Tutorial for a High-Waist Skirt High Waist/Corsetted Skirt Tutorial

This is a pattern and construction tutorial for a high-
waist skirt.
These skirts are particularly well-suited to corset-style details, either with a functional lace up back or a decorative faux lacing (back, front, two at the sides, etc).


This tutorial is meant for those with intermediate sewing/ pattern drafting skills.
Sewingwise: you should be familiar with panel or princess-seam designs, multi-layered construction, use of reinforcing materials/interfacings, and incorporating decorative features such as lacings.
Draftingwise: you should be familiar with drafting patterns for yourself and therefore know how to apply your measurements to a pattern, and how they translate into 2D. You should have some experience with tight-fitting and closely-shaped patterns, princess-seam designs, and different skirt shapes.

This style of skirt is a particular favourite for Classic Lolita. The high waistline makes it a more mature look, and the skirt itself is frequently less voluminous and more shaped to the body than your average Loli skirt.

Typically, the skirt will follow the waistline very closely, up as far as the actual underbust or as little as 2 inches above the waist.
The waistline edge can be shaped to point upwards at the centre front, be plain and straight across, or downwards in a 'sweetheart' shape.
The skirt is fitted to around hip-level, unlike the more usual Lolita skirt shape where the 'fluff' begins immediately at the waist.
The hem is usually not as wide (i.e. less volume) as in other styles. Unless you have an extraordinarily supportive petticoat, the excess fabric will fall in folds around the seams rather than standing out on its own. This can be an effective handkerchief-ish look if you plan for it and it's intended, but otherwise it may give an 'I forgot my petti' appearance.
So a maximum hem width of about 60-80" (excluding frills) depending on length and size of the wearer, is recommended. (Compare with the basic
Lolita skirt dimensions of: 90" hem width and above, for 20" length, on a 26" waist.)

Here are some suggestions (or, bad 2-minute Photoshoppings):

Basic style

Basic style with straight waistline

Basic style with 'sweetheart' waistline

Decorative lace-up front

Functional lace-up (back view)

With a separately-made waistband (plus ribbon etc)

With added width on seams

Bustle style/ruched seams (back view, although you could
of course have this all the way round.)

You can even make it a pencil-skirt style, fitted right down to the hem.
No petticoat! (note, this is considered to come under the heading of
'classic Lolita'- at least, brand examples exist.)

This pattern can be derived from an existing one, by cutting down a princess-seam dress pattern to skirt length.
If the pattern has extra width in the centre back (i.e. for shirring to fit, or already has a corsetted back), you can leave it as it is and simply draw a suitable waistline.
Otherwise, you will either need to leave the corsetting out, make it just decorative, or add the necessary width.
(Conceivably you could also modify an actual dress into a high-waist skirt by the same method, but you'd be wasting a lot of dress.)

To draft your own pattern, you need the following measurements:
Waist
Hips (at 5 inches below the waist)
Underbust measurement
Length from waist up to where you want it to finish
Length from waist down to where you want the hem.

If you're adding frills, obviously take these into account
when determining the length of the hem. 5-6" frills are
a suggested length (so you would take 5-6" off the total
length.)
(Incorporate any necessary ease into your measurements. You'll want your waist and underbust widths to fit very close, otherwise how the skirt 'sits' will be off, but use whatever ease amount you are accustomed to.)
You may also want to note your hip measurement at its widest point, to make sure your skirt pattern *exceeds* it.

The pattern is a princess-seam (panelled) design, with 3 panels front and back (i.e. 6 in total): centre front, 2 side fronts, centre back and two
side back sections.
If you are using a zip fastening, it would be best placed on one of the side seams as there is no centre-back seam.
If you are adding a functional corsetted waist, the necessary extra width is added to the back seam.
If you are adding a decorative corset-lacing, you don't need to do any tweaking (but obviously, you'll need some form of fastening to get the skirt on and off.)

Personally I love corsetted backs and use them 90% of the time. Invisible zips are difficult unless you are experienced with them, visible zips often look out of place and/or ugly, and although buttons can be useful you'd have to make them a design feature or it would look a little random.
A further advantage is that you can adapt the fit with the adjustable lacing. This is of obviousl value if you tend to weight fluctuations, but even if you don't you can get an immaculate fit without any effort.
Anyway, enough proselytizing.

Note: pattern images are not to scale, and please overlook the wobbliness of the lines.

Sample measurements to be used in examples:
waist 26", underbust 30", hips 36" (at 5 inches below the waist), waist-upper 5", waist-lower 25".

