White Maternity Skirt

I have been needing a white skirt to wear with some tops that won’t go with anything but. Last night I sewed up a 7-gored, 7 godet skirt out of a white jacquard weave linen.

This was what I wanted it to look like.

It would have a stretch waistband with a maternity panel in from to accomodate my belly. No closures.

I got out my file with all my drafted blocks and patterns.

My skirt block drafted from Winifred Aldrich's Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear

Laying the skirt block out.

I've drawn a maternity line-the curved line follows the baby bump all around. Everything else will fit as per pre pregnancy.

I draw out the stylelines for my skirt. You can see the godet I drew in between one of the gore panels.

I already have a pattern for a 7 gored and flared skirt from a few months before, so I only needed to draft the godet. I made it  6inches long, and 3 inches wide on each side of the red middle line.

My trusty carbon sheets. This is just 8 sheets of A4 carbon paper stuck on a broadsheet newspaper.

Laid a sheet of newspaper on top

Layed the block on top

And used my double Clover tracing wheel to trace the seamlines of the godet onto the newspaper

Turn the newspaper over-and tada! A perfectly traced godet pattern piece.

These are the pattern pieces i made a few months back for a flared, 7-godet skirt, plus my godet.

I wanted my new skirt to be an inch longer though, so I made a note on all my pattern pieces that it be cut an inch longer with 5/8 inch seam allowance.

These were the materials I used. The white linen jacquard and a white Lycra I bought for AUD1.99 from an opshop at 1.5m.

I laid out the pattern pieces on the material and pinned and cut.

Laying out the rest of the pattern pieces

This is the Lycra piece I cut for the waistband

I wanted it 3 inches wide

Here is the maternity waistband all cut out.

All the pattern pieces cut out.

I used tailors tacks on all the points where the seams join, especially for the godets, which saved me heaps of time.

I made sure I marked the centre back, centre front, the right and wrong side of the material.

Overlocking all the raw edges of the material

Here I overlock the centre back seam of the waistband into a tube and pinned all the edges together.

And overlocked all the seams

Next, I laid out all the front panel pieces together.

Matching tailor's tacks between the gore panels.

Matching the tailors tacks for the godets and the panels.

I realised that I had to sew the godet onto one panel first, before joining two gore panels together.

That little tailor tack X was very important.

I had to make sure to start the stitch at that point on both sides of the gore panels, being careful not to catch the fabric underneath, which would have resulted in a pucker.

Sewing the two gore panels together from the top down to the godet point X.

I repeated all the steps for joining the godet and panels for the front.

This was what the front looked like.

And the back

I always make a point of making the front and back panels separately, and then joining the side seams last with a basting stitch to check the fit. At this point, I realise that it was too tight, so I reduced the 5/8 inch seam allowance to 1/4 inch at the sides. But that wasn’t enough either, so I had to rip out the stitchs at the centre back seam and resew that at 1/4 inch seam allowance.

This is what the whole skirt looked like after I joined the front and back panels together.

Ironing the seams flat. Very important.

Next, the waistband.

Joining the waistband to the skirt

I had marked the centre of the skirt and the waistband with tailors tack, so matching them up was a breeze.

I separated the waistband into quarterly intervals, and pinned it to the skirt, stretching the lycra to ease in the skirt fabric.

Tada!

It needs an iron again.

But this is what it looks like on me.

Front Side view

Back side view

Me in my new skirt.

I hemmed the skirt up, but wasn’t satisfied with the way it fell stiffly, so I unpicked the blindhem stitching, and will use a rolled hem on my overlocker to finish it.

I love the versatility of a white skirt, and especially a maternity one with an wide stretchy waistband.