Skirt Waistband Pattern Adjustment .

Sharon H who absolutely loves coming to the sewing classes.

Sharon H has been a member of the Basics and Beyond sewing classes since February 2013. And she has been the biggest “madster” in sewing since she started. Not only does she have projects on the go in class, but Sharon always is a crazy sew’ist at home – so much so that when she purchased her new Janome overlocker in June 2013 her husband complained that he felt like he was an “overlocker widow” – he said to Sharon that he wishes he was the overlocker, given all the attention she gives it.
But as all good husbands know – ” A happy wife is a happy life”.

Sharon bought into class a skirt pattern by Colette Patterns. It is called Ginger. As you can see by the photos below , due to Sharon’s tiny, tiny waist the waistband was swimming on her, so we had to make some adjustments (skirt fitted her beautifully in the hip area). Sharon gets very frustrated when I say to her that some patterns just can’t be used straight out of the “box”. The below photo shows the waistband to be too big resulting in it sitting away from the body

Colette Skirt Pattern –
” Ginger “

Sharon’s first try on after completing the construction

The first step was to pin-fit the waistband shape to Sharon’s waist. It is not just a case of pinning in the side seam alone, as the shaping has to be done at different places on the body. (Just think in relation to a curvy bottle – the shape needs to be curved around the circumference at different points.) The photo’s below show that we have pinned the side seam, and 1/2 way along each side of the front band, and 1/2 way along each side of the back band. When I pinned fullness out of the body of the band I pinned in a “dart formation ” – pinning the greatest fullness at the top of the band, and then tapering to nothing where the band attaches to the body of the skirt.

dart shapes formed by pinning 1/2 way along each side of the front band

dart shapes formed by pinning 1/2 way along each side of the front band

dart shape formed by pinning at the side seam

dart shapes formed by pinning 1/2 way along each side of the back band.

Then we marked on the inside of the waistband the shape of those pinned ‘ dart ” formations. All pinned areas were marked – front band, side seams, and back band. The shape marked onto the band looks exactly like a dart.

draw on the “dart” shapes that the pins formed starting at widest part on outside edge of band, tapering to nothing where band meets body of skirt.

close up of the “darts” drawn on.

Then Sharon laid the  pattern pieces over the matching garment sections, keeping in mind that she would need to offset the seam allowances  – Sharon’s finished  garment has technically “no-seam-allowances” yet the garment pattern does. The pattern was over layed on top of the shape making sure that the seam allowances were ” hanging off ” each edge of pattern. As you can see by the photos below, Sharon then marked the pinned “dart shapes” onto her pattern ( dark marker )

dart shapes marked on – side seam and 1/2 way along back body

dart shapes marked on – side seam and 1/2 way along front body

As the perimeter of this “dart shape” spanned both sides of the pattern edge, it was a simple task then for Sharon to fold out the excess – to then re-shape the waistband. The new shape was traced around and then the skirt was re-cut into some new fashion fabric.

“Dart shapes” pinned out from edge-to-edge of the respective pattern. You can see that there is some curved shape to the band which will suit Sharon’s smaller waist.

The photo’s below show the second version of the Colette Ginger Skirt pattern with the adjusted waistband to fit her smaller waist. As you can see the waist band does not sit away from her waist anymore, and curves comfortably into her body with no “gaposis”. And a job well done Sharon H….!!!!!

Front view of the Colette Ginger Skirt that is sitting snugly into her body.

Side view of the waist area of the skirt. The band contours to Sharon’s body.

A closer view of the waistband of the Colette Ginger Skirt.

Back view of Sharon’s waistband of the Colette Ginger Skirt.

Cheerio and Good luck to you all.

Ann from Designer Stitch School of Fashion and Design.