Hello my dears! Today we get to finish our Casey Skirts! Hip-hip hooray! To recap what we have accomplished thus far, we have our skirts assembled, zipper inserted, pockets applied, and our waistband set. Today we will hem our skirts and do our waistband buttonholes. Let’s get sewing!
Hemming
First, you will want to determine your skirt’s length. I go into this quite a bit in the Casey’s instructions, so I won’t go over it here. With your skirt’s length determined, fold up your skirt hem 1/4″ and hem.
Stitch a line of loose gathering stitches all around the hem 1/8″ away from the 1/4″ hem edge, stopping and starting at each seam.
Pin up your hem the desired amount, distributing the excess fullness evenly between pins.
Pull up the excess fullness with the gathering stitches previously made, and press out the excess with your iron.
If doing a top-stitched hem as I did, stitch evenly around the entire hem from the right side. If you want to do an invisible hem, do a catch-stitch or a hem/whip-stitch from the wrong side. Give your hem one more good press.
Buttons & Buttonholes
To get started on your buttonholes, measure your chosen buttons. If they are reasonably flat, add 1/8″ to their total diameter to determine the necessary buttonhole size. If your buttons are a little thicker, add 1/4″ to determine the buttonhole length.
On the overlap (or left) side of your waistband, 5/8″ from the top and bottom of the waistband edge, place pins parallel to the waistband seam. This is where your buttonhole lines will lie.
Place a third pin parallel to the short edge of the waistband, 3/8″-1/2″ away from the edge.
Place one final pin the distance of the length of your buttonholes away from the third pin. Using these pins as your guide, either machine baste, or machine-stitch your buttonholes.
If you choose to do your buttonholes by hand (my favorite way), slash open your basted buttonholes, and wax some heavy-duty or top-stitching thread.
Anchor your thread in the lower left hand corner of the first buttonhole, coming out just beyond the machine basting.
Loop your thread to the right up and around below where your thread came out. Insert your needle into the buttonhole slit and come back out again 1/32″ away from where your thread originated.
Pull the needle through, and the loop taught to form your buttonholes first “purl” or knot.
Continue making this same stitch all up one side of the buttonhole.
When you reach the first end, make 2-3 bar stitches across the end.
Work 5 buttonhole stitches across these stitches, including the last buttonhole stitch in the first two stitches, and inserting the third stitch in and up through the buttonhole slit, continuing across until you reach the other side of the basted buttonhole.
Work a second set of buttonhole stitches down the next side, and another bar tack at the opposite end and anchor off your thread.
If you want your buttonhole ends to be rounded as mine are, start at the end of the buttonhole furthest from the edge of the waistband, work up and around one end of the buttonhole, radiating your stitches in a semi-circular fashion when you get to the first end, and then work back down the opposite side, and finish with a bar-tack.
Stitch your buttons in place on the underlap side of the waistband. Give your skirt one last press.
And… drumroll please… we are DONE! Congratulations on finishing your Casey Skirt!
If you made up a skirt while you were following along with this sew-along, be sure and tag me @brijeepatterns on social media so I can see your gorgeous creations. Be sure and check back next week to see my finished Casey Skirt (and my knit Brooks Blouse as well).
Any questions?
Now that the Sew-Along is officially over, what would you like to see a post on next?
Blessings,
Brigid E.
Brijee 
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