Lengthen a Miniskirt

 Hello Readers. I found this fun bright yellow outfit at the Goodwill bins. That was a fun detour on a road trip. When I got home and washed everything, the skirt was shorter than I planned.My mini had gone micro mini on me. How could I fix a skirt that was too short? Let me show you what I did. 

How could I add length? I had a plan. 

 

This skirt was dry clean only. Did I follow directions? No. Do I usually discard directions? Yes. Is it a problem with authority? Probably. But we aren't going to solve that problem today. Let's focus on the skirt. The lining is longer than the skirt now. This will not do.  

 

I decided that the first step would be to shorten the lining. It needed to be hidden under the skirt. This picture shows the nice black piping that trims the waist. It is a nice pop of contrast and it gave me the idea to finish this skirt. 

 

I simply turned the hemline of the lining under and sewed it in place. I folded the edge under by about an inch. That would be a safe length to make sure the lining did not show when I wore it. 

 

My next step was to actually make the skirt itself longer. I used my seam ripper to carefully remove the hem stitches and see how much fabric was in that hem. This took a little while and I worked slowly so that I would not damage the fabric of the skirt. There was about 2 inches of fabric folded up in that hem. That would make a difference in how short the skirt looked when I wore it. I ironed it to make it lay flat for my next step. 

The fabric was finished, cover-stitched around the edge so it would not fray but it was a little rough and untidy looking. My solution for that was bias tape. I chose some narrow black bias tape. This bias tape would look a lot like the piping at the waist of the skirt. 

 

 

I used the bias tape along the hem of the skirt. Bias tape is folded (Like a taco.) and the edge of the skirt fits in the fold. (Or in the taco.) I sewed the bias tape to the skirt with black thread to match and blend in. Since I am not turning any of the fabric under, the full length of the skirt will be longer when it is worn. 

The bias tape along the hem looks like a narrow black line of trim that has always been there. The length is good and the outfit is just great with a longer skirt. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.