Bohemian Skirt Tutorial

Hey y’all – today I’ve got a tutorial for this breezy high low bohemian skirt.

One day, while vacationing in Puerto Rico, we decided to drive to a beach on the other side of the island, so we could see more than the area around our hotel. On the way, we saw roadside horses (for real! Every so often there was just horse grazing on the side of the road, unfenced. Sometimes tied to a street sign, sometimes not), ate tostones and seafood, and arrived at a beach full of music and weekend crowds. We walked way down to one end of the beach to find some space, and had a nice hour of calm water while Bean even found a starfish!

But then storm clouds started to kick up and we shot these photos just before we had to leave the beach.

Want to make your own? You’ll need:

• A skirt block
• An 8 inch zipper
• Several yards of fabric – I used 3 to make this skirt. The print is Limestone Feel (affiliate link) from the Morning Walk collection by Leah Duncan.
• Several yards of lace trim (optional). Again I used 3 yards to make this skirt. There are lots of similar trims to the one I used here (affiliate link).

So, you need a skirt block. These are super easy to draft based on your measurements (promise!) and you can see how to draft a skirt block here.

Use the skirt block to make your pattern for this skirt. Trace off the top part of the skirt block – about the top 8 inches. You can make this shorter or longer based on what you feel is most flattering on your body. Then slash through the darts and rotate the pieces together. Draw curved lines to make the new pattern pieces. Make sure to add a seam allowance to the center back for a zipper. Cut one front piece on the fold and two back pieces out of main fabric Cut the same pieces out of a lining fabric (or the same fabric, if you have enough).

Next, cut the lower skirt as shown above. You’ll cut 2 pieces, and each piece needs to be at least 1.5 times your waist measurement wide. If you want an even fuller lower skirt you can cut pieces wider. You want the front fold of the front skirt to be about knee length minus the length of your yoke piece, and you want the fold of the back piece to be maxi length minus the length of your yoke. Not sure about skirt lengths/waist measurements? There’s a handy skirt size chart in this post.

Sew the skirt front to the skirt back at the side seams and finish these seams.

Next, finish the center back edges of the yoke piece. Baste the back yoke pieces together at center back (red line) and insert a zipper. See this post for how to sew a zipper if you need help. You’ll need to shorten the zipper and make sure it ends 3/4″ above the bottom yoke edge.

Now that the back yoke has the zipper, sew the front yoke to the back yoke at the side seams. Repeat this step with the lining pieces, though the lining pieces will have the center back seam open.

Gather the lower skirt to the width of the yoke. See this post on how to gather if you need help.  Pin the yoke and the skirt right sides together and stitch, then press this seam toward the yoke.

Place the yoke lining and yoke right sides together and stitch along the waistline edge. Turn the lining to the inside of the skirt and press.

Pin center back lining edges over the zipper, folded to the wrong side. Fold the bottom edge over the yoke/skirt seam as shown above and below.  Pin lower edge over the seam, and then on the right side of the skirt stitch in the ditch of the yoke/skirt seam to secure the lining to the skirt. You may also wish to topstitch around the waistline of the yoke close to the edge (I did) to add stability to the waistline.

Hem the bottom of the skirt with a narrow hem. Then pin the lace trim on the right side of the skirt and stitch in place.

This was the perfect skirt to pull over my bathing suit for the beach, but since we got back home I’ve also worn it several times with just a t-shirt or tank top. The lighweight voile and high low cut makes it great for hot, hot Texas summers. The only thing I’ve noticed is that I have to be careful going up stairs because the long back of the skirt likes to float up and I’ll step on it.