colorblock skirt refashion for skirt week 2012!

i am just over the moon with excitement for today's tutorial -
i was asked by the fabulously crafty ladies of crafterhours to be a part of their skirt week 2012!!

last year my gold curtain skirt won the straight skirt category by a nose
but this time around i'm not wearing pencil skirts too often...
that whole baby bump getting in the way and all, haha.

so i thought it would be fun to share with you all a simple restyle tutorial
for making current skirts a little longer using the current color block trend!

this colorblock skirt refashion tutorial is great
for ladies with baby bumps that need a couple extra inches of fabric to "grow" into
or girls like my teenage sisterinlaw who seems to grow five inches every time i see her.


1. bookstore belle skirt from modcloth     2. dear creatures fall 2012     3. colorblock pleats skirt from forever21

color blocking is super trendy right now,
which works so well for those of us who need to add a couple inches to our hem.
you can add any variety of colors, patterns, and widths to the bottom of your skirt!

for today's tutorial i kept it super simple with just one band of color added above the hem
(partly because i only had enough knit fabric in the one color... haha)
so let's get sewing!



materials you will need -

1. a skirt that's either too short or too plain.
2. fabric in fun colorblock-able colors!
    since my skirt is a knit, i made sure to use a knit fabric for my colorblock band.
3. ruler, scissors, pins, sewing machine



now for the ridiculously easy steps:

1. first do a little math to figure out how much longer you want your skirt to be,
  remember to account for seam allowances!
  i wanted to add three inches, and knew i would use 1/2 inch seam allowances,
  which brought the band length to 1 inch.

  since the original skirt would be two seam allowances shorter,
  i added that length also to the band making the band width 5 inches.
  if you want to do multiple bands, make sure to account for all seam allowances.

2. now that you know about how wide your band will be,
  decide how far up from the bottom you want it placed
  and cut your current skirt along that line.



3. going back to your measurements from step one, cut out the band for the skirt,
  matching the length of the band to the length of the current skirt.
  if your fabric isn't long enough to cover both sides,
  cut out two pieces and sew them along the side seams
  so you don't end up with silly seam lines in the middle of your skirt.

4. now just sew it up!
  sew the band to the bottom part of the skirt, then that piece to the top of the skirt.
  make sure you're sewing right side to right side and iron to set your seams when you're done.



now you have a super simple color blocked skirt that actually fits!
the best thing about this idea is that you can do so very much with it.
hopefully this tutorial can help you make all your long skirt dreams come true!

thanks again crafterhours for having me, and good luck with everyone's skirts!!