The Carolina Dress Sew Along; Day 4 Making the Skirt

Good Morning ladies! I hope everyone's weeks are going great sew far. (hehehe) Sorry, I couldn't resit. :) Let's get started on our skirts!

Step 1; take you skirt pieces and place right sides together. Pin the side edges together. I will cut the salvage edges off when I serge my edges but if you don't have a serger you can cut them off before hand.

Stitch both sides up and serge or zig zag stitch the edges to make nice seams.

Step 2; Take the top of the skirt and run a gathering stitch across the top using 1/4" seam allowance. I do my gathering stitches in two sections, stopping and starting at the seams so in case the thread breaks I don't lose the whole thing.  

To make a gathering stitch I set my machine to a very lose tension and also to the longest stitch lengh it has. I leave a "tail" of thread at the begging of the stitches and also at hte end of the gathering stitches.  

Step 3; Now we are going to attach the skirt to main bodice. (be sure not to pin or sew it to the lining bodice!) First match up your seams of your skirt to you side seams of your bodice and pin right sides together. Next gather your skirt pulling only the back thread. Make the gathered skirt even around the whole way around. Play around with this until you get the look you want, then pin in place.

Stitch in place using a 3/8" seam allowance. (be sure not to sew the inside lining!)

Step 4; flip to right side and press the seam of the skirt/bodice up towards the top bodice.

Step 5; Now we are going to finish the back casting for our elastic. Working on back bodice only, take the inside lining that you had pressed up earlier and place it over your inside skirt seam. Pin from outside. The seam will be sandwiched in between the front and inside bodice for a nice fit on your little girl. Stitch only the back with a 1/8" seam allowance.

This is what the back will look like when you are done. We are done for today!

Friday is our last day and we will finish our dresses!  I hope you are excited as I am. :)

Sharon