Shirring: The Poor Man's Waistband

So I've bought a few thrift store skirts in the past that have mostly fit, except for having exceptionally small waistbands that do NOTHING for comfort, if not aesthetics. I was trying to devise some way in which I add in a fabric dart to try and increase the size of the waistband, but then you've got to consider things like matcing fabrics, making the elastic still hold, actually making the waist size correct, and making the skirt too short. Then I found in one of my beautiful How To Sew books (that I snagged from some thrift stores) the idea of elastic shirring. Shirring is two or more rows of gathers that are typically used in place of darting to take in a garment in a decorative and more form-fitting way. Like this:

Shirring can be done with just normal thread, if you're going for the more decorative aspect, but I found a tutorial on how to shirr with elastic, and I thought 'Perfect waistband!' Now I'll be able to add in a waistband that should (hopefully) fit my waist better, without having to shorten the skirt or take away any material from the waist! The way to do this, is to tightly wind your bobbin by hand with something called 'elastic thread,' that you should be able to find anywhere that sells sewing things (even Walmart). It's pretty popular. Then you just use a normal topthread that matches, and sew a running stitch across the part you want to shirr (typically in horizontal lines) while pulling on the fabric to make it taut. Make sure fully finish each row and back stitch, otherwise it won't gather all the way across and you'll have saggy bits. I also found a tutorial that made an elastic casing (stitched tube made from folding over the raw edge and giving it a running stitch) for the raw edge so that you actually have something of a finished waistband. Now I just need to make time to actually fix those skirts! I'll post results when I do.

If I was too confusing, there's lots of good tutorials, but I found this one helpful. And this one to give you the idea of the waistband casing.