For Audrey's birthday I made her a present of a skirt with dogs. A skirt with dogs and a piped waistband and a piped pocket. A skirt with dogs and a piped waistband and a piped pocket and a full white lining.
It's 88 inches of this beautiful Heather Ross Lightning Bugs Dogs on Blue fabric and I love it. It has that 1950s shape to it: tight waist and then lots of fullness. I've decided when it comes to little girls a bit of elastic is essential so it has a gathered back waistband. And I think the piping adds the right amount of punch.
Audrey saw this skirt from Mini Boden and liked it, which is unusual because she usually doesn't pick out skirts, at least not for every day wear. The dogs were certainly it. Of course it's always more fun for me to sew her something than buy her something (and usually a bit more economical though probably not in this case!) so I went searching Etsy for fabric. This Heather Ross couldn't be any more perfect. So of course it's rare and surprisingly pricey. I guess I'm a bit late to theHTF (hard-to-find) Heather Ross phenomenon...
A dog skirt for a dog lover. I hope she loves it. It will only be so long before I have to give in to a real dog. Sticking with skirts would be so much easier.
If you'd like to add a piped pocket to a skirt, or pants or shirt I've got a tutorial for you. Click through to read more.
PIPED POCKET TUTORIAL
A piped pockets can add so much, and it's really not that much more trouble than a regular pocket. You'll need two squares of fabric, one for the outside and one for the inside of the pocket. The size is up to you. This particular pocket is 4.5"x4.5". If you are using a print with an "up" orientation you'll want to flip the inside fabric around 90-degrees before placing them right sides together. This is because the "inside" fabric is what you see above the piping on the outside of the pocket, and you will likely not want it upside down.
Take a length of piping to fit the width of the pocket and place it at the top of the inside fabric square with the raw edges together, piping piece down. You can baste the piping in place now if you'd like but I skipped that step choosing to pin carefully instead...
Now sandwich the outside square of fabric on top of this stack of piping and inside fabric right sides together and pin to hold in place.
Stitch the top of the pocket through all three layers as close to the piping as you can get. It's a roughtly 3/8" seam allowance. I have a zipper foot that works great for piping.
Your pocket will now look like this:
And when opened up it looks like this, which the piping sandwiched in the seam of the "inside" and the "outside" fabric squares:
Now lay the "sandwich" back down and stitch the bottom seam.
Turn it right sides out.
Now you are going to rotate the seams so that the piping appears about a 1/2 inch below the top of the pocket and press the top and bottom of the pocket to mark this placement. Be careful to press the seam allowances flat, away from the seams.
I'm showing you the "outside" (on the left) and "inside" of the pocket so you can see what it looks like. The piping should be laying down from the top of the pocket (be certain to press the piping seam allowance towards the top of the pocket).
Turn the pocket inside out again and pin right sides together using the pressing marks at the top and bottom of the pocket to maintain the rotated seams.
Stitch the side seams of the pocket but leave a 2" opening on ope of the sides for turning the pocket right sides out.
Turn right sides out. I like to roll back the fabric casing on the piping and trim a bit of the cording so it's not to bulky in the seam allowance.
Press being careful to press in the opening you left in the side seams so those raw edges will be caught when you stitch the pocket in place.
That is it! Pretty slick, right? There may be another method but this is what I worked out and it made sense to me! Now you just place the pocket where you'd like it and top stitch around the sides and bottom very close to the edge. Enjoy a bit of piping!
23 comments:
That is SO cute. Reminds me of a 50's style skirt.
These pictures are precious - she looks adorable in it! You did an amazing job once again! I love how the skirt turned out! :0) Makes me want to sew one right now!
So cute! and what a great fabric! thank you for this tutorial, I'm going to be making an apron dress soon and i'd love for it to have piped pockets!
Oh my she is so adorable in that cute skirt.
Have a great day,
Meredith
Oh my goodness what a darling skirt! The piping, full lining, fullness, and print are so fun. She's one lucky girl!!
Very cute. I've not worked with piping (although hubby had a go at sewing the rope version on a doona cover that he made a while back...and he used a zipper foot too). I'd love to do a vintage styled apron one of these days.
I love everything about thie skirt. Color, print, style, lining and piping. It is quite lovely.
Audrey and Ella are two of a kind. Ella begs and begs and cries for a dog almost daily. I try to put her off by buying/making her anything with dogs on it. This is darling!
Oh this is truly beautiful. Well done. And I'm glad you showed the piping, I've got cushions to do for my couch and have been wanting to pipe the egdes. Think I'm going to give it a go now.
Very pretty! You're right, the fabric is great! Love it. and thanks for the tutorial.
I really like this skirt and I love, love the dog fabric. Very unique and lovely!
Ohhhh! So THATS how it's done! :D Thanks so much for sharing :)
Such an adorable skirt!
Cass
http://casscansew.blogspot.com.au/
Such a cute skirt!! I am in love with the fabric. Did you design the pattern yourself as well?
@Betsy: yes, I designed the pattern. Very similar to my dirndl skirt patter--just no apron, and added piping.
What a cute skirt!!! You're such a great sewer and I am a fan.
I hope you can come visit my blog:
http://craftmatesetc.blogspot.ca/
Thanks,
Virna
Hey Annelise,
love the skirt and the piped pocket. do you have a pattern for this skirt on your blog? would love to try and make it. Thanks!
@carolf: I don't have a tutorial for this skirt on my blog but my Dirndl Skirt pattern, which I sell in my Etsy shop, is virtually identical--you would just leave off the apron and ties. I hope that helps! I link to the pattern in my sidebar. And here is the link to the shop listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/108084404/sewing-pattern-girls-apron-dirndl-skirt
Hi I've just stumbled upon your fabulous blog. I'd love to make this skirt too and am happy to purchase the Drindl skirt pattern - but wondered, does it explain how to get the piping in at the waistband? I've been trying to figure out how to do that, and thought I might still be left wondering if the Drindl pattern doesn't explain it? Thanks so much
@Rachel: Thanks for your comment and question. The Dirndl skirt pattern would be a good starting point for this skirt but doesn't provide instructions for adding the piping. You could find a tutorial online for that I am guessing. I hope that helps you make your decision. I am thinking of making a pattern for this specific skirt but not sure when I will get to it!
I am absolutely in love with this skirt. Just curious if you ever got around to creating a pattern for this exact skirt (no apron, with added piping). It's so adorable!
@Amber: Thanks! I actually just sewed a nautical version of this skirt; don't know if you saw it: http://www.aestheticnest.com/2015/08/sewing-nautical-dresses-and-pretty.html It got me excited about the pattern, which is still on my list of things to do.
hi! loved the skirt and bought the pattern and Im panning to skip the apron and ribbons bit, however I want to line the skirt....how or at what point do you apply the lining? thanks! very inspiring!!!
@anonymous: You can duplicate the skirt sewing with lining fabric and then attach it at the waist, or you can create a self-lining by putting the lining pieces against the wrong side of the skirt fabric and sewing them together. I hope that helps!
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