Let's make a skirt part 3: Cutting the fabric

Before we start cutting. I want you to understand a few things about fabric. For this pattern, woven fabric works best and is, in my opinion the easiest to work with. Woven fabric can be cut in 3 ways, on the grainline, on the crossgrain, or on the bias. This is important to know because this will affect the drape of the garment. Drape meaning how the garment will hang on your body. Most patterns are cut on the grain.

I always wash, dry and iron my fabrics before I do anything to them because it's a bummer when you've done all this work and it doesn't it fit right anymore after the first wash. I obviously washed and dried the fabric, but neglected to iron because I was in a rush to add this tutorial to my blog ;)



The white edge of the fabric is the grainline or selvage. If you pull on the selvage, you'll notice that there is absolutely no stretch. If you pull across, or on the crossgrain, where the frayed edge is, there is some stretch. The pen and the direction it's placed represents the bias, if you pull the fabric in that direction, there will be maximum stretch.

Now, you'll need a few things to get started:

1. Pins

2. Your fabric

3. Good fabric scissors (it does make a difference)

When pinning your pattern pieces, make sure you minimize the amount of fabric you use.


This is wasteful. So, what I do is cut out each piece individually.







I realize it doesn't look like you've saved a lot of fabric, but, believe me there are a ton of uses. Maybe squares for a quilt, a matching doll skirt, a pocket detail for another skirt or pants, the list can go on forever.

You'll proceed with the other pattern piece in the same manner. Some important things to add. When you place pattern pieces on a fold, it is usually implied that it is on the grainline. There are occasions when a fold won't be on a grainline, but, that's usually indicated on the pattern piece. (If you're using a commercial pattern.) If you're using a fabric with a pattern as I have, take note if the pattern is directional. The skulls on my fabric face one way, so I have to make sure when I sew the pieces together, that they're facing the same way.

Next, is putting it all together!