Angelic Pretty Inspired Gyaru Miniskirt - Sewing Tutorial

Hello cutie gals! It's finally the holidays! It has been a really long term, and I am really looking forward to a break and finally having time to craft! I finished school on Wednesday and won't be going back for another sixteen days yippee~

So for today's tutorial, we're going to be making a gyaru version of this adorable angelic pretty skirt that is suitable for so many types of gyaru, just change the fabric you use!

This skirt features a half elastic waistband, so the front of the skirt's waistband is smooth, while the back is elasticised, I think this always looks super neat, and it's one of my favourite techniques.

Another feature of this skirt is the scalloped layer, which is sooo easy to do but adds 2d shape amazingly!

Difficulty: ★ ★  ☆ ☆ ☆ - Confident Beginner

Materials

• Around 1m of your patterned fabric, and half a metre of your plain fabric. The leopard print is some old quilting cotton I'm glad I pretty much completely used up in this project, and the black is just 100% cotton poplin. Lightweight fabrics work best for this, and poplin is ideal as it has a little structure to it.
• Some 1.25cm/half inch elastic
• Sewing project basics - the standard materials used in every sewing project
  
• Optional, interfacing for the waistband, some lace to go around the bottom and two buttons to decorate the waistband

Part 1: Measuring, Calculating, and  Cutting

For this project, you'll just need three measurements

• Waist
• Hips
• Total length of skirt

Now, this is a gathered skirt, and while for a very long time I stuck to the 2x waist for skirt gathers rule, I have...grown...and now I find the 2x hip works much better for me, as it's pretty much 3x my waist, too. You can gather as much as it suits you, but I do think 2x hip is the ideal method because that is the largest measurement on the lower body, so it will need the most space. Because we are adding the scalloped effect to the top layer, I'd also recommend rounding up or down to a multiple of ten or a number with a lot of factors, just because it makes the math later on easier.

My hips are 95cm, so I've decided on 190cm as my total width for both the scalloped and underskirt layer. Length is completely up to you, 35-45cm is the general length for miniskirts, and I find 38cm is the perfect length for me - although my father may disagree...

    Skirt dimensions - width: 2x95=190cm, total length: 38cm

As you can see, the scalloped layer is about 2/3 the total length, so multiply your length by 2/3 for the length of the scalloped layer. If you're unsure about the length, round up, as it looks more proportional to the rest of the skirt to have this layer a teeny bit longer.

    Scalloped layer length: - 2/3x38≈25cm

Now, cut out a rectangle that is your skirt width by your scalloped layer length - 190x25cm

For the underskirt, there is the plain fabric and then the ruffle at the bottom, so we have to account for that in the length. 

To get your ideal ruffle width, subtract your scalloped layer length from the total length, then divide by 2, rounding up if it's a decimal

    Ruffle width: (38-25)/2=7cm (rounded)

The ruffle length needs to be double the length of the hem, so it's really 4x your hip measurement

    Ruffle dimensions - width: 7cm, length: 4x95=380cm

Then subtract your ruffle length from your total length, and use that to cut the plain fabric part of the underskirt.

    Plain part of underskirt: 38-7=31, underskirt dimensions - width: 190cm, length: 31cm

 

Now you should have three pieces: your scallop layer, underskirt, and ruffles - but the ruffles will probably be many pieces sewn together since they are so long haha.

For each of these, I have added 10mm seam allowance when cutting, so ensure you do that for your pieces too.

Part 2: Sewing Scallops

To make this lovely scallop effect, you'll first have to make a little template. 

To start off, you'll need to figure out how many scallops you are going to make by getting the factors of your width measurement. The amount of scallops you make is really up to you, but keep in mind:

If you choose to make many very small scallops:

• You will have to do a LOT of manoeuvering to sew the many small curves
• You will have to do a lot of notches
• It will be very time consuming overall
• Your fabric may warp where the individual scallops meet, kind of like a pinch point

But if you go too far in the opposite direction...

• It will look off balance
• Mistakes will be more obvious
• You'll end up with less fabric

Keeping that all in mind, scallops of around 10-18cm diameter, or 4-7inches is ideal. I did mine 10cm, which will give me 19 scallops in total, which is somewhat close to the amount on the original skirt I am guessing. However, I think 15cm is actually the ideal size for this, so if your measurement is divisible by that, go for it.

Finally, to make the template, I really like Cornelius Quiring's method, so that's what I did. Before drawing on, just make sure your template fits perfectly, and you have full scallops, or it's going to look weird at the seam.

Here's my template.

Now onto creating our scallops...

1. On your scallop layer, begin tracing out your scallop template. If you're like me, and your scallop layer was two pieces of fabric seamed at the middle to get the total width, begin tracing around your template at the center seam, this just makes things easier.

   

   I've just moved the template away from the lines to show you how I've traced, but if you have included seam allowance on your template (Which I highly recommend) make sure your template is right against the edge of the fabric and trace precisely around it

2. Once you've drawn on your scallops, cut the shape out carefully. 

   
3. Cut out a piece of fabric to use as your facing, it should be the same length as the bottom edge and about 12cm wide

   
4. Overlock the top edge of this strip of fabric.
5. Pin this strip of fabric to the bottom edge of the skirt, right sides together, making sure the non overlocked edge meets the scallops, like so

   

   
6. Once the pieces are pinned together, with the scallop side up, turn your stitch length down to 1.5-2 and sew together, using your presser foot as a seam allowance guide for sewing the scallops.

