How to make a skirt from a man's shirt....

So here goes my first tutorial, hope it makes (some) sense.

Take a shirt, I've learnt that it helps to have a skirt corresponding to your size, so this one is a small and it worked much better for my frame.

Cut it underneath the armpit all the way across. Then measure a piece of elastic around your waist and add an extra 2.5 cms/1 inch. Fold the shirt inside out and pin down the top of the skirt ensuring that it's slightly bigger than the elastic for seam allowance.

Then place 2 pins about 2.5 cms apart leave this space open and sew around the rest of the skirt.

Now add a saftey pin to the end of the elastic and thread it all the way around.

Once you've done this sew the elastic together with 2 zigzag stitches reinforced to give it a strong hold like this...

Pull in the elastic and sew closed the gap you left and now it looks like a skirt! If you feel this is the maximum of your skill level you can stop here and it would still look lovely. However, I like to add a band and belt to the top it makes it a bit nicer.

So for the band cut two equal pieces slightly larger than your skirts width, they also need to be wide enough to fold over the top of your skirt with a seam allowance.

Then I also add a little belt this is two pieces approximately the same length as the 2 strips you've just cut and the widths are 6 cm. I choose an old denim shirt for my belt to be more contrasting. Fold down the middle on the reverse of the fabric and sew around the edge with a 0.5 cm seam. 

Then turn them inside out and now take the other two strips (stay with me here it may sound more complicated than it is!) fold them in half an iron, then fold in the edges so you get something like this...

Now we're going to sew these pieces together, you need to make sure that the belt will be on the outside, pin together and check before you sew.

Once you've sewn this top band together it should look like this...

All that is left now is to sew it to the skirt, now for any one who can sew professionally this bit may sound crazy so look away. I put the skirt on and pin the top whilst I'm wearing it (why?? I can hear people saying) I do this as I'm not sure if the skirt will still stretch properly if I don't. If you know the answer to this and I'm just being silly please say. 

So here is the final piece in use, I love it!! I always change the buttons to something cute too, these are barbie doll shoes. Hope this made some sense to someone.

♥ ♥ Happy Sewing everyone ♥ ♥