How to Attach a Gathered Skirt to a Bodice – Easy Beginner Tutorial

This beginner sewing tutorial is for when you are sewing a dress with a basic bodice (no bodice lining) and a simple gathered skirt (no lining fabric and no placket extending into it). This is a traditional method and a basic sewing skill that will serve you well once you’ve got it down!

If you’re looking for a tutorial to attach a gathered skirt to a LINED bodice, I have a blog post here that you can check out.

Sew the bodice 

You will want to be working with a bodice that’s pretty much finished. (I don’t currently have a dedicated bodice tutorial, but I will work on adding one soon). Shoulder seams and side seams should already be sewn, raw edges finished, bias binding sewn on neck and armholes, and if you have a closure it should be done. My bodice just still needed the snaps to be applied. If you have a placket for buttons or snaps like mine, make sure to sew the placket together across the bottom. Sorry for the bad photo!

If you haven’t already notched, make sure to notch the bottom of the bodice center front and back (1/4 inch slits to help with matching up the skirt later).

Cut out the skirt pieces

Cut out you skirt pieces from your main fabric and notch center front and center back at the tops.

Sew the skirt side seams together

Lay one skirt piece on top of the other, right sides together. Sew the skirt side seams (I use a stitch length of 2.5, which is my machine’s default setting and is quite strong). Finish the raw edges with a zig zag stitch or serger (here is a really quick tutorial on how to finish seams with a zigzag stitch from Tilly and The Buttons). 

Then iron the seams to either the front or back. I prefer to iron them to the front. And I also like to iron from the right side, because I can get the seam to look better. Besides that, I’ve melted my serger threads multiple times when doing it from the wrong side! I guess serger thread isn’t as heat resistant as sewing thread.

Sew gathering stitches along the top of the skirt

Sew two rows of gathering stitches (longest straight stitch, needle tension low, no backstitching, leave 4 inch long thread tails) along the top edge of the skirt. 

I like to make my gathering stitches so that they’ll be on either side of the actual stitching line (so for a 1/2 inch seam allowance, I sew the gathering stitches at 3/8 and 5/8 inch). Make sure to have the right side facing up. 

I sewed from center back all the way around. If you’re working with a larger skirt, you could sew from side seam to side seam on the front and back, so that you’re working with shorter sections when you actually gather in the next step.

If you’ve never sewn gathers before, check out my thorough guide to sew gathers easily here!

Pin the skirt and bodice together and gather

Lay your skirt wrong side out, and you’re bodice right side out. Then slide the bodice inside the skirt and match the notches and side seams. 

Pin right sides together, then pull on the bobbin tails to gather the skirt to the width of the bodice (again, there’s more detail on this in the gathering tutorial I mentioned above). Add more pins if needed.

I like to place pins directly at the side seams to really make sure that they’re perfectly lined up.

Sew the skirt and bodice together

Sew with the gathers facing up. You will be stitching between the two rows of gathering stitches.

Once you’re done, use your seam ripper to cut the bobbin threads of the gathering stitches in the center of the section, then pull on the bobbin tails to remove the gathering stitches.

The picture below shows the bobbin threads of gathering stitches that have been cut at center front. This makes it so easy to remove those gathering stitches! Then just pull away the thread that’s visible on the right side of the skirt. 

Finish the waist seam and iron

Finish the seam you just sewed with a zig zag stitch or serger. Then iron the seam allowance up towards the bodice. I like to iron waist seams from the right side, to avoid the aforementioned melted serger threads, and also because there’s a lot going on here and it just seems to give a better result.

Top stitch along the bodice (optional)

Top stitching attaches the seam allowance to the bodice. I don’t really find it necessary, because the skirt will lay properly 99.9% of the time anyway. So in this case, you would be doing it for style more than function.

I like to use a slightly longer stitch length (3 or 3.5 on my machine), because I think it looks more professional and is more forgiving if you wobble a little. Place your dress at the sewing machine, right side up. Make sure that the seam allowance is indeed up towards the bodice. Then stitch on the bodice, about 1/8 inch from the edge. You don’t want to stitch too close to the edge, because that wouldn’t catch and hold as much of the seam allowance. I started at center back. Make sure to backstitch!

Hem the skirt

And the final step is to hem! Fold the raw edge up twice to the wrong side, iron, and edge stitch in place. I used a hem allowance of 1 1/4 inch: 1/4 inch for the first fold and 1 inch for the second fold. But you can do whatever you like. I like to make my stitch length here the same as the stitching that can be seen on the bodice. 

If you’d like a full tutorial on how to hem, I have a blog post for how to hem a straight edge here, or for how to hem curved edges (circle or A-line shaped skirts) as well.

All done!

Was this simple sewing tutorial on how to attach a gathered skirt to a bodice helpful to you? Let me know if you still have any questions about this process in the comments below. Thanks for following along!