Miette: Construct the Waistband

Making the Miette wrap skirt? In this post I'm going to show you how to construct the waistband.

Catching up? Order your pattern and check out the previous steps.

You should have cut six waistband pieces. Three of these will form the waistband on the outside of the skirt, the other three will form the facing on the inside of the skirt. You should also have four waist tie pieces.

Apply interfacing to the wrong side of the three waistband pieces. Place the glue side (the rough side) face down on the wrong side of the waistband pieces and hold a hot, dry iron on top for a few seconds to fuse them together. Leave the three facing pieces as they are.

Pin the three (interfaced) waistband pieces together at the side seams to form one long strip. Stitch the left side seam only.

On the right side seam, stitch the side seams leaving the a 2cm (3/4in) gap between the dots you marked at the cutting stage (check the pattern if you missed this bit!). This gap is so we can pass the waist tie through the waistband to do the skirt up. Stitch from the top edge to the upper dot and back tack (sew backwards one or two stitches); then stitch from the bottom edge to the lower dot and back tack.

It’s important to back tack securely as, when you wear the skirt, this seam will come under a bit of strain each time you pass the waist tie through the hole. You may even want to stitch two rows on top of each other to reinforce the seam, just to be on the safe side.

Your waistband should now look like the diagram above.



Repeat the previous two on the (non-interfaced) facing pieces, making sure that the gap in the facing seam is the same size and position as the gap in the waistband seam.

Pin one waist tie to each end of the waistband, right sides together. Stitch. Pin one waist tie to each end of the facing, right sides together. Stitch. The waistband and facing should now comprise five sections each.

Trim all the seam allowances you've just sewn and press them open, on both wrong and right sides.

Good work! Next step is to attach the waistband to the skirt...