How to sew a skirt at the waist and sides at home? This question is familiar to many women, because situations when recently purchased or favorite things unexpectedly turn out to be wide occur quite often.
The easiest way to deal with trouble is a safety pin or a beautiful belt, but such tricks are not always appropriate, and can completely ruin your appearance and mood to boot. But you shouldn’t be upset - there are several ways to sew things up yourself.
Useful tips for sewing a skirt
- In sewing, 90% of success depends on taking measurements correctly. Therefore, never rush and remember to use the golden rule “Measure twice, cut once.”
- Even if you are in a hurry, do not neglect preliminary fittings. All defects are much easier to correct at the basting stage, and not after strong machine stitches with bartacks have been laid.
- Wet heat treatment (WHT) is one of the pillars of a quality sewn product. Make it a rule to always iron your seams, this is the only way you will achieve the perfect appearance.
- Even if the iron has a steam function, it is still better to iron the seams through thin, undyed cotton fabric or gauze.
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Reducing a skirt without stitching
Unnecessary centimeters on the product can be removed without resorting to a sewing machine. In this case, you will need metal fasteners with hooks and a needle and thread. To understand how much to reduce your skirt, you need to try it on and mark the extra centimeters at the waist.
Next, measure this distance, divided in half, from the edge of the belt. Using a needle, sew a hook at the very top of one edge of the skirt, and a metal loop from it on the other. It is important to ensure that both the loop and the hook are at the same level.
Necessary tools for clothing repair
Beginners and experienced dressmakers know several ways to sew in the sides of a skirt at home with their own hands, and the specific option depends on the style, cut and material of manufacture. Sometimes models can be reduced in the so-called “lazy” way without ripping, but there are models that cannot be easily repaired. If the top edge is processed with a double seam, and not using an overlocker, then only a real master with a sewing machine can do the work. Depending on the chosen method, the following tools will be needed for repairs:
- hooks;
- ripper or scissors;
- safety and tailor's pins;
- ruler or centimeter;
- needle and thread.
A sewing machine can also be called an indispensable attribute. Even the most careful girl will not be able to make such an even and beautiful seam, and it will take too long to sew.
How to stitch correctly on the sides
It often happens that when you buy a new skirt in a store, especially during sales, at home you begin to understand that it is somewhat large at the waist and “bulges” at the hips. But the product model does not allow inserting or changing darts or cutting the waistband. In this case, we sew the skirt so that it becomes “ideal”.
To begin, take the skirt and evenly distribute the excess fabric along the side seams, pin it together, giving it the desired silhouette.
Then we turn the product inside out and create the necessary contours for it - first we draw a line of pins with tailor’s chalk, drawing out the necessary outlines of the skirt. Draw a new line so that it smoothly completes the old seam. You may know that the length of the new seam will take about 10-20 cm of the skirt, the main thing is a soft, kink-free transition.
We check the symmetry of the lines on both sides and adjust if necessary. Next, use a different thread color to sew along the lines of the new seams. We try on a new skirt and sew the seams on a machine.
At the end, we cut off the excess fabric and process it with an overlock stitch.
Features of sewing a pencil skirt
This skirt model should fit strictly according to your figure. And it is important to understand that when reducing the waist, it is necessary to reshape the item not only in the upper part, but also on the sides for the entire length of the skirt. To give the item the desired silhouette, we take a few simple steps:
- we rip the top of the product: turning it inside out, carefully rip off the facing (additional fabric that “hides” the upper sections);
- We mark the new contours of the skirt along the sides. It is important that the line smoothly transitions into the old seam. This will help avoid “bubbles” on the sides. Additionally, the line should be long enough to complement the smoothness of the outline. Before marking future seams, you first need to measure your parameters and how many centimeters to remove on the sides;
- the facing detail of the skirt should follow the lines of the top of the skirt;
- Using threads of a different color, different from the skirt, we sweep away the lines of the new seams;
- try on the skirt, look at the smoothness of the seams. At the very beginning, we connect the skirt with the facing and sew it on a sewing machine. Next we make the side seams;
- cut off the excess fabric, process new cuts with an overlock or zigzag stitch.
Master class: how to sew a skirt on the sides and at the waist. Step-by-step instruction.
The denim skirt fits like a glove again
How to make a denim item smaller? If the item has become looser, that is, you have lost a little weight, then in an hour you can return it to its former “comfortability” in order to look fashionable and confident again.
The most important repair: adjustment in the waist area . The alteration will be completed without problems if the back seam is processed using an overlocker and not double-stitched.
If there is a double stitch, then only a skilled craftsman with a special machine can carry out the repair at home.
