Petal Skirt Tutorial - Sew Skirts September

Petal Skirt Tutorial 

We will be using the same draft as we used for 4 Panel Skirt with some slight changes 


The Changes are as follows:


The waist round will be calculated thinking as if we are drafting a 6 panel skirt so the measure  [ 0 - 3 ] = 1/12 Seat Round (it is going to be elasticated waist so we take seat round instead of waist round)


The bottom round has to be atleast 3 times the waistround as we need large bases for the petals


Once we make a draft as below

Did you notice? we do not have darts over here as it is the fullness gives more shape to the petals!


Next we need to blend at the bottom to get petal shape!

The above is the petal pattern on fold, unfold and place on fabric and cut 8 pieces.


Now we need to trace and cut the pieces (8 pieces). I started off with 6 pieces and then realized that the overlap was not enough to make it look pretty as well as modest, hence added 2 more petal pieces! So in total we need 8 petal pieces


I have used organza as top layer and satin as bottom layer and have serged them! You can just stitch them RS together leaving an opening to turn them around at waist arc.

Now place one petal on top of other in such a way that they overlap the petal under them atleast by half-way!


Remember all these should be placed to cover the petal below them only up to half-way through!

• Place Petal 2 on top of Petal 1
• Petal 3 on top of Petal 2
• Petal 4 on top of Petal 3
• Petal 5 on top of Petal 4
• Petal 6 on top of Petal 5
• Petal 7 on top of Petal 6
• Petal 8 on top of Petal 7

Note: The picture here shows only 6 petals, i forgot to take pictures after i added 2 more petals! We need 8 Petals Remember!
Now close it to make a skirt by placing Petal 8 underneath petal 1 

The skirt has an underlining layer in satin a normal gathered rectangle piece measuring seat round + 10 inches, so that when the petals move, skirt still stays modest!

Add waist band as you would for any normal skirt and leave an opening to loop through the elastic and then close it! Viola Petal Skirt is ready!

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Navarathri Dress No.2 - Petal Skirt and Cowl Top

I saw the petal skirt on Burdastyle sometime back and it has been in my To-DO list for long, drafted a pattern for my DD"s measurements and made here Navarathri Dress No.2 .

Have taken pictures while i made it, so will share the tutorial soon as part of Sew Skirts September Series!

I have so much to do and such little to accomplish all of them, Navarathri preparations are also underway, planning a get together of Chennai based fashion/design/beauty bloggers ! More on this soon! So you can imagine how hassled i am with time i am left with to do all these things!!!!

As of now pics of Petal Skirt  and the Cowl Top

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Panel Skirt Tutorial - Sew Skirts September

Panel skirts can be made up of any number of panels as desired

Here i am going to show you 4 panel skirt draft

Note: Bottom round can be 1.5 - 3 times the waist round, as per your taste!

The fabric i chose for this skirt had diagonal purple stripes on white background! since the stripes were diagonal, i had to cut 1 panel on lengthwise grain and the other i had to match it on cross-grain and then cut it~Hope the below snaps are able to explain themselves! This skirt is so easy to sew (except for matching stripes! you choose non-stripey  contrast color fabrics, they will work as well!)

Trying to match right sides together (first piece on top is cut on Lengthwise grain ; is being placed on top of cross-wise grain of fabric and stripes are being matched)

Once 2 panels are sewn together, matching one seam of it to form the 3rd panel!

Note you can make this skirt into 6/8/12 panel skirt by changing just 1 step


calculate 0 - 3 as


6 panel skirt = 1/12 waistband + 1 cm
8 panel skirt = 1/16 waistband + 1 cm
12 panel skirt = 1/24 waistband + 1 cm

The dart portion can be ignored for kids and can be used as such for added ease; i have used hip round instead of waist round for my DD's skirt shown above and have added elasticated waistband!


