Knife Pleated skirt part 2

my camera is sucking in a major way!

thats just a heads up... for lack of or poor quality pics from my phone ...

and i've been distracted by other projects... like right now, i'm working on new gear and trying to get a business started kind of a busy girl, eh?

So anywho... you've done the pleats all around the skirt right? wasn't it fun... and time consuming... it usually takes me a couple days to do, only cuz i have a very short attention span, so i have a few projects going on that i go back and forth on...

Now, you need a waistband, and it all depends on how wide you want it... Measure your waist, and cut out the width, doubled... cuz you'll be folding the waistband over.

I also used interfacing in the waistband. the iron on stuff...then with right sides together, sew the waistband to the skirt. , i leave the opening on the side of the skirt.., cuz thats where i put my zipper...

once that;s done, fold the waistband and topstitch it down and tada!!!!

Sew the Zipper into the opening, i added a little hook above it and Now it's done :D

Not that hard, is it :D

and very cute!

tutorial- how to make a knife pleated skirt pt. 1

no pattern? no problem!!!!! like i said, i SUCK at following patterns but hey!!! i learned this nifty little trick along the way.... right now, i'm making a black knife pleated skirt. It's the same material left over from the black pants (which are done and I will reveal another time)
These I'm making for wrestling gear as well. For Moi! i've been saying by the time i'm ALLOWED to wrestle again, i'll at least be the best dressed, or have the most outfits, i'll never have to wear the same outfit twice!!! ( I kid!!!! i hope????)

Knife pleats are my favorite, i think they're super hot and hopefully my vision for new gear will come out great. What really takes time is the pleating part, i think there is a something out there to make perfect pleats but i just use a measuring tape...

so what you need is:

Fabric

a sewing machine

an iron

measuring tape
lots of needles

Figure out how long you want the skirt and minus a couple inches at least, depending on how wide you want the waist band.

Now cut out 3 or 4 strips of fabric that size, like this!

now sew the side seams together and you have one big circle.... ohhhhhh circle!!!!!!!!

And hem the skirt... trust me do this now cuz trying to hem with the pleats already in it... HA! good luck! save yourself the headache and hem it up now

Now the pleating begins!!!!!!


this is tedious work... i mean, do you have patience? I don't, so it takes me awhile to do this, and I have about4 different projects on the go right now, so i just rotate when my patience wear's thin. Anyways, lie a section of it flat on your ironing board with a seam to start


Get your measuring tape out, start at the seam and measure over 4 inches. Fold the material over at the 4 inch mark and iron it flat.
Next, measure 2 inches over from the fold, fold it back, iron it down and pin it in place. And you got your first pleat.

easy enough??

now from where your last fold was, measure out another 4 inches and repeat the process over again, so in the end your pleats will look something like this...

Do this all the way around the skirt and we shall continue this on a later date....

have your patience ready!! lol

if you need better instructions, let me know

the battle of the other pants...

i have now gone on to making pants... just for me... i ventured into using interfacing on the waist band, a zipper and button... which i haven;t yet tried on pants...

I will use patterns in the sense of... i'll cut them out or use it as a base... but when it comes to following the instructions... i'm not gonna lie.. i SUCK at that... i really do... i read them over and over and over and i just get so confused... i need to watch ppl do it... trust, youtube is GREAT for this!!!!! i do watch sewing tutorials on there...

anywho.. the pattern i got for this can be found here...

http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/low-rise-flared-jeans

Burdastyle is great and has lots of free patterns, you just need to sign up.... i am not brave enough to do pockets, nor did i use denim... the material is black and has a bit of a stretch to it and i went with the pattern because of the size and i liked the flare to it... purtyyyyyy....

i'm still not done it... i'm basically doing the finishing touches so will definitely show it when i'm done but thought i'd share the pattern and wonderful site.. woot...

