Tiered skirt tutorial

In a typical tiered gathered skirt, there is a roughly consistent ratio of widths between the tiers. Many people use a 1: 1.5 to 1:2 ratio. Usually, the waistband of the skirt is a gathered elastic casing. The waistband of the skirt is also usually of a larger circumference than the wearer’s waist, and gathered to size by the elastic.Like this:

The picture below shows an example of the ratio of widths in the tiers of a skirt.

Everyone knows how to make an elastic-casing waisted skirt, so I thought today we’d do one of those smooth knit-wrapped waistbands instead.

Right at the top is the elastic, and immediately below it is the ivory-colored knit waistband that will encase the elastic. Below that are the three tiers of the skirt. All five components are already sewn into their respective loops, ready for connecting to each other. Try to remember the width of the first tier (the white rectangle) – we’ll make some references to that later.

Let’s start sewing! I’m going to be indulgent and show a lot of photos and steps even though I’ve done tiered skirts to death in previous tutorials. This is to hopefully reassure you that making tiered skirts in knit fabrics is not that different from making them in wovens the way you are used to. Sound good?

First, let’s prepare the waistband:

Fold the waistband lengthwise in half and slip the loop of elastic into it. Pin all around and set this aside. For a More Detailed treatment, See the Old waistband tutorial here .

Next, we’ll gather the bottommost tier. This is done exactly the same way as with wovens:

I like to sew two rows of long stitches all around the circumference, and then pull the pairs of threads to gather the fabric. Two rows of stitches make very even, parallel gathers between them – I find this better than just doing one row.

Make quarter-marks on both the bottommost tier (dark pink) and the middle tier (light pink), and pin the corresponding quarter points together.

The gathers are adjusted so that the circumference of the bottommost tier matches that of the middle tier and the tiers are attached by sewing between the gathering rows.

Note: once you’ve sewn these tiers together like this, this seam ceases to be stretchy. If you try to stretch it, the stitches will snap. If you ever want a gathered seam to be stretchy (like if it’s below a chest yoke), then sew down clear narrow elastic in this seam as you stretch it.

Now, if we were working with woven fabrics, we would repeat this process to join the pink tier to the white tier, and then fold over the top of the white tier to make an elastic casing and gather the whole thing into a waistband.

However, we are working with knits, so we don’t need a gathered waistband.

Let’s reduce the width of the topmost (white) tier from this:

to this:

See? Much smaller.

How small? Only as wide as the wearer’s hips, because that’s what it needs to slip over.

Now this is what we have:

We repeat the gathering process for the middle tier,

match the circumference to the topmost (white) tier

and sew between the rows to attach.

Don’t top-stitch. You can top-stitch with wovens, to flatten the gathers, but not with knits. You can, however, do a cover-stitch here, if you want. But why complicate things? It looks gorgeous as is. Moving on!

Now pin the waistband upside down, to the top edge of the topmost tier. Use the same system of quarter marks to help you get it balanced all around.

Pull (both behind and in front of the presser foot) the waistband to match the circumference of the white tier as you sew.

The completed waistband, with very minimal gathers where it joins the top tier.

Because the waistband was stretched to match the circumference of the white tier, you will be able to stretch it over the wearer’s hips without breaking the stitches.The white tier is like a yoke, with most of the gathers beginning only in the second tier. This is a much smoother waistband than a gathered elastic-casing one. It’s sleek and good for reducing bulk in the hip area for those of us for whom this is flattering.

So here is your twirly, drapey, nightgown-soft tiered skirt! The bottom hem was finished with a rolled hem, but you can also just fold it up and narrow-hem it the usual way. Apart from the waistband, the techniques are the same as for wovens, but with a much more comfortable outcome.

You might have noticed that I left out monotonous instructions like “and now, serge the seam allowances”, because I imagine you’d know that. And anyway, with knits, if you forgot to serge anything, it’s not the end of the world – nothing frays.

Pick up here: ikatbag.com

source: translate.googleusercontent.com