Hope you found this tutorial useful, please do leave your feedback




Have lots to do, suddenly realized 2 days back that Navarathri is just about a fortnight away! God i need to make 9 new dresses for my darling daughter, and i was wondering how could i fit them in, considering that i already have my workdesk full with Sew Skirts September (hope it is proving to be useful to all of you!), Retro Pillow Challenge (yet to get started on that), Purse Challenge ( I need to search my drafts to figure out when and where did i commit to that!)


Last year i had promised to self that i will certainly sew atleast 3 new outfits for me, well i don't know if i will be able to keep that promise, let us see.


Moreover, preparatory work for Navarathri also has to be done, Golu Park to be made, toys to be dusted and cleaned!. Adithi's School is going to celebrate Navarathri this year (Every Year, they celebrate 1 festival!) and have requested the kids to bring 1 toy each (which shall be returned!) she is tilting towards pretty krishna idol, whereas i was pinning for Ganesh made of 9 grains! let us see who wins this vote!

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Skirts - Cheat Sheet!

Found something interesting on Pinterest regarding skirts, check it out!


Also Check out Sew Skirts September Board on my Pinterest id; 

If you would like to contribute to this Board, please do mail me your Pinterest id , so that I can add to you to list of contributors! Then you can add pin (skirts you have made as part of your participation in Sew Skirts September or any skirt style you would like to knock-off! Please do pin up and lets try and reconstruct them as much as possible!
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Drape a Skirt Sloper - Threads

Check this post about draping a skirt sloper , for those who have dress forms, can surely try this out, it is high time i made a dummy or bought a dress form! This post is line with our Theme - Sew Skirts September!

Drape a Skirt Sloper - Threads:

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Easy skirt Tutorial - Sew Skirts September

I am off on a short-break to my aunt's place, will be back on Monday! Till then please do check out my earlier tutorials (on Skirts ofcourse!) and also will be posting about few interesting skirt tute's which caught my eye!

No Pattern Skirt  In Less Than 15 minutes

Did you check out the latest - Cowl Skirt Tutorial

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Cowl Skirt Tutorial - Sew Skirts September

Dear Readers,

Now it is time for us to see what's next in Sew Skirts September, ever since i had posted Cowl Neck tutorial, i had requests for cowl skirt drafting, i was still learning the ropes then and hence chose to wait before i am clear enough to explain to others!

Based on comments from Purush and Carolyn on Basic Skirt Sewing post, i tried the shaped waistband, what are your thoughts on this. Drafted the waistband as a single piece starting from Half of Back waistband then followed by Front waistband and then again remaining half waistband with extension for closure. Add darts which are about 2/8 inch wide at points where back waistband meets front waist band i.e., 2 darts Closure is the same it was in Basic Skirt , hook and thread loop closure as we use here for saree blouses, (I did not have a matching button, hence did not put buttonhole closure!) I chose this fabric thinking it will drape nicely and the cowls will look lovely, though i have got the drape of cowl as desired, i somehow am not happy with the fall of the skirt in center front. I tried with rough fabric with grainline as bias and didn't like the feel of it as the cowl was too drapey to my liking, hence decided to have the CF on straightgrain on fold, now i am having second thoughts if i should have had CF with seams, so that i could have squeezed in extra fall near the hemline at CF ! your thoughts and suggestions on this!

Here is the snap of the sample tried out on Barbie doll (the guinea pig for my sewing experiments!)

This is how the skirt looks Flat on the floor and viola , now lets say A-B-R-A-C-A-D-A-B-R-A ....

Not so clear pictures, i have to get tripod stand to assist me when i do not have any photographers at my service! ;) will post better pictures soon with a new matching top!

Coming up next are relatively simple skirt drafts like A-Line skirt, Flared Skirt , Stay tuned!

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Sew Skirt September - Basic Skirt Sewing continued

Dear Readers,


Hope you have checked out the Drafting Tutorial for Basic Skirt, Now let us see the Sewing Part of Basic Skirt / Straight Skirt! 


Hail Skirts this September! yay!


I would like to mention one thing here - I will not be delving deep into the details of certain steps like attaching a zipper and adding pleats to vent as there are already crystal clear tutorials for them! We have lots of unknown details to visit don't we, so lets concentrate on them, which will help us draft and sew many styles of skirts this September!. 


