Lollipop Hopscotch Skirts

Do these cousins not look like they are having the best time? Does it not appear that each might have had her own hugendous, personal ice cream cone not hours before? Is there any indication that 1 day hence, one of these smiling girls will have to fly home, several states away? Thereby leaving the other in heinous, bitter bereft-ness? Ah, the innocent joy of youth.

As you can see, DD has been having a blast with her cousin visiting. I decided to join in this celebration and make them some matching skirt outfits with some of Patty Young's gorgeous new Playdate fabric. Holy crap, I LOVE. This. Fabric. I think Patty's girls might have something in common with my DD, because she used their input when she designed this fabric, and it's genius. I mean, hello, hot pink, lollipops, and hearts?? Perf.

Fabric: Lollipop Dreams and Squiggly Stripe in pink by Patty Young. 100% cotton purple rib knit from Golden D'Or fabrics via the Walmart clearance table. Y'know, the hi-lo mix.

Pattern(s): Hopscotch skirt by Eva on Sewing Mamas. (Can you tell I'm obsessed with this pattern?? Seriously. Gitcherself over there, register for cripes sake, and download this tutorial. It's free and fabulous.) Ottobre 04/2004 #33 tank top.

I used the same single fold binding in-the-flat technique that I showed in my tutorial. It also works great for tank top bindings! As you can see, I went the extra mile and trimmed the inside edge of the binding this time. See. I can be bothered sometimes. Sniff.

This purple doesn't exactly match any of the purples in the Playdate fabric, so I used hot pink thread for all my top stitching and then added these rad pink heart buttons. Now they look like they go perfectly, but it's all trickery. *creepily drumming my fingers together*

Hmm. My hems are not perfect, but hemming rib knits can be pretty darn dicey. I could have done a lettuce hem with my serger, but I just wasn't up to setting up my machine for rolled hems yesterday.

These pockets don't come in the Ottobre pattern. I usually self-draft my pockets, since I like to add them here and there on this or that. And by self-draft, I mean I drew a U-shape on a piece of paper. It was super hard. I couldn't wait to breezily mention that I did it. *cough* I self-drafted this pocket. *casually blowing on my nails and wiping them on my sleeve*

Oh! But I must point out that yi canna' just throw a knit pocket--especially a rib knit pocket--on a knit top and stitch it down. Much swearing will ensue. I stabilize mine like crazy first, and it works like a charm. Just:

1. Cut 1/4" to 3/8" wide bias strips of woven interfacing.

2. Fuse a strip underneath the stitching line of the top hem.

3. Fuse another just inside the seam allowance of the side and rounded edges.

4. Run a line of long stitches or serging around the edges of the pocket, then hem the top edge.

5. Fold in the seam allowance of the side and rounded edges. Steam press like heck.

6. Put a nice big square of tear-away stabilizer underneath where you want your pocket. Pin your pocket down on top.

7. Stitch the pocket to your garment. I like to use my left edge top stitching foot.

Knit pocket success!!

Seriously. How beautiful is this fabric?! Luuuuurve it!

I put a different color ribbon in the back of each girls' skirt so I could distinguish which was which.

The full, twirly view. Can I pimp these Hopscotch skirts even more? Go make one now!

Oh yeah. When I made these outfits and laid them out, they looked pretty awesome. Got them on the girls and...well. The tops are a leetle long. I think the main problem is that, because the rib knit is 100% cotton with "eh" recovery, they stretched out quite a bit in the sewing process.

I'm crossing my fingers that they shrink up real good in the wash. If DD's is still this voluminous on her after a trip through the wash, then I'll whip out the cover stitch and re-hem. Hopefully that won't be necessary though.

At any rate, the girls love them, and that's what's important. Hopefully these outfits will give them a bit of comfort as they say goodbye!