Mood DIY: How to Sew an Easy Color-Blocked Wool Skirt

Color blocking was one of the top trends of 2016, and with the Spring 2017 lines rolling out, it’s clear that the trend isn’t dissipating anytime soon. Luckily, color-blocking can be made easy with this gathered skirt, which can be made for a plethora of ages and body types!

Fabrics and materials used:

• 1 yard Pacific Twill Wool
• 1/4 yard Italian Rifle Green Wool Coating
• 1/2 yard Orange/Black Solid Coating

Like I said, color blocking made easy! All you need for this skirt is rectangles. Anyone up to about a 40″ waist should be able to place their panels along the width of their fabric, if using a 58″ fabric. Beyond that, each panel can be made as long or short as you’d like. Since mine lands right above the knee, I went with about 18″ for my main body. The waistband is folded in half so it ends up being about 2″ after seam allowance. The large stripe at the bottom is also halved, to become about 4″ in the end. The pockets are basic rectangles with curves cut into one quarter of them.

Each stripe gets straight-stitched together at the bottom. Originally I was planning some French seams, but I opted against them because of the thickness of the wool. Luckily, since the bottom stripe is so wide, the seams don’t really get seen! Before moving onto the pockets, I gathered the body of the skirt. If you’ve never done this before, one easy way is to baste the top of the fabric with the widest stitch on your machine (no back-stitching!), and then pull one of the threads as the fabric bunches up.

Top-stitching pockets onto a garment may seem tricky, but with a grid fabric, it’s super simple! Idecided to go with the wrong side of the fabric for these, to create a little contrast. First, I sewed the curve of the pocket inward, before pinning it between the gathered skirt and waistband. I pinned the waistband and pockets on at the same time to make sure I liked the way everything fit together before I stitched anything together.

A basic zipper finished up the back!

I love a simple skirt like this, because you can do anything with it. Change the colors around to bring it into a different season, lengthen it, shorten it, or change the shape of the pockets (maybe hearts?). The possibilities go on and on! How are you going to make yours?