirt down so that I would be cutting where the skirt hits my hips.

Now with your fabric folded in half, lay out your pattern with the front of the skirt on the fold.

Now for the back.

I did the same thing I did for the front, except I turned my jeans around to make my back pattern piece.

After cutting it out, I laid the front that I had already cut out, on top of this.

Now here is something very important.  You see how the pattern piece I cut out curves on the front?  Don't cut that curve.  DO NOT  CUT THAT CURVE!!!  I did the first time and I had a great little V in the front of my skirt.  Just make it square as you can see I did in the picture.

Now that you have both sides cut out, serge or sew them together, right sides facing together.

Now it is time for the waistband.

As you can see when looking at the jeans and my drawing of what I wanted the top to look like, the front was going to be longer than the back.  With two little ones running around my sewing room and asking to listen to Jingle Bells, I couldn't concentrate enough to do that.  So, I just made my waistband all one size.  It works and I love it.

For my waistband measurement, I took the fabric and measured it against my jeans to get the right width.  I cut two of these and serged right sides together.

If you don't have a pair of jeans that you love like I do, just take the stretchy fabric and put it around your waist until it is comfortable.  You don't want it so tight that it cuts off the circulation, but you want it tight enough to stay in place.

After I had my right sides serged together, I folded it like I would fold the top of a sock down, wrong sides together.  This makes it two layers thick.  Now you don't have to do this, but if you don't, you will want to make a small hem at the top.

You can see that the waistband is much smaller than the skirt.  This is good, you want it this way.

Pin the waistband to the skirt, right sides together.  I pin at each side, matching up seams and the center front and center back.

 Now baste this together.  Basting is using a long stitch, I set my machine at a 4, so that it is easy to rip out if I need to.

Try on your skirt and be sure it fits how you like.  If it doesn't, then take out the stitches you just did and redo the waistband.  Lucky for me, it was perfect, so I was ready to serge.

 When you start to serge it (or do a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine) you will see that it is a bit bunched up.  Stretch it out while you sew, being sure that the fabric lays flat.

Now it's time to hem this baby up.  Try it on again and check the length.  Mine was a lot longer than I wanted, so I actually ended up cutting off about 4 inches.   Pin it where you want it and make a nice hem.

This next step is extremely important.  Try it on and have your 4 year old take a picture so you can share it with the world.  Be sure that your undies are cutting into your belly so it looks like you have two.  I can't stress the importance of this step enough.

Now, find the perfect sassy maternity shirt and show off your Sassy Self for all the world to see!

You just made a skirt and it wasn't too painful, now was it??

Questions??  Please ask.  I will answer all questions in the comments, so everyone can see.  Share what you made with me, I can't wait to see!!!

*With the first skirt I made, I used a different skirt as my pattern than the second.  So, the first one is a bit more full than the second.  The skirt pattern I used for the red and gray skirt is adapted from the Amy Butler Barcelona skirt pattern.