Skirts and shorts go together like peas and carrots. Many of us wear shorts under our skirts. It's been a habit of mine since I was 5, and I wanted to play on the monkey bars even though my mom put me in a dress. Now that I'm older, it also helps with keeping my thighs separated. An all in one skort is the logical next step.
It's super easy too! The most important part is matching up the rise of the shorts with where your skirt waist will sit. The following tutorial uses the Natural Waist - generally the smallest part of your middle. If you prefer your skirts to sit lower (or higher), you'll need to adjust the rise of the shorts to match.
Our Foxglove Leggings (free!) and our Yarrow Yoga Pants and Leggings (pockets!) now have a cut line JUST for adding them to a natural waist skirt! This will work with any of our Essential Skirts, the skirt from Koru, the soon to be released Pomme Petal Skirt/Skort - or any other skirt patterns you have in your library with a natural waist seam. Will this work with a dress with a natural waist seam? Yes! With two caveats: 1) It must be a knit dress with lots of stretch (or a gathered woven with no closures that will fit over your hips) and, 2) You must be able to get the dress on and off through the neckline.
With all that info out of the way, let's get to it! Here's what you'll need: A leggings pattern and a skirt pattern with a waistband. Cut the leggings pattern, making sure the rise is high enough (you can always reduce the rise later, but you can't raise it!). Construct the leggings per instructions, but do not add the waistband. Cut the skirt and waistband pattern. Construct the skirt per instructions but do not add the waistband. Now we can put them together!
Quarter and pin the waistline of the pants and the skirt.
With both the leggings and skirt right sides out, slip the leggings inside of the skirt, matching up the waistlines. Match up the pins at the quarter marks. You may find it helpful to add additional pins at the eighth marks. The waistline of the leggings will be smaller than the skirt opening.
NOTE: This WILL work in a gathered woven skirt as well. If you are finding it very difficult to stretch the leggings enough in a gathered version, there is a workaround. Run two basting stitches (one at 1/4" and one at 1/2") around the waistline. Gather the waistline to match the waistline of the leggings. You will need to gather the waistband in the same manner.
Baste the skirt and leggings waistlines together. You WILL need to stretch the leggings waistline in between each pin to fit the skirt waistline. Do NOT stretch the skirt waistline.
You'll now return to the skirt tutorial and construct/attach the waistband per instructions. If you found it necessary to gather your skirt to be able to attach the leggings, you will need to gather the waistband to match as well.
That's it! You've got a skort!
Happy Making!
Rachelle