With the belt done, it was time to reassemble the skirt. I took the belt and laid it over the skirt back, making sure to line up the back and front belts so that the sides matched.
I stitched down the belt along the side seams.
I pinned the skirt back to the skirt front, right sides together, stitched the side seams…
And flipped the skirt right side out.
The other modification I wanted to do was to replace the grass skirt on the skirt liner. I cut off the fringe, and hemmed the bottom edge.
I bought a polyester synthetic grass table skirt and pulled off the flowers. I tried with a real grass skirt initially, but I found the grass was way too stiff, and looked pretty bad when I trimmed it down to kid sizes.
I pinned the grass to the wrong side of the liner, and stitched it down. I placed it a couple inches below the top edge, so as not to have too much bulk at the waistline. I ended up doing 2 layers of grass because 1 layer looked a little sparse.
Once the grass skirt was attached, I pinned the liner to the skirt, right sides together.
I stitched along the top seam, and then flipped the skirt so the right sides were facing out. I ironed the top edge flat, and then top stitched along it to hold it in place. I took the the elastic that I removed when I took apart the skirt, stretched it out across the back of the skirt, and sewed it back in.
The final step was to put the skirt on my dummy and trim the grass skirt so that it was a couple inches below the skirt bottom edge. My dummy is the Ikea kids clothing stand stuffed with polyfil. If you don’t have a dummy, you can clip the skirt to the bottom rung of a hanger, or tape the skirt to a table edge. You just need the bottom edge to be level so you can trim it.
Optional step: There are the tacking stitches in the skirt front that keep the 2 front panels from falling open. I removed them because now that I have a full length grass skit underneath, it doesn’t matter how wide the skirt gap is.
And that was how I made the Grub’s Moana costume!
Moana costume tutorials:
- Part 1: Painting the Fabric
- Part 2: Making the Top
- Part 3: Modifying the Skirt
- Part 4: Reassembling the Skirt
