I made up another skirt on the weekend, this time from scratch:

I have been seeing these pleated skirts everywhere, and I wanted to make one myself. If you’re smarter than me, you can probably find a pattern that tells you how to do this, but I have a weird aversion to patterns. I guess because I always end up modifying them anyways, so it seems like a waste of money. I took pictures as I went along, it case anyone was curious about how to do this and brave enough to give it a go without a pattern.

First, I cut a large square of fabric for each piece. I used the entire 45″ width of the fabric, and cut it to a length that would be just below my knees. Then I sewed in 1 1/2 inch pleats at regular intervals. This was the hardest part, calculating how to make them evenly spaced to give me the correct waist size. Luckily the fabric I bought was a stretch cotton, so I had a bit of leeway.

If you are unsure how to make pleats, you basically just sew in seams. I made my 8″ long. It should look like this from the other side when you are done:

Then I did the same thing to the other piece and sewed the side seams together, leaving about 6″ on one side for a zipper.

Then I sewed in the zipper.

I added the waistband by creating a kind of bias tape strip. Make sure to sew the pleats down flat, all facing the same direction. Leave a bit extra of the waistband on one side.

That is used for a hook and eye closure. Then you hem up the bottom to the length you want, and finally, lightly press the pleats down the length of the skirt to hold their shape!