Sew Easy #20, How to Make Your Dress Skirt

so so in this lesson we will make the skirt unit of our  dress it's one of the simpler units you will find that you'll be repeating many of the construction  details you've gone through on your blouse you'll also find that much of your time  will be taken and stitching long seams to keep you from getting  bored with this repetition such as stitching four long seams and making four  separate darts i have asked mrs marling to help me i will cover each of the details at least  once before i pass the unit onto her i'm going to start on the back skirt unit this skirt pattern calls for a center back seam  in order to keep from handling the fabric any more than is necessary and a safe time we'll remove  the pins from along that center seam and then fold the pattern back just far enough so that i  can stitch the seam without removing the pattern i can do that because i folded the fabric  wrong side out before it was cut out now the front also has a center seam  which will be stitched in the same way and mrs marling will take care of that  while i'm working on the back unit in order for the skirt to hang evenly  it should be stitched with a grain line which means in each case stitch  it from the hem to the waistline this pattern also calls for pleat which can  be stitched in before the pattern is removed ordinarily i would just turn the  pattern back and stitch it right in but in order for you to see that pleat that  i'm talking about i'll turn this around here is the line indicating where  the pleat goes and that has been transferred to the fabric with carbon the  pattern tells me to stitch above this dot i'll put that back in the machine in  the same way it was so i'll stitch from the lower part to the top or with the green we'll fasten the lower end of  the pleat by back stitching so and this will give you an idea of what  the pleat will look like when finished on your skirt you will need to know where the pleat pulls over  at this lower edge i head through to the fabric with carbon but i need the marking on the right  side so i'll transfer that through with basting remember that the basting stitch is the  longest stitch you make on your machine and this is how the basting will  look at the lower edge of your pleat press across the pleat seam to get it smooth and then match up the basting stitches  at the lower edge and press in place pin the pleat down the lower  edge and at the waistline and then next i'll put a row of  each stitching along the waist line which i'll use later when i join the blouse to the  skirt it will also help hold the pleat in place since this is a line of e-stitching i  can stitch straight across the waistline it's a good idea to stay stitch the left side  where the placket will go this is merlin will you please take these same steps on the script front  put this row of e-stitching across the waist line and then go ahead and put in the space stitching  at the side seam where the placket will come stay stitching always goes in with the grain i'll make one of the darts in  order to review the method i use use a pin to bring the two marked lines together then start stitching at the point of your dart  catch only one thread and make a couple stitches bring in a piece of paper wrap against  the needle and line it up with your marked line at the edge and stitch now mrs marling will you complete  this unit by stitching the other three darts and here is the front skirt unit with  the center front seam stitched and pressed open the ease line across the waist line and  the stay stitching at the left side seam now there's one more detail on this that i want  to complete and that is the soft pleat at the waistline i have the marks on the wrong side  and again i want to see them on the right side and since i'm going to be making these pleats  immediately i can mark them through with pins bring your pin in and let it  follow the line right straight down my pattern tells me to fold on the solid line  and bring that line over to the broken line and when you have your pleat formed  correctly it will be straight across the top pin it in place on the solid line bring to the broken line and then stitch across the top of  those pleats along the seam line so now we have the front unit  and the back unit completed we need to lay these out flat  on a table to pin the side seams place the right sides  together and match the notches then smooth out the material keeping the edged edges together pin in as many places  as you need to to hold them there up here on the left hand side we don't need to  pin it because that's left open for the placket and now this is morning where you take  this and stitch those two long seams she'll stitch from the hem towards the waistline and on the left side she'll stitch up to  this dot and back stitch for the placket here's mrs marling with a skirt and next time we'll complete  this unit by putting in the hem you