We undertake repairs if the back seam is processed using an overlocker:
- We remove the loop through which the strap is threaded.
- We tear off the belt, stepping back from the back seam 10 centimeters in both directions.
- Cut it down the center.
- We rip out the seam, reduce it to the required width, lay a basting seam, and try it on.
- We stitch on a machine, remove excess fabric, process the cuts, and iron.
- If there was a front stitch, then we restore it.
- We make the waistband shorter, baste it, machine sew it, and iron it.
- Having placed the belt on the cut of the skirt, we stitch and restore the front seam.
- Sew on the belt loop.
We sewed this in the waistband , and along the hip line you can also adjust any thing.
The procedure for reducing volume on the sides:
- Let's turn the skirt inside out and put it on to outline how much we will reduce the volume in the hips.
- Remove the belt loops on the sides and rip off the belt.
- We rip the seams on the sides and make basting stitches.
- We sew on a machine according to the basting, trim off the excess fabric, process it on an overlocker, iron it, if there was a front stitch, we restore it.
- We do the same manipulations with the belt.
- If the zipper was in the side seam, then it must first be ripped out, then transferred to a new seam before the procedure of sewing in the belt.
To properly repair things with your own hands, you can’t do without a machine.
How to make a denim skirt smaller
With a denim item you will have to tinker a little longer. The fact is that denim is a thick fabric, which makes stitching difficult. It can also be quite difficult to find threads that match the skirt. However, there are instructions on how to narrow an item at the waist quickly and easily.
- Remove the belt loop that is located at the back of the skirt right in the center. A belt loop is a piece of fabric through which a belt or belt is threaded.
- Spread the belt to the right and left of the seam by about 10 cm, and cut the fabric in the center.
- Open the seam from the bottom to the beginning of the thigh. Hand adjust the middle seam to the desired length.
- Now try on the skirt. If you are satisfied with everything, then sew the seam with a sewing machine.
- Trim the excess fabric and sew with a zigzag stitch. Shorten the waistband and sew the edges, joining them together.
- At the end, sew on the belt loop. The skirt is like new!
How to sew in the sides of a pencil skirt at home
A pencil skirt is a style that should fit perfectly to your figure. If the item has become too large, it will have to be sutured not only at the waist, but along the entire length. If the skirt has darts, some of the excess fabric can be transferred there. Otherwise, we will remove the extra centimeters in the side seams. How to sew in the sides of a pencil skirt in 5 steps:
- As always, before work you need to try on the skirt and determine the location of the new seams.
- Pinch the excess evenly on both sides and pin with sewing pins.
- Remove the item, turn it inside out and use lines to mark the places for the future stitching.
- Remove pins and baste by hand.
- Try on the skirt again and, if the item fits well, machine stitch it. At the final stage, carefully iron the seams.
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Author: AnnaSotnikova · Published 01/26/2017 · Updated 03/27/2019
Good day, my dear girls. I decided today to write about how to make a skirt smaller at the sides and at the waist, since I have had to help out my girlfriends more than once and sew up their skirts . But for beginning craftswomen there is absolutely nothing difficult about this!
But it often happens like this: you bought a cool skirt in a store, couldn’t pass it up (especially if it’s at a discount!), but you realize that it’s a little big at the waist and hangs a little on the hips... and you really want a perfect fit on your figure... That’s why today we Let's learn how to sew a skirt so that it becomes “perfectly yours.”
First, let's take a skirt, in my case it's a pencil skirt made of pleasant stretchy fabric.
We are interested in its upper part, i.e. fit at waist and sides:
The zipper on my skirt is at the back, and this is an easier option, but if the zipper on the skirt was on the side, then we would have to not just sew it on the sides, but rip out the zipper, reduce the skirt on the side and re-sew the hidden zipper into the skirt, which would make the whole process much more complicated...
First of all, we see that a facing is sewn on the inside of the skirt (the place where the facing is sewn on the side is marked in the photo with a white dot).
How to narrow a skirt without ripping out seams
The method of reducing the waist without ripping the top is suitable if the item needs to be narrowed at the waist by no more than 2 cm.
The skirt is tried on and new top seam lines are determined. For those who have a belt, you can sew a seam right along it. If the product has only one seam, located in the center, then we remove all the extra centimeters of fabric into it. If the seams are on the sides, then distribute the excess fabric equally along them.
Draw a new seam line along the skirt. We stitch on a machine. The most important thing in this method is to avoid distortions and creases in the fabric along the line of the new seam. Therefore, it is important that the new seam smoothly transitions into the old one. Excess fabric is carefully cut off, and the cut is processed with an overlock stitch.
