I use the most original titles! 🙂
I wanted a tiered skirt, but why buy a pattern? One of the first things I made when I first learned to sew years ago, ahem, about 40 years, was a basic skirt with an elasticated waist and I think a frill on the bottom. Mum showed me how and not a pattern was in sight, all completely drafted from scratch. So why not do the same, but up the ante a bit. I even bought the fabric specifically for this. Minerva in the UK did a free shipping to NZ, so I made the most of it! The rest of the fabric has been squirrelled away for future projects.
I decided on three tiers, all of different lengths, just a half elasticated waist (rather than full elastic) and, of course, pockets!
First step was to decide on the skirt length and work back from there. I divided that by three and then added extra to the length of the bottom tier from the length of the top tier. With me so far? 🙂
The waist was the easy bit, measure my waist, take half of that and multiply it by 1.5 to give the back waist. The top tier width was also 1.5 of my waist, which meant I didn’t need to gather the back top tier for the skirt – even better. The second (middle) tier width is 1.5 times the width of the top tier and then the bottom tier is another 1.5 times the width of the middle tier. Next I added seam allowances and a hem to the bottom tier. Now, I guess for some, this all seems too much need for maths and number crunching, not a problem here, my mathematical brain was in heaven!
I actually even did a vague pattern layout, so I could check I did have enough fabric. 🙂 The top and middle tiers are just two pieces, the bottom tier is three pieces with a centre back seam, it was more efficient use of fabric.
The final thing was to add pockets. These are in seam, but attached at the waistband, since my fabric is a lightweight viscose and that waistband attachment for the pocket gives more stability. And those pockets are big!
The front of the waistband is interfaced. The back obviously has the elastic, which I think was 1” wide. It was too loose to start and started to fall down, so I had to unpick and shorten the elastic. It might be a wee bit tight now and the elastic rolls, but at least it’s not falling down! I need to add some vertical stitches through the depth of the waistband to stop that.
The deets
Fabric: Navy blue viscose with tiny white spots from Minerva.com
Notions: Thread, elastic and interfacing. Oh and a label from KATM.
Pattern: Completely self-drafted
Changes made: I shortened the elastic after making it, does that count?
Another one/recommendations: You never know, I like this, although I hate doing gathers! If the current trend for gathers/tiers/frills continues I might make another, but there isn’t one on the cards at the moment. I’m so tempted on a tiered skirt with asymmetric heights with colour blocking…
There was definitely no need for a pattern for this, it was a very easy make. I have enough patterns in my collection anyway!! And this skirt is so swishy!
Nikki's Stitches 
Great skirt, Nikki!
You’re right – who needs a pattern for a tiered & gathered skirt… but thank you for showing all the maths, as they just might come in handy for others…… 😉