Looking to Upcycle Old Bedding? Try This Box Pleat Skirt Tutorial

Tools and materials:

• Bedding fabric or other fabric
• Interfacing
• Lining fabric
• Zipper
• Ruler or measuring tape
• Sewing machine
• Scissors
• Pins
• Needle and thread
• Iron

1. Open the seams

Rip open all the seams from the bedding, Remove any batting or padding if there is any. The piece I’m showing you in this tutorial was already hemmed. If yours isn’t, you’ll have to hem the skirt at the end.

2. Create the skirt

Cut 6 rectangles 15 inches in length. Sew all the rectangles together to create an even longer rectangle.

The skirt length should be your waist measurement multiplied by 3 plus a 1-inch seam allowance. In this tutorial, my large rectangle is 82 inches long.

3. Make the waistband

Cut the fabric to measure 4 inches wide x your waist measurement plus 1 inch.

Cut the same size rectangle of interfacing for the waistband. Iron it to the waistband.

4. Make the pleats

Mark the fabric, starting in the middle at 3 inches, then 6 inches, then 3 inches, then 6 inches, and so on, repeating the sequence until the fabric ends. 

To make the pleats, fold the fabric right sides together so the 6-inch marks are touching. Then add a 3-inch marking going down the skirt. Mark a bit of a slant so the pleats aren’t tight rectangles.

Pin into place. Continue these steps: fold the fabric, align the 6-inch mark, and pin, until the end of the skirt. 

It should look like this.

Fold the pleats down the middle and iron to give it that boxy pleated look.

Fold and iron the pleats all the way down the skirt as well.

Sew a basting stitch to secure everything at the top of the skirt.

5. Make the lining (optional)

Cut 2 rectangles that are 14½ inches in length x the width of your waist measurement.

Cut one of the rectangles in half to serve as the back with space for the zipper. Place the two rectangles right sides together and sew up their side seams, leaving the back center seam unsewn.

Hem the lining with a double hem. 

6. Add the optional lining to the skirt

Pin the side seams of the lining to the skirt. Pin the center front. Everything should be right sides together.

Fold the excess lining fabric into pleats. These don’t need to be perfect as no one will see them. Just make sure they’re evenly spaced.

Once everything is pinned in place, sew the lining to the skirt fabric with a basting stitch.

7. Attach the waistband

Put the waistband on the skirt with the bottom of the waistband at the top of the skirt so that their right sides are together. Pin in place. Sew the top edge down.

When you get to the back center, sew the waistband only to the skirt fabric and not the lining to make it easier to install the zipper.

8. Install the zipper

Lay the zipper on the skirt to measure where it ends. Mark where it ends on the skirt fabric and the lining.

Place the skirt right sides together. Pin and sew the back closed to hit that marking from the bottom upwards. 

Lay the zipper face down on the right side of the skirt. Line up the edge of the zipper tape with the left edge of the skirt. Pin the zipper with the lining pushed out of the way.

Install a zipper foot in your sewing machine to get very close to the zipper teeth. Sew into place.

Once that side is done, place the zipper on the other side of the skirt and sew it just like the other side. 

Sew a topstitch around the zipper to make it nice and clean. 

Sew the lining around the zipper by folding in the edges and pinning it. Hand sew into place. 

9. Final touch

Fold the waistband down and sew into place with a straight stitch.

Box pleat skirt tutorial

I love the way this came out! Please let me know in the comments what you think of this box pleat skirt tutorial! I would love to see how your DIY box pleat skirts came out, so please share your photos!