The Great Skater Skirt Workshop

I hosted a Skater Skirt Sewing Workshop for some girls at my house, and it was a blast. Though a couple of girls were pretty new to sewing, I think it all worked well in the end. The girls seemed to like their new trendy skirts 🙂

First problem to overcome was to find a suitable pattern. I know there are a lot of tutorials out there for skater skirts, but those are for circle skirts, which is not what we wanted. The popular skater skirts sold in stores, like American Eagle and H&M, are not circle skirts.  They’re not nearly as full. I could see a circle skirt being cute on a little girl, but these are teens. They want the skirts that they see in the trendy stores, not a twirl skirt.

After searching for a long time, I purchased a Jalie pattern. I admit I didn’t read through the pattern as well as I should have. Had I, I would have realized it, too, was a circle skirt.  [grumble] I thought, well it’s a starting point, so I started to print. Oh my gosh! That thing was a pdf nightmare. 18 pages for the simple waistband. 18 pages. No, thank you. So I canceled that printing asap, and decided to just draft some skirts. I had done this for my daughter, a sewing club student, and her little sister, so I might as well do a few more. It’s a very simple skirt to draft and make.

The skater skirt they sell at American Eagle and the like are closer to 1/4 or 1/3 circle skirts. They have a center  back seam and a wide waistband. Sometimes there is elastic, which we only added for the cotton interlock skirt. You can see here it is not nearly as full as a circle skirt.

This is a knit skirt. I had the girls buy Ponte knit fabric, as it is easy to work with, has a beautiful drape, and great recovery. Just be sure it’s light to medium weight. Too heavy weight and it won’t drape as well.  The Ponte fabrics I buy from Mill End in Portland for my daughter has a really soft hand and is perfect for these skirts. She’s made 5 so far (2 last year and 3 so far this year).

After I drafted each a pattern,  the girls got to pinning, cutting, and sewing! They learned about using the correct needle for their fabric, lowering the presser foot pressure, and what kind of stitch to use when you sew with knits. We talked about negative ease, which was important since these skirts don’t have elastic in the waistbands. They also learned what directional sewing is and why it’s important.

A fun skirt that allowed them to learn a lot of different sewing stuff, while sewing up something that they’ll actually wear. I thought they all looked great in their finished skirts. [I forgot to take pictures 🙁 ] This student sent me this picture–thank you! You look amazing!

This cute little pink skirt was made with a cotton interlock knit. I helped her learn how to stabilize that knit when she sewed it, because it didn’t have the recovery that Ponte does.

Here are some more skirts.

This is one my daughter made.  Lovely drape, and just the right amount of fullness.

She’s learning to thread and sew with the stretch twin needle, as well as use the scary serger. Although, I think she’s over that, because she was sewing pretty fast and seemed to be fearless. Her hems are looking better and better with each skirt!

The best part of this workshop for me was the smiles! Once the skirts were finished and  they tried on their skirts, it was very clear the skirts passed the style test. This is a huge thing for tweens and teens. Most often they have to sew things that they wouldn’t be caught dead wearing. Or they think they’ll like it, but then they hardly ever wear the homemade garment [if ever], because it’s not what they imagined (or the fit isn’t good). My daughter has already worn 2 of the 3 new skirts she made [wearing them to school is the real proof that the skirts pass muster. Moms, am I right?]

The second best part: teaching the kids that knits are not to be feared or avoided. Knits are just different. And the right kind of knits can actually be more forgiving than woven fabrics. Having these experiences of sewing with knits will help them to keep trying them along their sewing journey.

My daughter is hoping to get some more made in spring colors, as well as learning to make a pleated skirt–another skirt that is trending right now. What is on your spring to-sew list?