So I'm going to share some of my favorite D.I.Y. things on here with the link or origin of where I found them and detailed pictures and instructions of my process. Which can sometimes be very vague, I'll warn you now. But, since I hate reading D.I.Y. posts that are very vague and not detailed I'm trying to steer away from that myself. I want anyone and everyone that has a desire to get satisfaction out of doing things themselves!
My first one is going to be making your own elastic waist fringe skirt. The customization here is endless. You could just make the elastic waist skirt and stop there if you wish or you could do different fringe patterns, you could dye/bleach the end of the skirt/fringe like here (FANTASTIC blog, by the way! I have a lot of posts of hers I'll be referencing, she's amazing and her photography is breathtaking. I wish she was closer to do future photographing sessions of mine.) the options are kind of endless.
You need to start out with fabric, 1.5 to 2" elastic (this depends on what is comfortable for you, go smaller or bigger even if that's comfortable for you!) that measures comfortably around your waist- basically how your want your skirt to feel when you're wearing it, matching thread, and fabric scissors- super sharp or you will get annoyed at cutting a bunch of fringe strips. I think I cut about 35-ish. But I had the skirt doubled over so it was half as much as it could've been.
My fabric was the length of my waist down to my feet + around 2.5-3" for my waistband. The width of the material is usually 60" wide which for me is plenty to do the waistband. I shoot for at least twice my waist, or more because that just means more gathered but you can do less too if you don't like it as gathered. If this isn't enough, you could do the 60" as your length and get your waist size in the yardage. Your local fabric store can help you determine with your fabric choice, because each fabric is different. Sometimes the stretch part goes from top to bottom and sometimes from right to left. Have them help you if you can't determine it. You can measure this yourself at home or your local fabric store employees would be happy to measure you. I used to work at Hancock Fabrics.. trust me. :)
I used striped material because I loved it and it was easy to straighten up and measure. You can use solid fabric or any kind of print you like, it just needs to be a knit fabric to keep the ends from fraying. We aren't hemming this one. HORRAY!
Next, I ironed the material and straightened up the top and bottom to be even.
I then folded the piece of fabric hot dog style (did you fold things like that in elementary school? haha) with the stretch part that will be the elastic and hem at the top and bottom and the length of my skirt the side that is pinned. I pinned mine the entire length and fairly far apart. If you are a beginner it might be easier to pin it closer together because sometimes knit material tends to curl up after you cut it.
I apologize for how dark these sewing machine pictures are, but I think you can get the general idea here. Here I am sewing a 5/8" seam allowance along the entirety of the length of my skirt. 5/8" is standard with most apparel patterns, there is a convenient line on the right of your machine foot that helps you align your project while you're sewing. You could also tape at that line or use a magnetic seam guide (life saver.) to help you keep an even seam.
This is what the inside of the skirt looks like after I've sewn the length together. This is where you would press the inside if you weren't sewing with a fabric that curls up, so it's not an important step here.
Now you have a piece of fabric that looks like a big tube with an open top and bottom because the side is sewn together.
Next is the waistband. You will measure your elastic and add 1/2" to 5/8" for the seam. Turn down this measurement. I made mine super easy, I turned down to the gray line and pinned. It's very important that you have your fabric inside out and fold down to the inside of the skirt. You want the opening of the waistband seam to be on the inside. Again, I pinned pretty far apart so if it's easier you can pin closer together.
When you are sewing, leave an opening about 3-4" wide to insert your elastic. I normally leave this space near the seam because when I sew it up, the stitches closing it up will be on the side or back, not on the very front of the skirt. This doesn't really matter, it's just a habit of mine to have a pretty seam in the front.
You can sew with a zig zag stitch here or a straight stitch, just stretch your fabric a little while you are sewing so when the skirt gets stretched the stitches don't break.
I then inserted the elastic into the opening I left in the waistband with a safety pin to easily move it through the waistband.
This is what it looked like when I brought the elastic through the whole waistband and out the other side of the opening I left.
At this point I pinned the elastic together and tried the skirt on to see how it fit and I actually made my original measurement smaller because the elastic was really stretchy and I wanted it to fit tighter.
After I was happy with the fit of the skirt. I overlapped the elastic ends, and made sure that the elastic wasn't twisted because it's easier to do than you would think! I then sewed from the top to the bottom a couple of times to prevent the elastic from coming apart when I wear the skirt.
Since I was happy with the fit of the skirt I sewed the opening for the elastic waistband closed.
This one's kind of blurry, but this is what it looked like after I finished the waistband. I did two seams below the elastic because I allowed more room than the size of the elastic and I like for the space to be pretty tight around the elastic. It just looks better when its bunched up, but not too tight that the elastic curls down when it's worn.
At this point I started experimenting with fringe on the end of the skirt. I wasn't quite brave enough to make the fringe as high as the tutorial I referenced above so I aimed for mid-calf and I figured I could always go higher. This is also where the stripe came in handy, because I just cut up to the top of the gray line at first.
This is what the bottom looked like after I cut all the way across. I didn't measure the width of the fringe because it's really forgiving if they aren't exactly perfect. The knit material curls up anyway, so it wouldn't be obvious if they aren't all exactly perfect. Also, this would be a great opportunity to use your rotary cutter if you have one.
I ended up making longer fringe in the front about up to my knees and angled the fringe down to mid-calf around the sides and back. This is the creative part because you could do pretty much any length all the way around or vary it like I did. You could even do a zig-zag cut, which I think would be fun and I might try that in the future. I think I need more fringe in my wardrobe.
^edited with A Beautiful Mess app