On a large enough piece of paper, mark your waistline level.
The top of the paper should be equal to where you want your eventual skirt to finish.
If the waist of your skirt isn't to extend very high, it's a good idea to make the top edge your actual underbust level, so you have a definite measurement. You can then measure your top edge level accordingly.
One side of the paper will be your centre front.
On the waistline level, measure 1/2 inch down and re-draw the waistline with this slight curve. This is the line you will be actually using (it
is shaped in order to give a better rise).
Measure down to your hem.
Mark the paper into two separate sections, widthwise. Assuming a hem width of around 60", a decent measurement is 6" and 10" respectively (centre front and side section.)

Since this is a half-pattern, i.e. folded over, the centre front when finished will measure 12" at the hem, and each side section 10". That doesn't exactly add up to half of 60, but these sizes are tweakable
The centre section is meant to be wider than the others. A proportionally wider centre front gives a better look overall.
This is how it should look, to make things clearer:

Once this is all in place, divide your waist and hip measurements accordingly.

According to the example measurements:
Waist divided by 4= 6.5".
Underbust divided by 4= 7.5"
Hips divided by 2=18, adjust for width of backside=17, divide by 2= 8.5".
*Adjusting is up to individual discretion. The front and back hip measurements are rarely exactly equal, so an adjustment is advisable, but you can leave it out if you wish.

Sections would therefore measure as follows:
CF: 3" at underbust, 2.5" at waist, 3.5" at hips.
Side: 4.5" at underbust, 4" at waist, 5" at hips.

Draw in your pattern accordingly.
It should eventually look like this:

Draw in your desired top edge (or cut it out and draw in the top edge, if you find that easier).

For the back, the side sections are shaped in the same way of the front.
The centre back is also the same as the front UNLESS you are making a corsetted back. In that case, you will have to adjust the width.
A lacing has two things to adjust for: extra width, so that when the lacing is opent the skirt is as wide as you need it to be to get it on; and seam allowance, so you can insert the actual lacing mechanism.
It's easiest to make the lacing out of the body of the skirt. Whatever you're using- ribbon or rolleau loops, lacing tape etc.- it should be anchored into the seam.
An additional width of at least 6" is suggested for the centre back. It will appear like this:

That's it! pattern made. Snip it out, make a mockup if you're using one (recommended if it is a first attempt), and start on the finished item.


CONSTRUCTION
I'm assuming (hoping) that anyone attempting this is familiar with the basics of good dressmaking and clothing construction. So I'm not going to cover the fundamentals, but this style of skirt has some particular construction issues.

- A faux corset lacing is quite simple. Whether back or front, the lacing will be placed along the seams. Even a decorative lacing should be anchored into the seam, so it will not work loose or be subjected to undue wear.

- Finish the whole skirt, frills and decoration and all, before interlining/finishing the top edge.

- If you are using a separate waistband, make sure it is fully reinforced. Waistbands should always have some sort of interfacing, but the higher it is the more it will need in order to support its own weight.
Construct this as you would a normal waistband. If you use an elasticated/shirred back, this could even be made as an unshaped rectangle.

- For the high waist to keep its shape and not wrinkle, it does need reinforcing and lining. This may seem unecessary but it is essential in this case.
If you just use one layer then the skirt will crumple up around the waist due to simple gravity.
(Unless you have braces, but that's another story...)

Yes, you could use boning. I suggest you don't. (Please note, I am a practised corset-maker and thus familiar with many types of boning, how they function and how to fit them- this suggestion isn't baseless.)
Unless you are using steel boning, it *will* bend out of shape. No matter how thin you are. If you have an inch difference between your waist and hips, eventually any plastic bone or Rigilene-type material is going to succumb.
Steel boning is overkill for reinforcing a non-reducing skirt. It requires monumentally strong supporting fabric and casings, as well as practice in using it, so that's a nonstarter. (Unless you are going for an actual corset-skirt, which is beyond the scope of this tutorial.) Steel is about as useful in a normal skirt as plastic is in a 'corset'.
Mainly, boning is unnecessary. A properly-fitted skirt with suitable reinforcement will simply not need boning, and the boning itself would cause more problems than it solves.

- A layer of fairly heavy interfacing (sew-in, not iron-on) and either a full lining for the whole skirt, or a layer of the outer fabric to line the waist area, will be adequate.
'Heavy' interfacing... you'll have to use your discretion in deciding how heavy. Not inflexible, like buckram, but not the papery stuff either. It should be sew-able (since you will be shaping it) and able to support itself, without being too thick or bulky.
If you cannot get heavy interfacing, use one or two layers of cotton drill.
The interlining should extend from the very top of the skirt down to just below the waist. The fitted area of the skirt will therefore be shaped and supported.

