Nirma skirt - Sew waistband to skirt

Hi All,

This is part of the series of posts to sew a Nirma skirt.

For full instructions to make a Nirma skirt please goto NIRMA SKIRT FREE PATTERN.

The top part is not actually a waistband but since I do not have any other name to it, for convenience lets call it waistband :)
We will be now attaching the waistband to the skirt. The pom poms are totally optional.

Below are the steps:

 1. Mark center and quarter points: I have marked with white here - 8 points in waistband and 8 on skirt.
For the waistband and skirt piece
- Mark center front, center back, 2 sides (4 points in all). Choose any as sides for the skirt as there is no seam.
- Now mark between the above points.

 2. I have done it wrong 3 times on this step. This is not an obvious step for sure. With right sides together pin the pom pom with the waistband with the hanging part of the pom poms facing the elastic side (although in the end it has to face the skirt side). Pin the center of pom pom band 0.2 cm less than seam allowance - and I have to say I don't like any of the red band of the pom poms to be seen.

 3. Now sew over the band of the pom poms - a basting stitch will do but I'm not able to handle it with speed so I use a normal stitch.

 4. Right sides of waistband together short ends meeting pin such that the band of the pom poms meet. Sew the shorter length closed.

 5. Zig zag stitch or use your serger to finish off the raw edges separately both the ends.

 6. Sew 3 rows of basting stitches using my favorite method to gather on the front and back separately using contrasting colours. It will just be easier to unpick the stitches later. Now using the pull push method I described gather the front and back. 

7. You can see that where the basting stitches end the gathering eases off. We will fix this when we pin this area.
The last row of basting I used a blue - was lazy to thread back the red when it finished. This little laziness came back on me when I had to unpick them and especially they weren't on the top side which would have got cut :(
Don't be lazy - it always hits back and hard. :)

8. Now put the waistband tube that we formed over the top of the skirt piece with right sides together and pin the side seams.

9. Make sure the finished edges lay flat.

10. Pin the center and quarter points of the waistband with the skirt (8 points in all). You can see here in some places the skirt is more gathered than waistband and in others less.
If skirt if more gathered than waistband ease off from center.
If skirt if less gathered than waistband pull the basting threads to gather the skirt..

11. Near the side seams where the gathering stitches easing off this is the time to gather holding the gathering and pinning them as much as possible.

12. With a chopstick or a pin even out the gathers between the pins so
- it is evenly gathered.
-  they are perpendicular to the gathering lines.

12. From the waistband wrong side (where there is already a sewing line for the pom pom), sew 0.2 cm away from the stitching line. This will cover the band of the pom poms and also cover up for mistakes if you happen to move away from the stitching line.
While sewing make sure the pom poms are not being sewn over. I do this by touching from top to make sure.

 13. Trim the seam to 1 cm. Unpick the gathering stitches.

14. Finish the seam either using zig zag stitch or using serger

15. Turn and this is how it looks.

16. Top stitch from the front very close to the edge (This is optional though - I don't like the look of top stitch but it does hold the seam upwards; else it is upwards in some places and down in others making it bulky where it transitions)

-Preethi.

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