Skirt Alteration Tutorial

Hey, back to posting! I could make lots of excuses, but how about a tutorial instead?

My pictures for this post are terrible. I could retake the last one, but who am I kidding? I'm doing well just posting.

I love this skirt. It's so hart for me to find skirts I like- they can't be too short, or too long, or too poofy, or too form fitting, or polyester, or... Well, I could go on and on. The point is, this skirt is perfect, and I wore it for five years.

Then I had a baby.

I'm not self conscious. I'm actually really happy with my post baby body. The only thing that I regret is the large portion of my wardrobe I can't wear anymore. Well, this skirt has sat on the shelf for long enough!

This repair will work on a skirt that is too tight in the waist but still fits well otherwise.

What you'll need-
-A slightly too small skirt with a waistband
-A stitch ripper
-Fabric for a new waistband (I used a wide ribbon)

I started by ripping off the original waistband (and incidentally rediscovering the original color of the skirt.) Since it was slightly gathered under the waistband, it fit perfectly once that was removed. I believe that removing the waistband on most skirts will give you a little more breathing room- if it isn't enough, you might need to look up another tutorial.

So I was left with a perfectly fitting skirt with a very ragged waist. I was originally considering a knit waistband, but I've still not gotten the hang of sewing with knits. So I looked around for something which wouldn't stretch, didn't require ironing (I can't find the iron) and went fairly well with my other clothes. I settled on a wide white ribbon.

It was easy to follow the placement of the original waistband. I just lined the ribbon up with where the fabric changed color. I hemmed the end of the ribbon, sewed it to the inside of the skirt, then folded it over and sewed it down to the front of the skirt. Hemming the ends of the ribbon before sewing it to the skirt made it a lot easier, as ribbon is pretty slippery and unravels easily.

And that's it. Easy, free, and preserves a skirt I love! And, I wore it to Thanksgiving dinner and received multiple compliments, which was a nice bonus.