Mismatched Maxi Skirt

Oh Hey Ribbon Retreat Friends, I am so excited to share with you this lovely Mismatched Maxi Skirt. I don’t know about you but I sure love to wear a cute skirt and open toed shoes this time of year! So let’s begin….you will need a few things!

•2 yards of Riley Blake Knit Fabric
•Fabric and paper Scissors
•Tape measurer
•Pencil/Pen, 13-18 pieces of computer paper and scotch tape (for the pattern)
•Coordinating thread
•Sewing machine

We will need to make ourselves a pattern, so grab your pencil, paper and tape measurer.

Let’s start with a few measurements:
Waist (where exactly you want the skirt to lay) – Mine is 29”
Length (from your hip bone to where ever you want your skirt to end) – Mine is 30”
Now you will want to find your “Half Waist”, it’s pretty self-explanatory…
it is your waist in half. Mine is 14.5”

Next we will want to lay out some computer paper on a big enough space that you have room to work, I choose my hallway floor.

Tape the pieces together.
At the top of the papers find the center (if you have two pieces at the top, it is their seam) Mark that spot as the center. Now stretch your half waist measurement across the center mark evenly….so now I have 7.25” on each side of the center mark.
Make a mark at the 0 and 14.5” for the sides and the 7.25” will be your center.

From that center mark (my 7.25”) you will want to take your tape measurer straight down to how ever long you want your skirt….plus add 2 inches. So for mine I went 30”+2= 32” – don’t worry once you are done it will be back to your original length. 🙂

Make sure you mark your length….
Now to get the sides you will take your tape measurer from each top side mark and angle down to the bottom of the papers….and you are going to mark 1″ less than your total length. (32”-1= 31”).

Be sure to trace along the measuring tape for your sides.

Now down to the bottom where you have the center length (32”) and the side lengths (31”) marked and you are going to connect the 3 marks… it is kinda a U shape.

Once your pattern looks like this you are ready to cut it out!!
Now that is it cut out you will want to get your angle for your “mismatchedness” I went 12” from the top and 6“ from the bottom…Then connect them and cut on the diagonal line.

So, I am a visual person… so clearly I drew lines on the pieces so I could see exactly how I wanted them.

And….When it came to where to place the pieces to be cut out, the lines really helped!

You will want to get your knit out and ready now. Open it up so you have selvedge edges on your right and your left…
You will want to cut out your waistband first. I went down to the bottom of the fabric and measured out the length of my waist, mine was 29”… by 10” tall. I made sure the 29” length was horizontal with the stripes…but that was just my preference.
The waist band will be a comfy yoga style band 🙂
So sorry I forgot to take a picture 🙁

But here is the waistband on the next step…pin it! Once its pinned it will be your “halfwaist” 14.5” x10”.

Now back to your skirt pieces… place your pieces in the direction you want (or the direction that is already drawn on your pieces).

See how the lines help?
I was extra careful to make sure my diagonal line on my top piece followed a stripe exactly…
Now it is time to pin and cut your first two pattern pieces!

The first two you cut will go together as the front of your skirt, now you will want to cut ones for the back so you will want to take the pieces you just cut and place them right side down on top (so color to color) of another section of knit.

I was very determined to have my lines match up on the sides to get that fun chevron look so I matched each line from the original one up with the new lines.

Like so…. And trust me it is worth it. 🙂

Once you get those two back pieces cut you will have four total skirt pieces that look something like this…

Now it is time to pin the “mismatchedness” together….Like so!

Once you have those pinned its time for the real fun to begin….Sewing!!
Start off with your waistband.

Sew a ZIGZAG stitch along the 10” side so it will be like a tube when you are done.

Put that to the side. And grab those lovely skirt pieces…

Put your machine on a straight stitch and sew both “mismatchedness” together!

Once you have the front and back pieces sewn together it is time to pin them (right sides together) and you are going to ZIGZAG stitch down each side.
Once you have the skirt sides sewn and it is actually starting to look like a fun mismatched skirt we are ready to attach the waistband…YAY!
We are getting so close to enjoying our skirt!

Remember how your waistband looks like this..?

Well you are now going to fold the part that is closest to your fingers down to the part that is closer to your elbow….confused yet? It should look something like this….

Now lay it down flat and we are going to place pins at 4 even points.
(I have it laying the wrong way in the picture…you will want the scissor cut side up and where you are placing the pins).

The easiest way to get 4 pins evenly on the band is to pin on the seam then go to the exact opposite side and pin….

Then match up the first two pins in the center and pin on each side…now you should have 4 even pins.

Once you have that complete, you will want to do the same with the skirt….4 even pins.

Now place the waistband and skirt like so….
But remember, your waistband will be opposite….the scissor cut side will be at the top with the pins and the rolled over side will be closest to the skirt.

Now you are going to scrunch the skirt like this….

And put it in the waistband…

and match up the pins!
See this is where I noticed I was doing it wrong…oops! So again make sure you have the cut edge of the band at the top 🙂 it will be the weirdest yoga style band if it is switched. 🙂

Now ZIGZAG stitch around the top of your skirt!

It should look something like this….

We are soo close now!!
All we need to do now is hem our skirt!
I just eyeballed my 1/2″ hem, pinned it every navy stripe, iron press it and sewed it!

And now you are DONE!!
So go out in the nice spring weather and show off your cute mismatched maxi skirt!!

Grab your flip flops and sandals, because summer…the season of maxi skirts…is right around the corner. Wahoo! Maxi skirts are oh so comfy and ohhhh so cute! Knit is so light weight and is wonderful to wear on those hot, hot summer days. A girl can never have too many skirts and this great knit maxi is perfect for your summer attire!

Thank you Kaeleen! I can’t wait to make this fun Mismatched Maxi Skirt….or maybe two or three of them. I love the dimension found in this skirt and how fantastic and flattering this skirt will look on EVERYONE!

Are you in love with skirts? Take a peek at these other adorable and comfy skirt tutorials…

Circle Skirt

Maxi Skirt

Chevron Twirl Skirt

Happy Creating & Happy Skirts!