Pleated Paper Bag Waist Skirt

I love these types of skirts- they just look so classy. I found some floral fabric on sale yesterday so I decided to try and make a skirt out of it! Here is a quick tutorial.

What you'll need:
1-2 yards of fabric (see below)
Matching thread
1 zipper

The width of your fabric should be the width of your waist plus 10 inches (just to be safe). Let's use 28" as an example. You'll want a piece of fabric that's 38" wide. This extra 10 inches will be used for the pleats as well as the zipper.

The length really depends on how short/long you want it- I used 21". This includes a 3" allowance from the top and a 0.5" allowance from the bottom.

1. Lay your fabric across so that the "good" side is on bottom. Fold the top down 3 inches, and pin down.

2. Sew 1 inch from the fold.

3. Now fold the bottom part of the skirt up 0.5 inches, pin,  and sew along the edge. It may also help to iron this first.

4. Fold your pleats in. I did three pleats on each side with each being about 1" thick and 2" from each other, but you can do as many as you want! Pin the pleats and iron them down.

5. Sew your pleats in place along the 1" seam.

6. Now take the fabric and wrap it around yourself. Mark where you want the two sides to connect. Sew the two pieces together starting from the bottom of the skirt and stopping where you want the zipper to start. Leave about 3/4" of fabric and cut off the excess.

7. Sew down the two flaps for where the zipper will be.

8. Pin down the zipper with the outside facing down and sew along the edge.

9. You're done with the body of your skirt! Now for the belt loops. I chose to do four (two in the front, two in the back), but it's up to you. If you have a belt in mind that you want to wear with your skirt, measure its thickness. Add an inch to this measurement and that will be the length of your fabric. For the width of each loop, take however thick you want them to be and multiply it by 2. Fold the fabric lengthwise into a tube and sew all four sides down.

10. Mark where you want each belt loop to go on your skirt. Fold the top of the belt loop down about 1/4" and sew it an inch below the top seam line.

11. Fold the bottom of the belt loop down the same amount and sew it down. You'll want to give each loop a bit of slack so that the belt can fit easily through it.

12. Repeat steps 10 and 11 for the rest of your belt loops and you're done! :)

Let me know if you have any questions! :)