Sewing Pattern Instructions – Skort

Let’s learn how to Draft a Denim Skort Sewing Pattern from start to finish. This is more of an intermediate/advanced pattern, but if you have a bit of patience, it’ll get easier. I Promise!!

This design uses the Trousers Foundation and the Skirt foundation. The last one is optional as you can always remove the crotch extension from the trousers and you’ll come up with a skirt pattern. If you haven’t drafted it yet, click on the image on the right and do that first. Remember to check the fit of your foundation before starting with this pattern.

Let’s get into how to draft a Denim Skort pattern

TROUSERS PATTERN

Step 1 – The Leg-lines

The first step will be defining your leg-lines. First, transfer the Trouser and skirt foundations to the paper.

  1. I wanted a straight leg-line but feel free to chose a different one if you want. For a straight leg-line just draw a perpendicular line to the hem line
  2. Make the trousers and skirt as short as you want. In my case, they are 10cm below the crotch line
  3. Define how wide you want the skirt to be. In my case, I don’t want it to cover the trousers fully, so I made it 12cm past the centre front (CF)
  4. I want the skirt to have an angled hem. To do that lower the edge 3.5cm and connect it to the side seam

Step 2 – The Waistband

This design sits on the natural waist. If you want it to be lower, just lower the waist-line as much as you want and discard that part.

  1. Define how big you want the waistband (in my case 4cm) and lower it on your design
  2. Separate waistband: Separate the pieces of the front panel and connect them together (red in the drawing). They should form a curve
  3. Big waistband: Separate the pieces and connect them together: skirt waistband (one full side + 12cm of extra side) + back side (add it twice mirrored) + front waistband (add only once) + 4cm to account for the shield.

Once you put the pieces together they should create a curve. Smoothen the curve and your waistbands are ready!

Step 2 – The Fly and the Shield

The fly piece is added to one of the fronts and the shield to the other one. Let’s start with the fly:

  1. Go out 4cm from the centre front
  2. Go down the zipper measurement (mine is 15cm) plus 1.5cm (in my case the fly is 16.5cm long)
  3. Shape it like in the drawing with a little curve at the bottom

For the shield, create a rectangle that is as long as your zipper plus 2.5cm and 8cm wide.

Step 4 – The Pockets

The skort has 1 pocket on each side. One on top of the skirt and the other one on top of the trouser front. They are both drafted the same way

  1. The opening is 10cm wide by 7cm deep
  2. For the facing, mark a rectangle of 13cm by 13cm and curve the outer edge a little bit
  3. To draft the Pocket lining, create a rectangle of 13cm by 26cm also curving the outer edge
  4. If your pattern has darts, remove them by cutting through them

The Pocket is going to have the following pieces

  1. Front piece: This is the front piece but remove the opening of the pocket. Do this for the skirt panel and the opposite trouser panel
  2. Facing: This is the piece after the pocket opening and will be cut in the main fabric
  3. Pocket lining top: This piece is the top part, so the whole pocket minus the opening. It will be cut in lining fabric
  4. Pocket lining bottom: This piece is the full support of the pocket

Step 5 – The Finishes

Finally, you can also add some belt loops (not in the image). I like to add 6 of them, and the dimensions are 4 x 10cm. If you’re using a heavy weight fabric there is no need to interface them.

This pattern can be confusing because of the pieces you need. I advise you to cut two front panels, one with the fly and the pocket and the other one without. This way you’ll make sure you’re cutting them right later on.

If you feel advanced enough, you can also cut the waistband on the fold and have the notches marked in the pattern. Which brings me to the next point, remember to mark all the notches!!

Step 6 – The Seam allowances

And just like that, the pattern is ready! The only thing left to do is adding the seam allowances.

  1. Add 1cm seam allowances everywhere (except for the fly and the hems)
  2. The fly has no seam allowance
  3. The hems (bottom of the trousers and the skirt, and the vertical edge of the skirt) have 2cm (3/4in) seam allowances

And just like that, you learnt how to draft a Denim Skort Pattern from scratch! One last piece of advise, it’s better to check 3 times before cutting than doing it after cutting. Go through all the seams and make sure the pockets are in the right place and the waistbands are too. That’s the only difficulty of this pattern.

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