When I was first developing the Protea capsule wardrobe sewing pattern I desperately wanted to include three tiers in the View C dress and View E skirt. But the tricky thing about designing sewing patterns is trying to find a happy balance between design, ease of sewing and fabric consumption. Though a three tier skirt fulfilled my design ideals, it did increase the difficultly of sewing and threw fabric consumption right out the window. So I couldn’t bring myself to do. Until now, years after release I had a realisation. I don’t need to add a third tier to make a three tier skirt – I can just make a smaller first tier! Which will use much less fabric and won’t require gathering 5 additional skirt patterns. So that’s what we’ll be doing today.
If you enjoy video tutorials there is a video on my Youtube channel for how to sew this skirt, but if you’re more of a photo tutorial person, then carry on reading!
Ok the first thing we need to do is decide what size to cut. I recommend choosing your size based on the larger size of waist or hip. So for me my waist would put me in a size 8 but my hip would put me in a 14 so I am cutting a 14. This is important because the design of this additional tier is close fitting, so you need to make sure it isn’t tight on you. If you are at all worried about this, or prefer more volume you can add more to the pattern width easily. Now to work on our pattern pieces. We’ll need the skirt 8 which we will cut at the tiered skirt cutline. And the Pocket 9.
To make the first tier we’ll be adjusting the waistband pattern piece 11 to create a first tier and waistband combined.
To make this really easy will just be adding 23cm or 9” to the bottom edge of the waistband. The reason for this length is to be able to fit the pockets comfortably in that first panel, however you might find this a bit long if you have a short torso. If so I would recommend reducing this length by 5cm or 2”.
If you’d like to add pockets like I did then you’ll need to include pocket notches. These will be placed 6mm or ¼” and 15.5cm or 6 1/8” down the side seam.
Don’t forget that the original waistband was cut on the fold and we are cutting 2 panels, so we need to add 1.5cm or 5/8” to the centre front (I almost forgot to do this!!).
You’ll need to cut 5 skirt tiers just like View E in the pattern and 4 pockets. You’ll also cut 2 of the new 1st tier waistband combined.
This will result in a 1st tier which is somewhat close fitting, and almost a drop waist look and will use up much less fabric than a third tier which would have used 5 extra panels of skirt. If you prefer more volume in your 1st tier feel free to add that to the pattern piece width before cutting.
Ok lets get sewing!
I like to work on pockets first, so lets finish the raw edges of the curved outer edges of our pockets. I’m using an overlocker. Place your pockets right side together on the front and back waistband tier panels. Make sure that you align your pocket notches with your waistband tier. Be careful here and make sure you have your waistband tier the right way round, it’s easy to put this upside and it won’t work upside down.
I like to lay out my panels side by side so I can make sure my pockets align well with each other.
Sew the pockets to the side seams just under 1.5cm or 5/8” from the raw edge. Finish the raw edges by your desired method, I’m overlocking them.
Press the pockets and seams away from the garment and understitch the pocket to the seam allowance. Understitching is a very important step in my opinion as it makes sure that the pocket and seam allowance stay in place together and are less likely to peek out on the right side of the garment.
Place your two waistband tier panels right sides together and so that the pockets are aligned. Sew around the curved outer edge of the pocket 1.5cm or 5/8” from the raw edge stopping at the side seam. Sew the side seam down from the top of the waistband until the first pocket notch, stop and back stitch. Sew the rest of the side seam up from the bottom of the waistband tier panel and ending at the second pocket notch. You will not sew between the pocket notches as this is your pocket opening.
Press your pockets and seams towards the front of the garment – you get to choose which side is the front! And pin them in place.
Turn in 1.5cm or 5/8” from the raw edge at the top of the waistband and press. Turn in 4cm or 1 5/8” and pin in place. This will be. Your elastic casing for your waistband. Make sure that the top edge of your pockets are inside the waistband – they should overlap by 1.5cm or 5/8”.
Sew along the edge of the waistband all the way around and leave a small gap for threading your elastic through. Now lets leave this to the side and work on the skirt panels.
We cut 5 skirt panels, 2 will be used for the second tier and 3 will be used for the third tier.
