Burda Style For people who sew

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Step 1 Measure your fabric

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Take a rectangle of fabric. The selvage will be your waist, and the cross grain length is up to you (I had only a 1/2 yard so my skirt is pretty short!)

Measure your fabrics selvage and calculate how many pleats you want and what width you want between them. Choose where you want the fabric to sit on your torso. I chose a higher waist at a point that measured 33".
Subtract the waist length from you total selvage (62"-33")
I wanted pleats that were about 1 inch each (which means I need 2 inches for every pleat.)
I had 29" for pleating divided by 2" for each pleat mean I can have 14.5 pleats in total (round down to 14 because you can’t have half of a pleat.)
The space in between each pleat will be equal to the waist length divided by 14+1. (33/15=2.2")

Related Techniques

• Make Box and Inverted Box Pleats!

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5 Comments on Step 1

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  Jul 6, 2010, 04.26 AMby nataliealdous

  This skirt is so cute and so easy!! well done :) if u dont mind, could you tell me ur mesurements because i dont quite understand how to measure it right and if we’re similar that would make the whole thing so much easier. :) thanks. XO

  2 Replies

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    Jul 7, 2010, 01.02 PMby ginasophia

    I actually do not remember mt measurements for this personally, but if you have unlimited fabric, you can do a trial and error test or if you decided to make (lets say) 2cm wide pleats and you have a 100cm waist then you would make sure your fabric is at least 400cm+a little for a closure.

    so take the pleat width that you want times 2 times your waist measurement. :)

    I think that is a little simpler than what is in the tutorial, I have to update it b/c even I barely understand it anymore!! let me know if this helps! if not I could do the “calculations” for you ^-

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    Jul 9, 2010, 05.04 AMby nataliealdous

    okay well the place i want the skirt to sit (a little lower than my waist) is around 33" around.
    So if i wanted pleats that were 1" apart like yours, i would do 2".
    I dont understand the 2.2" part. How did u get this? couldnt i just make them 2" apart then when i put the sides together adjust to fit my waist?
    And also, the selvages are the top and bottom of the skirt, right? coz i want mine about the same length as urs too! :)
    thankyou so much for your help by the way. :) :) XOXO

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  Dec 2, 2009, 09.01 PMby willibt

  I’m so confused with how you got these numbers! I think I’m just gonna wing it. ( I love this skirt!)

  2 Replies

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    Dec 3, 2009, 04.08 AMby ginasophia

    Calculating really isn’t necessary if you don’t have a fabric shortage. you can just pleat at the width you like and stop pleating once you’ve got enough to wrap around you! Good Luck.

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    Dec 24, 2009, 02.07 AMby jlanaux

    Did you ever figure it out? I have pleated this skirt five times and it still did not come out to fit my daughter. Aaaargh!@!

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  Nov 19, 2009, 08.22 AMby luzziie

  this skiiirt is amazzing cant wait to try it either!!!
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  Nov 14, 2009, 06.05 AMby kdrodgers

  I love this skirt, it’s super cute! Can’t wait to try it. Thanks for the instructions.
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  Nov 11, 2009, 06.49 AMby issymonsterr

  This is adorable!! I’ve been wanting to do a paper bag skirt for a while. It looks like the only hard part will be the measuring and calculating (I am not good at math!) Can’t wait to try this!