The Skirt That Cost $0

Hello! First off I just wanted to thank all of you for taking the time to check out my odd ramblings and showings of how I go about making my costumes! I also swear that JD is a real person who is a part of this cosplay group that I didn't just make up in my mind.

ANYWAYS

JD and I went to the Big Bang concert last year in Newark NJ. And 1) it was SO AWESOME but 2) I decided to make a cute little skirt for the concert and challenged myself to make it without any pattern and using only supplies I already had in my possession from previous cosplays & fabric donations.

So I decided I wanted a suspender skirt because they are super cute and I wanted to look like the weirdest little kpop freak.

So what did I use? Well you need scissors, a ruler, a tape measure for your own measurements helps, some thread and your fabric! I made this thing entirely of button up uniform shirts that I recycled and a pair of old work pants. So first  I took the arms and front panels off the shirts until I was left with just the back panel like below:

Then after some much needed ironing I then cut them into the largest trapezoid I could muster with all straight edges. Unfortunately I have lost the notes that contained all the exact measurements I chose but I know I used an old skirt for length reference and added about a half inch for seams all the way around.

I made between 4-5 of these panels before sewing together all of the sides to start forming the circular skirt shape. But wait! I realized that I wanted a waist band for these to connect to since I knew this would be a
high waisted skirt. So I used one leg of the pants I had to cut out 4 long and thick pieces of fabric like a fat rectangle. I also stole the zipper for the pants and attached it in the center of the back waist band. Here is the waist badn and zipper. I wish I had taken more picture along the way to make sense of this.

Then I bunched the small circle of the skirt panels and attached it to the waist piece which ended up like so:

Bunching skirts sucks. I'm way to OCD for trying to make them all even and with the same amount of fabric and making the folds all pretty. I've found it easiest to sew a string into the inside of the skirt waist that you can use to pull the fabric and bunch up nicely. If anyone would like a further explanation of this process please ask! Also be on the look out for my Chibiusa costume post as I have pictures of this process that I forgot to take during this one. Here is the only image I have of it after sewing the thread in and bunching the fabric before pinning it to the waistband:

After this I went ahead and sewed down everything. I cut suspenders from the other leg of the pants I was using and measured the distance I wanted from my waist and over my shoulders. I suggest making them a wee bit tighter than you think you need as I made mine exactly to measurement and they tend to slip off my shoulders when dancing like a fan girl at concerts.

While sewing these up a crises occurred! I ran out of black thread! OH NO! But luckily I'm kind of a goth kid and had another spool after hunting through all of my left over crafty supplies.
TIP: Be a hoarder when it comes to crafts. I don't care how many people shake their heads at me but I keep almost all of the fabric I have left over from projects and threads and take donations from my friends that dont want to keep theirs. You'd never guess how often its come in handy to have a spare 1/2 yd of random fabric when in a pinch.

Annnnnyway here is the completed that I absolutely love and plan to wear many a time outside of the best concert of my life. I also custom made my "Yes I'm A Pretty Boy" Shirt (GD for life) but that's a whole other story.

I promise future posts shall be much more detailed and helpful. This project was just so long ago that I sadly lost some of the pictures I took during since it was experimental and I didn't know what would work and what wouldn't. Hope this helps even the slightest bit for anyone trying to make their own nifty skirt!

Also have some pictures from our wonderful time that I will never forget! (SEE! JD IS REAL!)

Thanks for reading and I cant wait to share more with you in the future!!
-Kat