Materials and Preparation

• You will need the following materials for making an ankle-length skirt:
  
  Fabric measuring tape
  
  Multi-size ankle-length skirt pattern
  
  Cotton, wool, silk or other fabric
  
  Pins
  
  Scissors
  
  Sewing machine
  
  Thread
  
  Zipper, invisible zipper, buttons or elastic
  
  Machine wash and dry and then iron if the fabric you're using is cotton or another material that wrinkles easily. Otherwise, dry clean wool or silk fabric because machine washing may damage these fabrics. Measure your waist and hips with a fabric measuring tape. Select the correct pattern size based on your body measurements.
  
  

Cutting out the Fabric and Attaching the Waistband

• Cut out the pattern pieces from the pattern tissue. Pin them to the fabric. Remove the pins from the fabric pieces. Join, pin and sew the skirt pieces together according to the pattern instructions. Join, pin and sew the waistband facing to the top of the skirt. Add an invisible zipper, add buttons or sew elastic into the waistband according to the pattern instructions.
  
  

Sewing the Skirt

• Try the skirt on to check for length. Place a couple of pins in the skirt to mark where it reaches your ankles. Take off the skirt and fold the edge under, preferably so that this fold has one to two inches of fabric on the underside. If it has more fabric, cut that amount of fabric off with the scissors. Sew a seam in the middle of the fabric edge to finish the hem.
  
  

Tips

• You can embellish the skirt's bottom edge with lace or beading for a fancier skirt.
  
  Adding an elastic waistband is easier than adding an invisible zipper, but it will look more tailored with the zipper than with the elastic waistband. An invisible zipper looks smooth, neat and is practically invisible, because it does not show the zipper teeth on the outside of the garment like a regular zipper does; however, you will need an invisible zipper foot for your sewing machine to apply an invisible zipper to your ankle-length skirt.