Before I started constructing the skirt and sewing the darts, I traced two darts from my skirt pattern onto a small piece of calico and sewed them, creating a trial darts sample.
Darts are very useful when making a garment as they allow you to shape fabric, darts are folds in the fabric that are then sewn in place, sometimes darts are used to take in a garment if it is too big. For example if the skirt did not have any darts in it, it would be a tube of fabric and would not fit at all.
I started constructing my skirt by sewing all the darts, after this I pinned the two back panels either side of the front panel, before sewing the two back panels to the front joining them together.
After this I measured the full length of the skirt sewn together and I cut out my waistband , my waistband was 4cm wide so when sewn and folded over it will be 2cm wide. I added 2cm seam allowance at each end and either side of my waistband.
I folded and ironed my waistband before pinning the waistband to the skirt to ensure that when I sew it and fold it over it will be even and neat. I then sewed it before folding it over and pinning it ready to sew it after I have sewed the invisible zip in.
Next I sewed the hem on the bottom of my skirt.
Invisible zips
I added an invisible zip into my skirt and as I had never sewn an invisible zip before I sewed 2 trial samples using the zipper foot before I sewed my zip onto my skirt. The zipper foot allows you to sew closer to the zip. This is very useful when sewing an invisible zip as for it to be invisible you have to sew as close to the zip as possible.
After I had sewn my 2 sample invisible zips, I sewed the invisible zip into my skirt and then sewed the waistband down.
This is my finished skirt, I was very pleased with the final results and it fitted well.
Unpicking Fashion 