Make the interlining and lining according to the skirt pattern.
The interlining seams should either be clipped very close to the stitching line, or sewn down.
Once they are sewn up, tack the interlining and outer skirt together at the top edge, *on the wrong side*. (i.e the right side of the skirt faces out, the wrong side is stitched to the 'right side' of the interlining, and the right side of the interlining- where the seam allowances are- faces inwards, towards the body.)
Very carefully, stitch in the seam so that the interlining and skirt are joined together there. If you're not confident about this, stitch by hand. Either way, the layers should match up *exactly.*
Now stitch the lining to the skirt (two layers, which from now can be treated as one), right sides together, along the top edge. Turn over, press/topstitch etc. or however you usually finish.

-For a ruched bustle-style back, you will need to gather the back seams and hold them in place. It can be either an adjustable back, which goes up and down like a window blind, or a fixed one. In either case, an effective method is to enlarge the seam allowances on the two back seams and sew them down to make channels. A ribbon or string can then be threaded through and used to gather the skirt.
This looks much neater than sewing the gathers in place.

Some finished examples:

One I made, with functional corset-back.

Victorian Maiden- frilled version, layered version with ruching, bustle back, bustle closeup, tight version.

Mary Magdalene- the skirt has extra decorative details, but the basic style is the same.

How to make a High-waist corset skirt

In this tutorial you will learn how to make the pattern and how to sew together a skirt similar to the one below.


You will need
-measuring tape
-paper (the bigger the better)
-pencil
-eraser
-ruler (as long as possible)
-cloth
-thread
-pins/needles
-corset boning - if possible the kind you can actually sew on the cloth.
-eyelets
-invisible zipper
-fusible interfacing
-ribbon, lace etc for finishing touches
-sewing machine

Taking the needed measures:

A - waist
B - hip
C - under bust
D - distance from the waistline to the hip-line (it's usually around 18-20 cm / 7,1 - 7,9 in depending on the person)
E - distance from the hip-line to the desired skirt length.
F - distance between the waistline and the under bust-line (desired height)

Making the pattern

Start off by creating a box system like you can see in the image below.
The distance from point 1 to point 2 is half of your HIP measure ( let's say mine is 95 cm - the distance from 1 to 2 is 47,5 cm for me then). Mark down a center point in-between - this is the side line (line going down your side). The distance from point 1 to point 3 is the length of the skirt from the waistline down (D+E)
The line going down straight from point 1 is the front folding line (front half center line) and the line below point nr 2 is the back folding line.
(Sorry for the mistake earlier! Thank you Sara for pointing that out! )


Line nr 4 is the hip line. The distance between the hip and the waist line was D. The line nr 5 is exactly in the middle of the two lines. It's not necessary, just helps with the hip line drawing later.

Next we'll draw out the hip curve. From the middle line measure the given distance to both sides.

Now draw a curved line from the bottom point (on the hip-line) to the points you marked previously. Make sure the curves are exactly the same. This line will make the skirt hug your hips naturally - you might have to check the curve in a fitting though.

To make the skirt hold against your figure better even more, add small darts to the front and the back of the skirt. The width of the darts can be calculated from the waist and hip measurements with ease. For example, when the waist is 70 cm, hips - 95 cm it goes like this: 95 - 70 = 25 / 2 = 12,5 - (2x4)= 4,5 this means you have 4,5 cm to use for the darts. I'll divide it in half so, 2,25 for the front and 2,25 for the back. The length of the darts on the front side of the skirt is half of D, while the length of the darts on the back is ½D+ 5 cm/2 in. The distances of the darts:
- on the front piece from the front center line towards the hip curve waist /6 (ex: 70 cm/6=11,6 cm)
- on the back piece from the back center line towards the hip curve waist /10 (ex: 70 cm/10=7 cm)


Now you have your basic skirt pattern all ready. If you wish, you can save it for later use and make a copy of it to continue making the high-waist skirt.

To make the waistline come up, draw a new line above the already finished pattern. The distance from point 1 to point 6 is F

Now find out how much you need to take in from the bust-line. C-A = 76 cm - 70 cm= 6 cm / 2 = 3 cm. This means I can take in 3 cm with the dart tips. you can use the most of this on the vertical hip line. Now connect the points and finish the patterns darts.


Now you can draw out the shape of the corset part. You can make it angular like mine or you can make it straight or oval. You can be creative at this point. Extend the middle line of the dart in the front so that it reaches the corset bottom line.
NB! At this point, you can still move around the darts. If you want them to be placed differently now is the time to move them.

