How to Make a Pattern From a Skirt

Today I’m going to show you how to make a pattern from a skirt and then tomorrow I will show you how to modify that pattern into a skirt for every season!  Do you remember this skirt?

I used it to make the lining for Annie’s raincoat.  But if you remember, I loved it and wore it and wore it and finally wore it out!  So before I cut it up to make the lining of Annie’s raincoat, I took a pattern off of it.

Good thing I did, because when I was done it looked like this!  Making a pattern from a skirt is very easy to do.  You will only need a piece of lightweight, non-glued interfacing.  Fold your skirt in 1/2 and trace over the top of the skirt onto the interfacing.  Then add any extra needed allowance at the top for the darts.  There was one dart on the top of my skirt 1/2, so I tapered the top out an extra inch away from the skirt and added a dart marking where the dart was on the skirt.

You can see where I have marked the dart and the bottom of the zipper here.  Now cut out around your markings on the interfacing.  For a waistband, you need to cut out a rectangle 2.5 inches wide and 4 times as long as the top of your interfacing pattern.  For example, the top of my pattern was 9 inches across, so I cut out a 2.5” x 36” rectangle.   Because of the 4 pleats around the skirt, and the seam allowances, this will allow you plenty of  length to make the overlapping ends of the waistband.

There you have it!  A pattern from a skirt!  you didn’t think it was going to be that easy did you?  With this very basic skirt pattern you can make so many variations, and tomorrow I’m going to show you 4 different skirts I made, one for every season, from taking this pattern from a skirt.  How about you, have you ever made a pattern from a skirt or any piece of existing clothing?

Make it beautiful,

Audrey