Making a Polyester Maxi Skirt

 I really enjoyed the outcome of this project and found it to be fairly quick to put together. I made the length a little long for me, but thought it might be nice if I left it long for pregnancy too, to wear above my belly.

First, I cut my fabric to be a rectangle 

(1.5 x waist length) x (length + width of my elastic + 1/2" allowance)

For me I had a 31" waist and a length of 37" (a bit less, but I wanted to make sure it was long enough)

And my elastic was 1.25" wide so I rounded it up to 1.5" to make sure the casing would be big enough.

 (1.5 x 31") x (37" + 1.5" + 1/2")   or   46.5" x 39"

I sewed the two 39" long sides together with a 1/2" seam allowance leaving 6" open at the bottom. Then I serged the raw edge.

Then I turned up the bottom 1/2" and pressed it.

And turned it up another 1/2" and pressed it so the raw edge was hidden.

And I sewed along that edge.

And the result is a big tube:

 I serged the top raw edge.

The I folded that top edge down by two inches and pressed and pinned it in place.

Then I sewed 1.5 inches into it or 1/2" from the serged edge leaving a 2-3" opening to put the elastic through.

I cut the elastic to be (waist + 1/2") which for me was 31.5" and I ran the elastic through the casing.

To make sure I got the sizing right, I overlapped the elastic by that extra 1/2" and pinned it with safety pins and tried it on. Then I could adjust the elastic if I needed to before I sewed it.

Then I sewed the elastic together overlapping it by that extra 1/2" or whatever I adjusted it to after trying it on.

I then sewed the gap in the casing closed. 

I had left that 6" opening in the bottom of the skirt for a slit. First I opened up the slit so it was straight across and serged the raw edge.

Then I folded in that edge by 1/2" and sewed it in place 1/4" from the edge.