Tutorial: Box Pleated Skirt DIY

A continuation from last week's post, here's the tutorial for the box pleated skirt.

Box Pleated Skirt DIY

Difficulty: Easy

Time: ~2 hrs

Materials:

• ~1 yard of 54-60" wide fabric - you'll want something that will hold a little structure like a cotton
• 9" invisible zipper
• Optional interfacing (more info in this tutorial)

Due to the number of photos, please see the rest of the tutorial after the jump.

What I did:
1.) My skirt consists of 2 rectangles: 1 for the waistband and 1 for the skirt itself.

• Waistband: 
• length = waist measurement + 2"
• width = 3.5" 
• Your width should be double your desired end result + 0.5".  I want mine to be ~1.5"wide and added 0.25" for the first skirt attachment and another 0.25" for the second skirt attachment (this will make more sense later)
• Skirt:
• length = Desired skirt length + 3"
• width = I usually default to whatever my fabric width is (54-60") which is roughly 2x my waist measurement.  The wider your fabric, the more flare your skirt will have.  If your desired flare exceeds your fabric width, simply use 2 skirt panels.
• Example: If your desired length = 20" and desired width = 70", cut 2 panels at 23x35" each

2.)  Mark the first and last 2" of both the waistband and skirt.  I use regular chalk and kind of mark wherever because I sew over it, but it's more practical to mark the underside :)

These 2" are reserved for zipper insertion and will not have any pleating (avoids excessive thickness at the zipper).

Blue chalk lines at the "P" of "Petite"

3.)  Fold your rectangles in half width-wise and mark the center of each.  Similarly, also mark the quarters of each (remember not to take your 1st and last 2" of the skirt panel into account).  The halfway mark is your center front and each quarter marks your side.

4.)  With the right sides of the fabric together, match the quarter markings of each rectangle and pin together.

5.)  Fold in half width wise again now that your quarters are pinned.  My center pleat will be deepest.  To do this, I pinned at 3"

Red pin right before "Gal" is the 3" mark for the center pleat

6.) Spread out the sides of your pinned fabric by aligning your pin to your center marking.

7.)  Pin each side of the center pleat down:

8.)  Now fold by aligning your center with one of your quarter markings - this is one of your front pleats immediately next to your center pleat.  You should see that your waistband is shorter than your skirt panel.

9.)  Pinch the excess skirt panel fabric, pin, and spread out the pleat side like you did for the center pleat.

10.)  Repeat Step 9 for the other front pleat on the opposite side of the center pleat.

11.)  For the 2 pleats on the back of the skirt, fold by aligning your quarter marking to the 2" marking on either side and repeat step 9 for each.

Back pleat

The entire skirt pleated and pinned

12.) Join your waistband to the skirt panel by sewing straight across removing pins as you come upon them.

Pleats sewn down

What the interior looks like with the pleats sewn down

Close-up of waistband sewn to skirt panel

13.) Time to insert that zipper!  Click here or here for great tutorials.

14.)  Fold the top of the waistband down and sew right on or right below the initial juncture between the waistband and skirt panel.

15.)  Hem.  I used a blind hem - see tutorial here.

Finished!

Skirt Front

Skirt Back

Skirt interior 

You can see where all the excess fabric went.  This excess allows for easy alterations should I need to let it out.  You can also see where I baste in the zipper prior to officially inserting it.  This lets me try on the skirt to get a general idea of fit.  If the fit is off, I can easily pull the bobbin thread and re-align as needed.

Hope the steps were clear on this, if not, please feel free to email me or comment below!