The high-low skirt, also known by its more playful nickname the mullet skirt, is on-trend again this year and I couldn’t be happier. While the skirt might have a funny name and a slew of “party in the front, business in the back” jokes associated with it, the skirt is no joking matter. With its figure-flattering cut and unique style, the high-low skirt has some fans in high places from Jason Wu to Marc Jacobs. The best part? With a sewing machine and a thrifted maxi skirt, you can DIY your own high-low skirt in just an hour.
The first thing you need to do is establish how short you want the skirt in the front. Try the maxi skirt on and make a mark where you’d like the skirt to hit and then cut a diagonal line down the skirt an inch below the line you marked. After you’ve snipped along the diagonal, make sure that you don’t have any angular lines where you cut the skirt — round out any sharp edges with your scissors.
Now, you can deviate from these next steps if you’d like, but I think an important part of the high-low skirt is its flowy nature. I chose to hem my high-low skirt using seam-binding ribbon which essentially is a lightweight ribbon. If you have lightweight ribbon around the house, it will work perfectly well. Hemming the skirt with this technique will help the skirt retain its breeziness.
Take your ribbon and pin it to the unfinished cuts that you made earlier. (You will be pinning the ribbon to the outside of the skirt, the good side.)
Stitch along the top of the ribbon. After you are done stitching the ribbon to the unfinished hem, fold the bottom of the skirt under so that the tape does not show and pin it again.
To finish the hem, you can either stitch it by hand to make it less noticeable or do a simple top stitch. If you are having any trouble at all with the sewing, Craft has a wonderful set of tutorials for different hems.
And that’s it! This skirt is a little wardrobe oxymoron — it is both flirty and refined at the same time. It is the perfect addition to any closet for the warmer months.
