Many of you liked our transformation of the < slit > skirt pattern on social media, and asked us for a tutorial so you could reproduce it at home.
To give you some context, here's the before/after of the pattern transformation we made. Specifically, we took the < slit > skirt pattern and lengthened it to make a maxi skirt that stops at the ankles.
Couture inspiration
Basically, we really wanted to sew a maxi skirt like the ones we've seen in recent fashion weeks, and which we've had our eye on for a while. The problem is that the skirts you see here, which inspired the maxi skirt < slit >, cost between €800 and €2,100 (they come from Gucci, AWAKE Mode, Martine Rose, and Orseund Iris).
Needless to say, we didn't hesitate for long before getting started!
For this new challenge, we decided to base ourselves on the pattern of our skirt < slit > which is a midi skirt that is perfectly accessible to sewing beginners, and can be made in less than half a day.
We made it in a crackling, water-repellent black taffeta that comes from from a major French luxury house, and which you can also obtain by opting for the ready-to-sew box for the < slit > skirt. We fell in love with this technical fabric, it is super soft against the skin which brings a very nice streetwear side to our skirt whose cut is in itself rather classic.
You can of course sew your < slit > skirt in a fabric other than that offered by opting for the sewing pattern sold separately, in PDF or pocket format .
In short, the idea is to sew us a skirt worth around €900 for less than €90, with almost no environmental impact since we don't produce any fabric and simply bought this unused roll (which should have gone in the trash) from a large company.
You can of course push the limits of this challenge even further by using a cheaper fabric than ours and opting for the PDF pattern sold alone at €12, we'll let you surprise us!
How to lengthen a slit skirt pattern
Sewing a slit is scary. Altering the pattern for a slit skirt is even scarier. But the good news is that we're here, and the truth is, slit or no slit, lengthening your slit skirt is absolutely not complicated! We'll explain everything.
1) Cut out your basic sewing pattern
Cut out the different pieces of the < slit > skirt pattern and position them as indicated in your cutting plan. Allow as many extra centimeters as necessary on the bottom of your coupon in order to lengthen the skirt: the < slit > skirt is initially a "midi" skirt, so it stops at the middle of the calf, and we have patterned it for a height of 1.65 m.
Still for a height of 1.65 m, we added 25 cm to obtain the < slit > maxi long version skirt (which reaches the ankles). We nevertheless advise you to take your measurements beforehand to be sure of the final length of your skirt.
2) Cut the 3 pieces of pattern horizontally
Before pinning your pattern to the fabric, take a pen and draw a horizontal line at the level of your slit: this will allow us to keep the shape of our slit on the maxi version, therefore not touching the cutouts at the top of the slit and the bottom hem.
The slit will simply be longer on the maxi version, and it will start from the same place as on the midi version, namely just under the buttocks (this skirt is called the < slit > skirt in reference to its characteristic mega long slit).
Carefully cut along these lines (which we have marked here with dotted lines). Be careful, your cutting lines must be perfectly horizontal, therefore perfectly perpendicular to the straight grain. If you don't know what the straight grain is in sewing, we explain everything here .
3) Drag the lower part of your pieces down
All you have to do now is slide the lower parts of each of these three 25 cm pieces downwards. Make sure that these pieces remain aligned with the upper pieces: again, keep them perpendicular to the straight grain.
4) Pin the pattern pieces and trace the lines
You can now pin your pattern pieces to your fabric. The idea is to trace the missing pieces of lines. For the lines in the center front and the slits in the right and left back halves, simply connect your dots as they are straight lines.
For the side lines, you will need to "soften" the lines. To do this, we recommend connecting the lower part of your pattern to the widest part at the hips (on the hip line).
If you simply connect the 2 pattern pieces like you just did for the straight lines, it would create angles that don't exist on the original pattern.
5) Sew your maxi skirt < slit >
Your pattern is ready! Now you can cut out your fabric along the lines of your revised pattern. Then follow all the steps in the assembly process for your slit skirt, and you're done. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch all our sewing video tutorials.
So, has the challenge been met? Which version do you prefer?
