Howdy sew-a-long partners!
We are at the final stage of putting together our Sophia outfits – just a waistband to add, an invisible zip to sew and a bit of hemming and we are done!
So your skirt should resemble a skirt at this point – your pockets are in your side seams and pleats are all done now let’s finish it off…
Firstly you want to interface 1 of the waistband pieces we already did this HERE on the top facings so simply iron on the interfacing to the wrong side of just one of the waistband pieces using that guide. This will now be your front piece.
Now overlock or use zig zag stitch along the bottom long edges of both pieces and pin right sides together along the long raw edge.
Stitch together at 1.5cm.
Press well on both the wrong and right side either open or if overlocked towards the interfaced piece.
Pin the interfaced (front) waistband RST to the skirt top and stitch in place at 1.5cm.
Press outwards.
Now it’s the time to put in the zip – don’t worry it’s not at all scary!
Firstly change to your invisible zip foot – if you don’t have one there are ways to do it with a normal zipper foot here (video) and here (pictures).
I would highly suggest investing in the right sewing machine feet – invisible (left) and normal double sided (right) – it will help a lot!
With the skirt to turned out to the right side follow this guide below or a more in depth one I did here to put in your invisible zip using an invisible zip foot.
(Click on picture to make larger and much more readable!)
- Change to a regular zipper foot
- Turn skirt inside out with zip done up
- Pin along seam RST from last stitch, pulling out the zip stopper to the right
- Align zip groove with the teeth underneath the raised part of the foot. (In my case, I’m using the right side to connect the foot to the machine so the zip teeth are to the right)
- Start sewing at the last stitch from zip. Back stitch at the start.
- Then carry on to the bottom of the skirt in the usual 1.5cm seam allowance
ZIP DONE! 
Finish seams (if you haven’t already) and press open.
Firstly, cut the top off zip tape above stopper (the bit of glue or metal clamp depending on your zip) on both sides.
- With zip open, fold waistband -right sides together- in half and pin over zip tape
- Using the regular zipper foot still, sew with the teeth in groove of foot to bottom of waistband.
- Snip off the top corner, without going through the stitching.
- Do this on both sides and turn out to the right way.
It should look like this – nice and neat!
Now press down the back waistband piece, rolling over 2mm of the front waistband at the top (so the seam can’t be seen from the front.)
It’s time for some stitching in the ditch!
I use special feet for this bit too to help with my accuracy – these are quilting feet to aid straight line sewing.
To Stitch In The Ditch:
- Pull back waistband and skirt to sew in the fold and make sure you are using the most subtle coloured thread for your fabric.
- Start just after zip – backstitch at the beginning and sew carefully in the groove of the seam
- Carry onto other zip side – backstitch again but don’t sew over zip teeth!
- Take it slow and try to keep the stitches in the groove where waistband meets skirt.
- Make sure you are catching the back waistband and seam allowance inside the waistband.
Look mum – no visible stitches!! 😉
Nearly there peoples – just a tad of hemming to conquer!
Well this bit really depends on what length you want the skirt – I tried on mine at this point and roughly pinned up the hem in front of the mirror to get the midi length I wanted so that gave me an idea of how big I wanted my hem to be – which was a massive 2 inches!
Whatever length and size hem you are going with hemming is always the same…
- Divide the amount you want your hem size to be by 2 – this is the size of each fold. EG, I want a 2″ hem so each fold is 1″.
- With the skirt the wrong side out – turn over the edge of the skirt by the amount you just worked out and press well the whole way round. I am using a hem gauge to measure here but a tape measure or ruler will do nicely. Do make sure you measure the whole hem as it’s curved.
- Then fold over again by the same amount – press well.
- Turn over the skirt to the right side – press hem in place again and pin all the way around
- Stitching on the right side looks so much neater so that’s the way I am doing it here but you can just pin and stitch on the wrong side if you need to follow the fold hem.
- Follow the curve of the hem and stitch close to the fold (you should be able to follow a seam guide on your sewing machine – I marked one on here so I could follow a 2.5cm guide.)
- Carry on sewing till you get to the first stitches and overlap a little to lock in place.
Trim off any loose ends, give your skirt a good press all over annnnddd…
HOORAY- You’ve made yourself a lovely Sophia outfit! Give yourself a massive pat on the pat/ have a cup of tea or G&T and wear your new lovely handmade items with pride!
Please show us your Sophias’ – you can add pictures and comments to the group here or email it to me on gabby@livingonashoestring.net I will be sharing your makes soon so make sure you don’t miss out!
I have really enjoyed my first sew-a-long (even though I still haven’t worked out where the dashes go!) a huge thank you to Simple Sew and Love Sewing Magazine for asking me, to Lisa from Tiny Stitcher for her amazing guest post, to White Tree Fabrics for the beautiful fabrics I used, to Rachel and Kate from The Fold Line for their brilliant support and to all of you lovely readers for your joining in, comments and encouragement – it’s been so lovely getting to know my fellow stitchers!
Take care and HAPPY SEWING!
