Mini Skirt Pattern – Free sewing pattern & tutorial

Parenting is hard work and patience, compassion, humility, selfless love and a big sense of humor are all prerequisites for parenthood. I did not know this when the kids were young and fumbled a lot along the way. But now that I know, they are almost past the age of even caring whether I have these qualities or not. All these have nothing to do with a mini skirt – other than that, my daughter asked for one and I am making it for her.

A mini skirt is a skirt with its hemline well above the knee. Heck, Where are  patience and sense of humor when I need them!

For those of you with all these qualities, here is the pattern to sew a mini skirt.

Related post : What is a Mini skirt? – a short history and its proper length.

Easy Mini Skirt from old jeans

First and foremost, a tutorial to convert old jeans into a mini skirt -you can easily make a mini skirt out of the staple of every home with growing girls – “the jeans that stopped growing”. The kind that has got too short but still fits at the waist and hips. You can convert them into shorts, ofcourse, but with the rest of them, make these skirts.

Related post : Make cut off shorts from jeans.

Cut off the jeans at knee level or 18 inches or whatever it feels right for you as mini skirt length. The leg part you cut off should be long enough to keep in the gap between the seams.

Remove the stitches of the inner leg of the jeans with a seam ripper. You will need to cut each stitch – the jeans seam is strong – no amount of tug will get the stitches undone other than with cuts made with the seam ripper.Patience, the job will soon be over. 

Remove till the fly of the jeans on the front. Rip the seam till the waist for the back.

Remove the loose thread.

Cut open the leg part of your jeans you had cut off earlier.

Keep that piece under the opening in the front and pin in place.

The seam edge should be folded down as it was.

Top stitch the jeans pieces together so that the space in between the legs are filled -be careful that the pieces do not shift as you stitch

Do so for the back as well. In the back the space is lesser because the seat part is bigger. You will also need to fold the seam edge.Pin in place and stitch as you did with the front

Cut off the extra fabric from the inside. Cut the hem properly straight.

Hem the jean skirt bottom edge or leave as it is for a frayed look.

Related post : Other ways to make a jeans skirt.

Mini Skirt Sewing Pattern.

Step 1

Cut out the pattern pieces (one back and one front) following the picture below.

You get two pieces like this.

Cut out two facings for the waist edge in the same shape as the top edge of the skirt pieces – about 2 inches wide). You also need an invisible zipper.

Step 2 Join the skirt pieces

Keep the two fabric pieces right sides together and stitch them together at the side seams. Leave 7 inches unstitched along one edge at the top to attach the zipper.

Step 3 Attach the zipper

Keep the zipper face down on the right side up skirt zipper edge. Stitch one side and then the other. You can follow the instructions given in this post on sewing invisible zippers for more details.

Step 4 Finish the hem

Fold the bottom edge of the skirt 1/4 inch to the inside and stitch along the edge.

Trim the seam allowance close to the stitching.

Fold again 1/4 inch to the inside and stitch the hem.

Step 5 Finish the waist facing.

Take the two pieces of facing you have cut and join them together at the short edge to form one piece. 

Fold the long edge on the outer edge to the inside once and stitch in place..

Remember that the seam allowance should be kept open as you sew the long edge.

Keep the facing good side down on the skirt waist edge (skirt is kept face up). Stitch with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.Fold the short edge to the inside as you start sewing. As you finish also fold the short edge to the inside. 

Flip the facing to the inside. Press in place. Top stitch the top edge and then hand stitch in place.

Add a hook and a thread loop on the top edge of the zipper for extra fastening.

Related posts : How to sew skirts ; Patterns for sewing