Fat Quarter Skirt Tutorial

Here’s the skirt tutorial I shared on Project Run and Play as part of the Skirting the Issue Series.

I’ve added at the bottom of the post suggestions for changing the size of the skirt for an adult.

When Liz told us about the Skirting the Issue project she mentioned that there was a need for skirts for older girls. Since most of my previous skirt tutorials have been for little girls, I challenged myself to try to make a skirt for an older girl.

I came up with this wrap skirt because I thought it would be flexible and adjust easily to fit  (since it’s a wrap). This skirt is for about a size 12-14 girl- or about a Woman’s size 2-4.

The skirt is made from 4 Fat Quarters, so have fun mixing and matching them!

To begin you will need:

4 Fat Quarters for the skirt

4 Fat Quarters or 1 yard fabric for the lining

1 package double wide bias tape

2 yards wide ribbon

Step One: Cut your Fabric

Cut each fat quarter into 2 pieces each 9″ wide by 20″ tall (make sure you cut the correct way or you won’t get 2 pieces out of one fat quarter).

Measure in 2″ from each upper corner of one of the 9″ sides of the piece.  Place a mark at each 2″ spot.

Draw a diagonal line from the 2″ mark on your piece to the bottom corner (on the other 9″ side). Cut along the diagonal line – Repeat for the other side. When you are done you will have a trapezoid shaped piece that is 9″ across the bottom by 5″ across the top and 20″ tall.

Do this for all 4 fat quarters, at the end you should have 8 pieces.

Using one cut piece as a guide, cut 8 lining pieces from your lining fabric- set lining pieces aside.

Stitch 2 skirt pieces together along the long sides.  Press seams open.  Repeat until you’ve sewn all 8 pieces together.

Repeat for 8 lining pieces.

Place skirt lining and skirt, right sides together. Stitch along 2 sides and bottom seam.  Press seams open and turn skirt right side out.

Cut your ribbon into 2 pieces, 24″ and 48″.  Unpick about 2″ down on your skirt side seams at the top and insert the ribbon piece in and stitch closed.  The 24″ piece of ribbon will be stitched to the right most panel (the one that will show on the front) and the 48″ ribbon will be stitched on the left most panel.

Baste the top seam of the skirt, close to the edge.

To finish the top edge of the skirt, attach double fold bias tape.  To attach, fold the bias tape open and stitch the raw edge of the bias tape to the raw edge of the skirt.

Fold bias tape over and top stitch in place.

To finish, stitch a button hole close to the seam between the 2nd and 3rd skirt panels.

Press well and you’re done!

Sizing Suggestions: If you wish to make this skirt larger you can do one of two things:

-if you only wish to make it slightly larger you can increase the number of panels. Instead of 8 you could do 9 or 10. Since it’s a wrap skirt it will just fold over itself until it fits.

-if you wish to make the skirt much larger- I would suggest only using each fat quarter once (or buy 2 of the same if you want to repeat fabrics) and increasing the rectangle size from 9″x 20″ to 12″ x 20″- still using the 2″ mark on each corner to create your trapezoid.

-if you wish to make the skirt longer- use yardage NOT fat quarters.