For the second tier place the two skirt panels right side together and sew 1.5cm or 5/8” from the raw edge along each side seam. Press your seams to the side.
To gather set your sewing machine to the longest stitch and sew two rows of basting stitchings around the top edge of the panel. The first row of basting will be 1.5cm or 5/8” from the edge and the second row of basting will be 1cm or 3/8” from the edge.
It can be quite cumbersome to gather a very large width of fabric so I prefer to gather in sections.
With right sides together align the top edge of the second skirt tier to the bottom edge of the waistband tier. Pin the side seams together. Secure one side of the threads by winding in a figure 8 around your pin. On the other side gently tug at the two threads whilst holding the fabric stationary to gather up your fabric. Once your gathered edge is the same width as the first panel edge, secure your threads.
Even out your gathers as best you can and pin in place. Do the same on the second panel. Sew the gathered panels to the waistband tier by sewing 1.5cm or 5/8” from the raw edge. Finish the raw edges by your preferred method, I’m using an overlocker.
Press the seams up away from the gathers.
If you have visible basting stitches on the right side of the garment it’s a good idea to unpick them now before you forget.
Now for the third tier! The third tier is made up of three panels. Place the three panels right sides together and pin the seam edges in place so that you have one big tube.
For fabric economy this pattern uses a gather ratio of 1.5 in the third tier, however if you have enough fabric, cutting a fourth panel and sewing four panels together will create a lovely amount of volume with a gather ratio of 2.
As with the second row you’ll need to sew some basting, but before we do that we need to section our tier into 4 sections. I like to choose one seams as the centre back and place a safety pin there. Now fold your tube in half to determine the other quarter markings and mark those with safety pins too. I use safety pins as markers because by the time you are gathering this much it can be cumbersome and pins can fall out.
Make sure that you also split your 2nd tier hem into quarters as well and mark with safety pins. This should be easier as you should have seams at the two sides, and then you can place safety pins at the centre front and centre back.
Sew two rows of basting stitches as we did before between the safety pins – this will result in four sections of gathers at the top edge of the third tier, which you will attach to four sections on the bottom edge of the second tier.
Now that there are a lot of gathered panels you can either do what we did before and gather each panel separately, pin in place and then sew the whole seam at once. Or you can do what I prefer, which is to gather and pin one section, sew that section to secure it, and then repeat for each section of gathering. I like this as it means that each section of gathering and sewing is relatively small and when I am working on a new section it’s very secure and I don’t have to worry about pinned gathers falling apart.
With right sides together sew each panel of the third tier to the bottom edge of the 2nd tier 1.5cm or 5/8” from the raw edge. Finish the raw edges by your desired method, and press the seams up away from the gathers.
We are so close to finishing now! To hem your skirt turn in 1cm at the hem and press, then turn in 1cm once more and press.
Sew the skirt hem just under 1cm or 3/8” from the hemline all the way around the skirt. Press once more.
For the waistband you’ll need to measure your natural waist and cut a piece of 32mm or 1 1/4” elastic to match your waist measurement.
Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic and use that to thread the elastic through the casing. When you reach the other side overlap the two pieces of elastic by 2.5cm or 1” an sew together.
Now is a great time to try on your skirt and test if that elastic is a comfortabley fit for you so you can adjust it before closing the waistband.
Stretch your waistband a few times to evenly distribute the elastic.
Sew the waistband opening closed.
This step is optional, but I think makes all the difference to a professional look and comfortable skirt. Set your sewing machine to a long stitch length. Stretching your waistband as you sew, sew 2 rows of topstitching around the entire waistband to secure your elastic. I like to sew mine 1cm or 3/8” down from the top edge and 1cm or 3/8” up from the bottom edge.
Head over to the iron and steam your waistband to help the elastic recover and go back into shape. You’ll notice your waistband shrink up a bit here.
If you are attaching a label to the back I personally like to do it now, as I don’t like the look of a gathered label and I don’t mind the back 2” of my skirt being less stretchy.
Well that’s it! Now you have a three tier drop waist skirt that used significantly less fabric that a 3 tier skirt usually would. And it has pockets!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions at all let me know in the comments. Happy sewing!