   
7. By the end, you should have lots of nice neat semicircles like so. But, if you are unhappy with any of the shapes, now is the time to go back and fix them. You don't need to completely undo, just seam pick and fix it up

   

   
8. Then, begin to cut down the seam allowance to 5mm, including the facing.

   
9. After cutting the seam allowance down, create lots of notches, especially where the scallops meet, to avoid bunching.

   
10. Begin turning each scallop right side out, using your fingers or a roundish object like a 5mm crochet hook (Don't use anything sharp like a pen or pencil, it will pierce through the fabric)

    
11. Using lots of steam, iron down the scallops, fixing the shapes if you need so everything is perfect

Part 3: Sewing the underskirt

1. If you’ve cut out your ruffle as a few different pieces, seam them together now so they are one long piece.
   
2. Overlock/overcast/zigzag those seams
3. Create a rolled hem on the bottom of the ruffle
   
4. Gather along the top of the ruffle, so it matches the length of the hem. There are a few ways to do this, but I find that gathering by turning the stitch length and thread tension as high as possible work best, and are easily adjustable.
   
   
   
5. Pin the top edge (the gathered part) of the ruffle to the hem of the plain fabric and seam together
   
6. Overlock/overcast/zigzag the edge seam
   
   
   
7. It is very very very important right now that you iron where you seamed your ruffle and underskirt together, or your skirt is never going to look right and will always be looking homemade, so just trust me and give it a quick iron with lots of steam!
   

Part 4: Waistband and assembly

All the hard bits are over now! hooray! Now it's onto the half elastic waistband. Because it is a half elastic waistband, half of the skirt will be gathered via elastic, and the other half we will gather ourselves. So just listen carefully.

1. With your underskirt, find the middle of the total width. For me, this was easy because I used two even panels, but if you've done it as one continuous piece, mark the middle with some tailors chalk
   
2. From one end (it doesn't matter which one) to the middle mark, gather up the skirt to whatever half your waist measurement is. 
   
3. Repeat this on the scalloped layer
4. Now you'll have both layers half gathered and half ungathered, great! The top edge of both skirts should be equal. If they're not, please gather one layer more or less so they are equal, this is really important for construction.
   
5. Seam up the side of the underskirt layer, then seam up the side of the scallop layer, so you have two tubes
6. Place the underksirt layer tube inside the scalloped layer, and match up the seams, then, go around the edge, sewing the two layers together before we add the waistband.
   

For creating the waistband, half will be a flat, interfaced panel, and the other half will be elasticised to fit your waist but also able to go over your hips to get on and off. For my elastic panel, I chose to do it so I had two channels, each with a length of 1.25cm elastic in them, but you can just use one piece of 2.5cm elastic if you want.

1. Cut out a rectangle that is 6cm(Or 2x your total elastic used width + 0.5cm) by half your waist measurement (don't forget to include seam allowance), this will be your non-elasticised half of the waistband.
2. If you want to, you can interface this piece, but don't use a super heavy interfacing, just a light-medium would be best
3. Cut out another rectangle that is also 6cm wide, but is the length of your ungathered part of the skirt. Again, don't forget seam allowance.
   
4. Fold this rectangle in half, then, stitch a line 1.5cm from the folded edge for the elastic channels
   
5. Then, sew another 1.5cm wide channel
   
6. Divide your waist measurement by two, then subtract 4 - (68/2-4=30)
7. Cut two pieces of 1.25cm/1/2inch elastic with this length
   
8. Thread one piece of the elastic through the top channel of the waistband, pinning it at either end so it doesn't get "lost" in the channel
   
9. Then, thread the other piece of elastic into the bottom channel, and pin the elastic at each end 
   
10. Sew over each end to secure the elastic
    
11. Right sides together, fold the non-elasticised part of the waistband over the elasticised part, and sew, trimming of some of the seam allowance after with pinking shears just to reduce any bulk
    
12. Repeat this on the other side, and you'll have the waistband prepared to attach to the skirt.
    
13. Match up the side seams of the waistband to the skirt, and pin the non elasticised part of the waistband to the gathered part of the skirt right sides together, but leave the elasticised part for now.
    

    
14. Sew the waistband to the skirt, making sure that the gathering stitches aren't showing
15. Once you begin approaching the elasticised part, try start to line up the needle with the stitch line of the bottom channel, like so.
    
16. Then, when you actually get onto the elasticised part of the skirt, make sure you stretch the waistband as long as possible so it lays basically flat, this means that when it bunches up again, the skirt will also gather up
    
    
    
17. Keep on going around the whole edge, and go slow, since your machine is processing a lot of fabric right now.
18. To finish off, overlock around the edge, and don't forget to stretch the elasticised part as you sew, like you did before, otherwise you won't have any of the elasticness!!!