A few days ago I pulled out this pretty yellow rayon challis from the stash and made it up into a simple elastic waist skirt.  A couple of techniques were used on this skirt, which made it go together in about one hour.  Yep, that fast!

First I changed the serger thread color from the scarf I made last time over to an ecru for finishing off the raw edges of the skirt.  I do this by tying the new color onto the old and pulling the threads through with the tension bar up.  Then I test a small scrap to make sure they are all properly threaded.

I measured my hips, and doubled that measurement to get the total width.  Then I measured how long I wanted it to be and added three inches for the elastic casing and a one-inch hem.  I serged the sides together, simultaneously finishing the edge and creating the seam.

I then serged the top edge and the bottom edge for a professional looking finish.

Next I turned over two inches at the top for the elastic casing and left about three inches open to insert the elastic with a bodkin.

I stretched it out and let it snap back to evenly distribute the fabric, then I stitched down the elastic on both sides with a vertical stitching line through the elastic to hold it and keep it from turning.  See my Lace Edged Skirt Refashion for a full discussion of how to do that.

Now for the hem.  Put your blind hem foot on your machine.  Fold the fabric up one inch and press in your hemline.

Now, using the ironed crease, fold the hem backwards on the outside, right sides together until you have just the edge showing on the wrong side.  Put this under your blind hem foot, with the fold on the left side of the bar, and the right side showing just that bare minimum of fabric to stitch on.

The blind hem will take three stitches in the right side bit, then jump over the bar for one stitch on the left.  The bar will allow enough thread overage so it will pull back flat.

When you first pull it flat it will look a little puckered, like on the left side above.  Just pull it flat, like below.

Then iron it on the right side and it comes out wonderful.

I wore it last week to work with a purple shell and a white shrug and my favorite nude beige pumps.

I’ll be able to wear it well into fall with a light shell and my pumpkin color shrug, or even long sleeved sweater and my bows on the toes suede flats.

Or, I can pull the green out of the print for fall with this long shirt worn over the skirt with a wide brown belt. I could still wear either of the other shoe choices, or a rust flat would be cute too.

Isn’t it fun to sew when the outcome has so many choices!!

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How do you use your serger? What are you working on?