But i did get the waistband done nicely which has the interfacing, the zipper hasn't fallen off and i learned how to sew a button on with my machine... success, yo....

anywho.... i've had enough of those pants for tonight so i'm gonna try something else

in the beginning.. there were pants...

haha, thanks to my buddy Chris for the wonderful title as well as everyone else who gave me some ideas...

I'll be honest, my 1st time sewing was back when i was 13 when i had to do it for school... years later, when my friend tried to get me involved i said hell no, i figured i didn't have the time or the patience. then i lost my job, was in a car accident and found so much more time on my hands. When my bf, the wrestler, wanted new wrestling gear and with limited options on who to go to, i went and bought a sewing machine... i'm surprised how well i took to it and how well it kept me occupied and kept my ADD in check :P
so of course... for my first project i take on the easiest project i could think of (note sarcasm here) which was making some gear for wrestling. Yes i mean Professional wrestling like what you see on TV, WWE style. (can you tell i get asked that question a lot?) I already know what type of material is best to use for that but he poised a bit of a problem... meaning he wanted the pants to be white... being brand new at this, it's hard finding material thick enough to not be see through, but also stretchy enough for all the moving he does and breathable so he doesn't get overheated... instead of going with the regular material that is used, i ended up finding this white, stretchy, cotton, nylon blend i believe it was. it was breathable and thick enough to not be see through.
i used McCall's pattern 3402 it's for polar gear, i wish i could snap a pic of it but my camera is being stupid... so i used the pants one.. obviously and away i went.
ohhh one this i should mention before i go further, i was making these, with just his measurements and him SAYING what he wants.. my boyfriend lives in Texas and i'm all the way up here in Vancouver BC, so you kinda want to make it awesome on the first go round cuz you need to make adjustments... well it's hard to do lol. but hey why not give it a shot!!!!

So i got the pants down easy enough, with reinforced stitching... which means double and sometimes even triple stitching... gotta make it strong there lots of movement happening in them and i didn't want to wake up single one day cuz they split right down the middle during a match... ok now while we all think about that and laugh, and i wait for the message from him going WTH???? let's continue on...

So after the pants are done, i needed to add the designs... this was made out of 4 way stretch pleather... (pleather, it's like leather, but with plastic!!!!!!)

on one side it contained this...this is just the paper, where Ryder asked me if i could somehow make it like that... and i laughed... i mean... i'm just learning how to sew... i dunno how to do THAT!!!!!!

Now i had to sew it down and since i used red pleather i decided to use a black zig zag stretch stitch...

TA-DA!!!!!! i think it makes it stand out more... an gives it a whole new dimension... ya?

So one side is done.... the other side i knew would be harder... cuz of what he wanted and the fact that i can't DRAW!!!!!...

Luckily the ever wonderful Jose.... was able to help me... He's great... he's the daddy to one of the cutest baby girls ever and in love with Luna, my internet moms, whom i love dearly.... off track, my bad.. so i told him what Ryder wanted and he drew it out and it looked AWESOME.... Ryder agreed so i made it bigger and printed it out...

except it wasn't bigger enough..... then. dun dun dunnnnnnnnn!!!!! My printer died... it DIED!!!! so me being as lucky as i am, had to actually draw it out bigger free hand.... plus change it around a bit... he wanted the knife below the wings...

So, at the end of all that... i used black pleather for the wings with white stitching as well as cut out different pieces for the layers of the wing, when stitching those down i didn't stitch at the very edge, which gave them more of a 3D effect... awesome!!!

So there ya go.... this is what it looked like before being sent out... the dagger was done in red.... the feathers falling off in white as well...

and for my 1st attempt i don't think they were that bad....

So i sent them off and....

This one is him when he first got them i think -------->

<------ And this one is him wearing them in the ring... woot!!!

Overall i like how they turned out... i do know there are some things i know for next time.. honestly, the waistband is too thick but i'm making more soon... so you shall see :D

i'll probably be taking more pics of those... woo hoo....

i'll show some more things i have already done and one you're all caught up.. show more step by step...

so i hope you enjoyed!!!!!