Now once you've finished the pattern and all firs (remeasure many times to avoid mistakes) you can cut out the patterns. To make the skirts bottom part wide and flowy, cut it to strips while leaving a tiny bit uncut at the top. Later I'll show what to do with them.

Ok so the bottom part of the skirt is to be placed on cloth like this: the cloth folded in half and the folding line and the front/back center lines aligned. Now start placing the strips of the pattern apart while you make sure that the distances between each strip are about the same. Once that's done draw the new bottom line on the cloth. You can add a bit more width to the skirt by adding a bit more to the side, but you dont have to.

Option 2: for a folded or gathered skirt, cut the strips apart completely and place them apart according to the size of the folds or the amount of gathering.

Okay. Now to place all the pattern pieces on the cloth. You can choose how you want to fold the cloth but make sure that the parts- where the center lines are - are neatly aligned with the cloths folding line. Otherwise you'll have 2 pieces of fabric instead of 1 later. The corset will be 2 layered thus we'll need to cut out twice as many details for it. You can use a different cloth for it, even lining if you want to( but for now le's pretend you're using the same material). Try to save as much cloth as you can, you'll need a few more pieces later. Use chalk to mark down the outlines of the pattern pieces.
!!! Dont forget the seam allowance!
Mark down the waistline spot on the cloth for easier assembly!

Naming your pattern pieces is a good idea. You'll be able to tell them apart that way later.


Getting ready for the first fitting!

Now take one set of the corset details and apply fusible interfacing on it to make it a bit more sturdy. This will be your inner layer where you'll sew the boning on later.

Sew one set of the corset details together with mildly strong thread - by hand along the chalk lines. Once the corset part is all together (leave one side open where the hidden zipper will be later) sew together the two bottom parts of the skirt the same way.. Next attach the corset part to the bottom and try it on. Fasten the one open side with pins while you're wearing it. If you cant get it to close, then you have to take it all apart and stitch it all together again, leaving less seam allowance (thus giving more width to the details).
Once all fits separate the bottom from the corset part and you can begin sewing the bottom parts together. Leave space for the zipper!
If you made changes to the pattern of the corset part in the fitting, make sure you transfer the changes to the other set of details as well.

Sewing the corset part:

Sew one set together at a time starting with the inner set (the one with the fusible interfacing). Make sure the seams are straight and follow the pattern outline (or the new outline you made after the fitting). It's important to know which pieces are supposed to be sewn together.
Once the two sets are all ready take the inner set and your corset boning. Sew a strip of the boning on each seam, making sure to leave some space between the chalk line and the boning so that the seam allowance has a place to fit to later. It's good to fasten the boning with two lines of stitches ( | | ).

Before you begin sewing the outer set, cut out 2 strips from the fabric and apply fusible interfacing on it. The measurements according to the length of the corset and the size of the eyelets. The width of my eyelets is 0,4 cm / 0,2 in, the width of the strip of cloth I cut out was 4 cm/ 1,6 in.
1 - strip folded half, right sides inside, sewn from the top and bottom.
2 - strip turned right side out, pressed, seam allowance line marked on the strip.


The strip is to be sewn between two front (or back, depending on your skirts design...) details so, that there is room for the eyelets to be fastened later.
Finish sewing together the outer corset details. Make sure you leave the right seam open for the zipper! Check by placing the layers on top of each-other wrong sides facing.

Next we sew the inner and outer layer together at the top. Place them so that their right sides are facing. Align the seams and pin them down. Sew together by hand first, then by machine.

Then place the outer layer on top of the skirts bottom part. Make the side seams align, the front central lines likewise. Pin, sew and press the seam allowance up towards the corset.

Take the invisible zipper (How to sew an invisible zipper) and sew it on the outer layer and the skirts lower part, leaving the inner layer unattached.

Once that's done, fasten the inner layer on the zipper fabric and the outer layers seam allowance so, that the zipper can open and close freely while the upper corners look clean.

The last sewing step for now is the fastening of the inner layer to the corsets and the skirt parts seam. Turn the seam allowance in, stitch the layer in place by hand so, that there is at least 0,2 cm / o,1 in cloth over the seam line. From the right side of the skirt, sew along the seam thus fastening the inner layer permanently to the corset.

You can do almost anything you wish to the bottom hem of the skirt. You can add lace, strips of other cloth, ribbons, beads etc.

Once the hem's ready, fasten the eyelets and weave the ribbon through them.
The skirt it ready to be worn!

Thank you for reading!
I would love to see what you make with this!