First lets sneak peak at what are going to make, have a look at basic skirt i have made for self!

Lets get started 


Step 1 : Cut the Skirt pieces

Step 2: Waistband


Height - 1 - 2 inches max as desired


Length :
Waistband for front measuring exactly the same amount as skirt front waist arc (after deducting darts!)
Waistband for back measuring Skirt Back wasit arc (Deducting darts) + 1 inch for closure extension


Note: If you are planning to have opening at sideseam (if prefer not to as at hip curve bulge will expose zipper and it is better placed at CB), then you can have back wasitband as 1 piece itself


If you are planning to have opening at CB (i did!) then you need to cut 2 back waist band into 2 pieces such that 1 piece is 1 inch longer than the other!

Step 3: Interface the waistband ( i have used  1 inch stiff interfacing) and join seams, press open the seams

Step 4: Stitch the darts at Skirt Front & Back


Step 5: Preparing the Vent piece. I like my skirts to be modest for a mature woman like me who drops and picks up her daughter from school, so always add vent pleats at back for straight skirts like the basic skirt or even pencil skirt to allow ease of movement and at the same time ensure modesty!


Have shared photos of it when i added the vent, for your extra reference , here is the Vent Pleat tutorial i learnt this from, this will surely help you add Pleats to your Skirt vents!

Pressed Pleats

Similarly pin and stitch vent to the other half of back skirt

Press the Vent Pleats back in place

This is how it will look like from the RS of the back skirt

Step 6: Once Pleats are added, then stitch the Center Back seam from Zipper end position till the Vent position mark.
Note :  Please see that it is not from CB notch the CB seam is stitched as mentioned in picture, but from end of zipper to beginning of vent pleat attachment at CB

Step 7: Stitch the vents in place as an inverted V on top of them 

On the RS of skirt back top-stitch an inverted V at the top of the Vent pleat as shown below

Step 8: Add Zipper to CB opening; I have used normal zipper here (ran out of invisible zippers he he!; need to restock them!) Open up the Zipper by pulling the zipper pull. First pin RS of Zipper to the RS fabric of skirt (Right side portion of Back Skirt!) such that Zip teeth matches with CB Notch, stitch in place. Edge stitch on RS of Skirt


Then Pin RS of the other side of Zipper to the RS fabric of skirt (Left side portion of back skirt!) such that Zip teeth is about 3/8 inch away from CB seam. Stitch in place and make a top-stitch 1/2 inch from CB Seam and then at zip end point stitch a horizontal line , so the top stitch forms the shape of 'L'

Here is a link to one zipper tutorial using normal zipper, there are various ways of doing it, i have done it using one method, the link shows another way (which i used to do earlier! as a beginner) here again just google to find the one which suits you, i am just sharing what caught my eye!

Step 8: Stitch the side seams ; (no picture needed for this, isn't it!)

Step 9: Attach waist band to the Skirt. Remember the Back waist band with extension should be on the Right half of the Back Skirt  and the one without the extension should be on the Left Half of the back skirt. Add closure at end of waist band as desired, i have added normal hoop and thread loop closures as used in saree blouse! the Loops are added at the extension exactly at 1/8 to right of CB notch and hooks added at 3/8 from CB on the WB piece without extension

Forgot to take picture of this, no probs, here is a link for your reference, you can just google and get umpteen options, just choose one which suits you best !

Step 10: Finish Hem (I have used 2 inch Hem to give couture finish!) 

Here is the finished Straight Skirt / Basic Skirt

Hope this tutorial helps you out in sewing up a straight skirt / basic skirt with vents at back! Did you like this tutorial, any doubts, please do leave your feedback in comment section! 


Also feel free to Pin this to Pinterest, share it on facebook, tweet it by using share buttons available at the end of the post. If you would like to share this with your blog readers, click on Create Link button at the end of the post, so that a back link for this tutorial will be created!


To view all Sew Skirt September Posts - Click HERE

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