How to Make Chiffon Maxi Skirt

Like everything else made of chiffon, chiffon maxi skirts are luxuriously beautiful. They are light, breezy, and always in style no matter the season. But chiffon maxi skirts can also be expensive unless you find one in a second-hand store. (You can find cheap maxi skirts here.)

Now, I don’t usually make my own clothes, but sometimes it’s necessary.

Necessity is what pushed me to make this skirt, and today I’m going to teach you how to make a chiffon maxi skirt with a lining included.

Here’s what you’re going to need:

• Pinking shears
• Elastic a pin
• Cushion with pins in it
• A lining in the same color as the chiffon fabric
• Chiffon that is see-through
• A matching thread
• A tape measure
• A cutting mat
• Scissors or a rotary cutter and
• A sewing machine

Instructions

1. Cut the lining to your desired length. I got three yards of the lining and three yards of the chiffon. I’ll leave the chiffon at full length, which is 44 inches, but I want a see-through leg thing going, so I’ll cut the lining to 30 inches. I’m 5’6, so leaving the chiffon full-length works for me.
2. Now, pink all of your edges because both fabrics will fray.
3. Choose which edge will be your bottom and iron it down for a hem. Do this on the chiffon and the lining as well. Remember they are both three yards long, so you’ll hem on the 3-yard edge, not the short one. You don’t have to iron it, but it makes it so much easier to sew if the hem is kind of stabilized in place.
4. Now sew your hems as close to your pink edge as possible because it looks a little nicer that way. Ensure it is even as you go by keeping your presser foot at an equal length from the fold the entire time. And as always, make a knot at the beginning and end of the seams by going backward and forward with your machine.
5. If you did not achieve the best evenness, just clean up your seams using the pinking shears and cut them close to your hemline.
6. Now lay out your chiffon on the bottom and your lining on top and match up the opposite side of the skirt. This is what’s going to be your waistline- not the edges that you already hemmed and not the sides. The lining will end about a third to halfway down the chiffon, depending on the length that you chose. 

Remember the fabric is facing towards you, so you are seeing the raw edges on your hems. You want to have the nice side of the fabric facing the table- right now, we are working on the inside portion of the skirt.

7. Line up the sides you haven’t touched. Lay out the chiffon, then make sure that the lining bottoms match and the chiffon bottoms match. If you didn’t cut super straight that’s okay; you can just cut off where it’s not even. The part that is important is the bottom hem and the lining hem because you can’t fix that after you sew- so try to make those line up as best as possible.

Just to clarify, everything is inside out right now, so your layers should be lining-chiffon and chiffon-lining, and all of your hems should be facing the way that will face your body.

8. Now sew that seam, which will end up being our back center seam. We’re only going to have one side seam on this skirt. The stitch does not have to be close to the edge because we will trim it up. When the whole seam is done, do the same thing we did on the hemmed edges and just cut close to your sewed line to clean up the unevenness and make it look more professional. 

Remember to do this with your pinking shears because it helps it not fray. If you have a serger, you can do that or a zig-zag, but I just feel like the pinking shears are a quick and easy way to cut off the top of any rough stuff. Your bottoms have hems, your back is sewn together, and now you have to take care of the top.

9. You are going to roll the top down and roll it so it’s on the inside and the lining is facing closest to you. This is because when you roll it inside out, the chiffon will be on the outside. Just roll it down and pin it such that it’s wide enough for your elastic to fit.
10. Ensure you leave a couple of inches right at the center back seam because that’s where you’ll insert the elastic. So go almost all the way around but leave that little section unsewn, or else you’ll have nowhere to stick your elastic into.

To measure the elastic, simply roll it around your natural waist. Elastic is stretchy, so it doesn’t have to be exact- just has to be close enough to fit snugly. Put a pin on one end of your elastic and put a straight pin on the other end. The end that is not safety-pinned just anchors it onto the skirt.

You don’t want to lose the end of the waistband inside there. Now thread your elastic through the waistband (the safety pin side) and go all the way around and keep gathering until it comes out the other end of the hole. When it’s out, pin them together and sew them.

11. Tuck that elastic inside the waistband and finish your seam. The elastic should be able to flow freely within the waistband. Trim up all your threads and then even out all of your gatherings.

And there you have it ladies- you have your complete fashion-forward skirt. If you already have a shorter slip that you want to use as lining, you can always just do the chiffon. This is such an easy sewing project, and it looks very fashionable. Your friends will be super envious, especially when they hear you did it yourself.

And for a bonus, here’s a guide on how to style a black maxi skirt. You can also follow the video below on how to make a chiffon skirt.