There’s really nothing more romantic than white lace. It’s classic, feminine, and has a nice touch of detail without being fussy. A white lace skirt can be worn at multiple times of the year, making it the perfect closet staple. Styled casually with a chambray button up or dressy with a high neck black top, the possibilities are endless.

I’ve shown you how to make box pleats before and have shown you how to use them in a skirt in my gold pleated midi skirt and chartreuse pleated mini skirt. This time around, things are easier than ever! Using a knife pleat, the measurements and construction of the skirt are incredibly straightforward, and the project will take much less precision than when creating box pleats. You will essentially be creating a fan type pattern when folding the fabric over back and forth.

Clothing Details: Lace Skirt (similar lace skirt, similar lace skirt) – Made by Me || High Neck Black Top – Forever 21 || Black Pumps – Cole Haan || White Satchel – Rebecca Minkoff || Watch – Kate Spade New York ||

I threw together this skirt in a afternoon before a fancy dinner with Kyle and some friends and loved how it turned out! The only issue I found during the construction was that the fabric layers became very thick when inserting the zipper, so I ended up adding it in below the waist band and just adding some hook and eyes in along the waist to keep the zipper from popping open.

See below for the full sewing tutorial and pattern for this pleated lace skirt which can be made in any size!

Pleated Lace Skirt

Supplies:

Lace Fabric 2x the size of your waist + 2″ (similar lace fabric)
White Fabric 2x the size of your waist + 2″
White Thread
White Invisible Zipper
3 Hook and Eyes
Sewing Machine
Pins
Scissors
Measuring Tape
Iron and Ironing Board

Time:

3 hours

Difficulty:

Medium

1. Start by measuring your waist. Take this measurement and buy a piece of lace and a piece of white fabric that are 2 times this length plus 2″. You will then cut this fabric as shown to have 2 rectangles, a SKIRT piece and a WAIST piece. The WAIST piece will be the length of your waist plus 2″.

2. Line up the lace and the white fabric SKIRT pieces at the top and sew across this edge to connect the two pieces. Also line up the lace and white fabric WAIST pieces and sew the top and bottom edges closed to connect them.

3. To create the pleats, follow the pattern below. You will fold the fabric back and forth like a fan, resulting in 2″ pleats on the front side of the fabric with a 1″ overlap in the back. Repeat along the entire length of the skirt, and iron them down. Then sew a seam over the seam you sewed in step 2 to keep the pleats from coming undone.

4. To create the waistband, take your WAIST piece and fold it in half the long way so the lace is on the outside and iron. Sew along the seam that you sewed in step 2.

5. To connect the WAIST to the SKIRT, lie the WAIST piece on top of the skirt so that the raw edges of the SKIRT and WAIST are touching and sew along the seam you just made in step 4. Flip the WAIST piece up so that you have your full skirt.

6. Complete the skirt shape by connecting the it in the back with a hidden zipper below the waistband and sewing in 3 hook and eyes at the waist band. I always use this invisible zipper tutorial to figure out how to install my zippers. (NOTE: Photo below taken before I decided to move the zipper down and install the hook and eyes.)

7. The last step is to hem the length of the skirt. I shortened mine so the white layer hit above my knees and the lace came over them a bit. Also cut around the scallop at the bottom of the lace so that the delicate fringe was exposed.