There are many reasons why you might want to make a skirt shorter. Styles change, the existing length doesn’t flatter your figure or you want to alter your older daughter’s dress to fit your younger daughter.
Many manufacturers still don’t realize that we are not all long-legged supermodels. Some of us are a bit vertically challenged and can’t just buy something off the internet and have it fit perfectly.
So how do you make a skirt shorter without cutting it? There are two methods to shortening a skirt without cutting it. You can either use double-sided fabric adhesive to hem your skirt, or you can hem the skirt using sewing techniques. Depending on your sewing skills and access to materials, you can choose the method that suits you best.
Don’t limit the style of skirt you can buy just because it’s a bit too long. Without cutting one inch off the bottom, you can shorten that skirt as much as you like. The best part is that it is so simple.
The No-Sew Method
With the no-sew method, you use iron-on, double-sided fabric adhesive (like this one) to easily and permanently hem your skirt.
Gather your supplies and let’s get started. You will need:
- Seam ripper and thread remover.
- The skirt you want to shorten.
- A measuring tape or a skirt the right length you want to use as a model.
- Iron-on fabric adhesive and a pair of scissors to cut the adhesive tape.
- Iron.
Instructions:
- Turn the long skirt inside out and lay it out on a table or other flat surface and then place the “right length” skirt on top.
- Use a skirt that has a similar flare or shape at the bottom as the one you want to shorten. Trace all the way across the hemline.
- If you are not using another skirt as a model, use the measuring tape and measure your body from your waistline down your leg to the length you want the skirt shortened.
- Place the measuring tape on the skirt and mark this spot. Make a few marks across the skirt so that you can joint the marks into a curved line.
- Be careful not to make one side of the skirt longer than the other. Also be careful with the sides. If you make the curve too deep or too shallow, the sides of your skirt will be shorter or longer than the center.
- Fold the skirt on the line. Make sure it is even all the way around and iron down the new hemline.
- Depending on the type of skirt (flared bottom for example), you may have a few creases.
- Iron the skirt until it lays as flat as possible. The creases will easily blend into the body of the skirt if you are only shortening a few inches.
- Carefully apply the tape and iron it down. It is easier if you work with half the skirt at a time instead of trying to do the whole hem in one shot. Just make sure you don’t accidentally get wobbly.
- Keep the hemline straight and even.
- Turn the skirt right side out and iron it out again for good measure.
In this example, we left the original hem as it was.
If you prefer, you can pull the stitches from the original hem and start with a raw edge. Depending on the thickness of the fabric, this might be a good idea.
With very fine fabric, the extra thickness of the hem won’t make a difference.
The tape and the extra fabric in the hem will be virtually unnoticeable. With thicker fabrics, the new hem might get a bit bulky.
If you find that the hem is too thick and bulky, then you should consider cutting off the extra instead of trying to use a no cutting method of shortening your skirt.
For a visual tutorial on how to use hem tape, check out this video by ChickAdvisor on YouTube.
The Sewing Method
This is basically the same as the no-sew method, except you don’t use adhesive tape to hold the new hem in place—you sew the new hem.
You can sew the new hem by hand or with a sewing machine.
Many people like to loosely baste around the outside to make the hem stitches less noticeable. This is fine as long as you make the stitches tight enough and close enough together to hold the hem.
Stitches spread out too far apart or sewn too loosely could leave sagging edges on your hem. They could also easily come out.
One little snag and your whole hem could fall apart. We all know how easy it is to accidentally hook the back of our heel or a protruding part of the car on a loose stitch.
Of course, if you make the skirt short enough, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. This will also not be a problem if the skirt is very tight around your thighs.
The tools you need for this method of making your skirt shorter are similar to the ones you used in the no-sew method. You still need the stitch remover, iron and scissors to trim the thread. But you will also need thread, a needle and/or a sewing machine.
- Remove the old stitches from the hem.
- Iron the skirt perfectly flat.
- Mark the new hemline and fold the skirt to that point.
- Fold as much as you need to reach the desired length, but no less than about half an inch to create a nice clean inner hem.
- With very fine fabric, you can fold it over several times to reach the desired length and make a small hem because the fabric won’t bulge.
- You can iron fine fabric paper-thin and the new, thicker hem will never be noticed. Thicker fabric needs a wider hem to give the skirt a streamline look.
- You want the hemline to be a focal point to show off your legs, but not so much so that it becomes the only thing people notice.
- Iron the new hem quite well. Pin or loosely hand sew around the new hem to help keep the fabric in place while you do the serious sewing.
- Hand sew or machine sew the new hemline, removing the pins as you go.
- If you decided to loosely hand sew the hem in place instead of using pins, remove these stitches. When removing these stitches, make sure not to take out the new stitches you just sewed for the new hemline.
- Tie off or double sew the ends of the thread and trim the excess.
- Turn the skirt right side out and iron again.
Drastic Shortening – The Waistline Method
For a very long skirt that you want half the length, the best thing to do is gather up the bottom and sew it right into the waistline. The steps are basically the same and you can use the tape or sewing method. What to do:
- Turn the skirt inside out and remove the stitches from the bottom edge of the waistline and from the hemline.
- Fold up the skirt to bring the hemline up to the waist and tuck it into the waistline.
- For the tape method, place one piece of tape on either side of the hem, press it down firmly and then iron it flat.
- For the sewing method, pin all the layers of fabric together and sew along the original waistline.
- Turn the skirt right side out and iron flat.
- You now have a sexy short skirt with a lining!
That is how to make a skirt shorter without cutting. This works with dresses and pants as well. And because there is no cutting, you can always return the garment to its original length at any time!