DIY Pleather Skirt (EASY) | Tips For Sewing Pleather

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to show you how I made this super easy pleather skirt. I picked up this beautiful fabric from Joann. I got four yards of it but really only needed three yards for my size. This skirt is going to be a full circle skirt. I'm sure you've seen me reference this chart from my pattern making book many times. To use it, I find my waist measurement down the first column. Then I go all the way over to the full circle skirt column and the measurement it gives me will be the radius of the inner circle. If you're just looking for the chart to use, you can easily find one on google by searching circle skirt chart or you can find the radius by taking your waist measurement and dividing it by 6.28. With my fabric on fold starting from the corner, I mark out my inner circle using the measurement from the chart and then from the inner circle decide how long you want your skirt to be. Mine was about 28 inches long. My fabric wasn't wide enough to cut out a full circle so I'm cutting out two half circles. Paste the two pieces right sides together and sew down one side. You can use a leather needle to sew the pleather but I just left my regular needle on and it sewed just fine. If you find that you're having trouble, definitely change out the needle to see if it helps. After one side is sewn, I created the waistband by cutting out a rectangle piece that is the size of my waist. When it's folded in half, that's how wide your waistband will be. I made mine three and a half inches wide. Pin the waistband right sides together along the skirt and sew it down. My next tip for sewing pleather is to use clips to hold your pieces together instead of pins so you don't poke any additional holes through the fabric. Usually if your material has trouble moving through the machine, placing some tissue paper underneath will help slide it through but in this case the problem is on top. Since the material is rubbery, the presser foot gets stuck to it which causes it to pucker. To solve this problem, you can use a teflon foot. A teflon foot has a special coating underneath of it to help fabrics like leather, vinyl, and suede glide through easily. If you don't have a teflon foot, you can try sewing with the tissue paper on top which makes it hard to see but it works or flip the skirt over so that the wrong side of the fabric is on top. You also want to lengthen your stitch when you're working with this fabric. On my machine, 3.0 to 3.2 worked the best. Another great tip is to not backstitch on your machine because you'll only be going over the same stitch and making the holes bigger. Instead, leave the threads hanging and tie some knots to hold the stitch in place. Lastly, I finished the skirt with a zipper. I'm using a seven inch zipper and lining it up with the top of the skirt and marking where the bottom of the zipper stop is. Then go ahead and sew the two sides together from the marking all the way down to the bottom, leaving the top open for the zipper. Next, I marked my seam line to make it easier to follow and then sew the zipper by flipping it over and sewing it right sides together on the line. Same for the other side with the zipper facing up. Flip it over so that it's facing right sides together to the skirt. Even though it's not an invisible zipper, I'm using my invisible zipper foot to get as close as I can to the zipper teeth. Lastly, to hide the zipper tape, I folded it behind the seam allowance and tacked it down across the top. And we're finished! I took this skirt with me to wear on my trip to Japan. The pleather material made it perfect for the rainy days and the length of it allowed me to layer leggings or pants underneath to stay warm. I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial and learned something new. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more DIY fashion and I'll see you next time!