Condo Blues: How to Sew a Skeleton Skirt with POCKETS

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

How to Sew a Skeleton Skirt with POCKETS

I plunked a bolt of skeleton print fabric on the store’s cutting table.

 

Fabric cutting lady: what are you making?


Me: A skirt


Fabric cutting lady: Oh! Are you getting ready for Halloween early?


Me: No. Just making something fun to wear for every day.


Fabric cutting lady: (Gives me a blank stare because she doesn’t know what to do with this information and says nothing. This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten this response from her about one of my weirdo projects.)

 

That doesn’t matter because I made a cute, twirly dirndl skirt that has pockets!
 

how to make an A line skirt with pockets

Save this sewing idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

 

And you know what?

 You can make one too!

During the summer I often wear skirts because I have a hard time finding shorts that fit and have pockets because I don’t want to carry a purse when we go to the dog park or where ever on our summer adventures (that will  one day safely be possible.) Finding skirts that fit is easier but most don’t have pockets. 

Up until now I’ve added pockets to my skirts and dresses by wearing a pair of bike shorts like these with pockets underneath. Also it’s nice to have a little extra insurance to not accidently flash the neighbors when getting in and out of the car and such. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convince.)  Short girl problems, amIright?

 Not to mention finding an A line skirt with pockets in the fun, kooky prints I see others wearing and love is practically impossible to find.

While I could try hacking and adding pockets to a skirt pattern I already have, in the past I haven’t been successful. I ended up buying this Simplicity skirt pattern 8211 because the fun typewriter fabric caught my eye as the exact thing I was looking for and the versatility of the pattern made me stay. And did I mention this before? IT. HAS. POCKETS. Deep, useful pockets you can put both hands into and still have room to fill them with plenty of snacks.  Or more realistically, my keys.

 

I couldn’t find the typewriter fabric at the store. 

I went with the purple skeleton fabric because, why not?

 

The pattern looks tricky because it uses a hidden zipper (a hidden zipper looks like this for reference) and hides it on the side seam inside the pocket, which is a freaking genius design.

The hidden zipper in a pocket made me raise an eyebrow because the historical costumes I make don’t use zippers or modern buttonholes and hems. Making 16th century clothing is largely sewing rectangles. I can’t tell you the last time I put a zipper in a garment and I never sewed a hidden zipper. Well, quarantine crafting seems to be all about trying new things.  I pulled a hidden zipper off the first time I tried sewing one because  I used a hidden zipper foot similar to this one instead a regular zipper sewing machine foot that looks like this.

 

How to make an easy pocket skirt for women
Pockets! Pockets I tell you! Does the dance of joy to celebrate FUNCTIONAL POCKETS!


I agree with Simplicity rating it a solid 2 on a 4 point scale of difficulty. 4 being an advanced super hard pattern. The only thing I didn’t like about the pattern is that the sizing runs small. I looked at the numbered sizes and bought this Simplicity 8211 Women's Dirndl Pocketed Skirt Sewing Patterns, Sizes 4-12 version because I usually wear a size 6 waist. It wasn’t until I got the pattern home until I realized that according to my actual measurements I needed to cut a size 20 waist band found in  Simplicity 8211 Women's Dirndl Pocketed Skirt Sewing Patterns, Sizes 14-22. I added enough length to make the small version of the pattern piece to work and later bought the larger size version of the pattern because I see many, skirts in fun crazy prints (I have cartoon shark fabric on deck for the next version of this skirt) and a few in normal Cleverly Disguised as a Responsible Adult fabric too.

 Since I’ve got nothing but spare time these days (just like the rest of the world) I’m taking advantage of projects like this to figure out and use some of the odd sewing machine feet and stitches that came with my machine. Up until now I usually finish my renaissance clothing by hand stitching an invisible hem because they didn’t have sewing machines in 1572 and sometimes they show when I’m moving around performing.  I finally figured out how to use my blind hem foot (a blind hem foot looks like this) to hem my skeleton skirt with a machine stitched blind hem like a real seamstress! I see many more machine sewn blind hems in my future too.

 Rather buy than DIY? Check out the following pocket skirt options – and more! – below!

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2 comments :

Marie-Interior Frugalista said...

Your conversation with the fabric cutter is too funny and one I can relate to. LOL Love the skirt and who knew skeletons could look so feminine paired with a pretty purple shirt.

Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

Thank you!

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