One of the first dressmaking pattern alterations that you might want to do as a beginner dressmaker is to lengthen a skirt pattern. This is a really quick and simple alteration which can make such a difference to your overall happiness with your finished garment.
So lets get straight into it! Here is my nine step guide:
Step 1 - Determine how much length you want to add to your skirt. If you have made a toile (practice version) of the skirt before and tried it on, you can stand in front of a mirror with a tape measure and work out how much you want to add. See picture below. I knew I wanted my next version of this dress to cover my knees. So I held the tape measure over the skirt (with number 1 at the bottom) and decided that I needed to add on three inches to achieve this. If you haven't made a toile and are just working from the pattern, draw in the seam allowances at the top and bottom of the pattern piece, measure the length of the skirt between these points (ie excluding the seam and hem allowances) and then compare that measurement to the normal length that you like your skirts to be - you could measure an existing skirt that you like first if you're not sure. So say you like your skirts to be 24 inches long and the pattern is 22 inches. You know you need to add two inches.
Step 2 - Take your front skirt pattern piece and locate the 'lengthen / shorten' line. This is usually marked by two straight parallel lines. If your pattern doesn't have a lengthen / shorten line, then draw one in approximately in the middle of the skirt from one side seam to the other.
Step 3 - Cut across one of the lines - it doesn't matter which one so that you have separated the pattern piece into two separate pieces.
Step 4 - On a piece of scrap paper, draw two parallel lines. The distance between the lines should be the amount that you want to lengthen your skirt by. The width of the lines should be a bit more than the width of the skirt pattern piece that you are lengthening.
Step 5 - Tape the top half of your skirt pattern down onto the paper so the bottom of it sits on your first line. Then draw a vertical line on one side which follows the edge of the pattern downwards - see photo below.
Step 6 - Now tape the bottom half of the skirt pattern down onto the paper so that the top of that piece sits on your bottom line, ensuring that it is also aligned to your vertical line on the side. This is so that you maintain a nice straight side seam.
Step 7 - Next connect the opposite side seam from top to bottom by drawing a vertical line from the bottom of the first piece to the top of the second piece. You can now cut off the excess paper in line with the rest of the pattern piece and should now have a rectangle of paper added into your pattern piece as per the picture below.
Step 8 - finally take your ruler and measure the added piece to make sure your have added the amount of length that you wanted to and that its even across the width of the skirt.
Step 9 - repeat this procedure for your back skirt piece.
And there you have it! A lengthened skirt pattern piece ready to take to your fabric and cut out!
This process will work on all straight skirts and you can use it on a straight dress pattern as well for the skirt portion. Other shape skirts like a circle skirt for example will need a different method which I will go over on the blog at some point!
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