Placket Tutorial

Hello!  Remember us?

It has been a busy summer!  We have been away on multiple vacations and in between those we have been working hard on four new dress patterns!

So we are long over due for a new post and thought we would start back today with a tutorial! 

Lately, we have been getting a few questions about how exactly to complete the placket that is found in the Kylie, Goldie, Raven and Isla Dress patterns.  

The word “placket” comes from the Old French plaquer, which means “to lay on,” 
During stressful sewing occasions it has been called other things, not  appropriate to put into print!  

I will simplify plackets for you so they won’t be so intimidating!

A placket is a made on a slit in a dress or shirt is intended to facilitate putting on and removing clothing, giving a nice, clean appearance to the slit made.  We are used to seeing plackets in shirts,  especially men's shirts,  above the cuff, or on skirts that have a button closure at the waistband.

1.  Cut a slit down the center back of the skirt  (some patterns have a back seam- if so then the top few inches of the back is left unsewn.  Fold down the slit so the sides form a straight line.  The placket should be double the size of slit.

2.  Put the placket face down over the turned down area and pin.

3.  This is what it will look like from the skirt side.  Sew across the top.  The seam allowance of the skirt  should be 1/2 inch at the beginning and the end, but in the middle it should be 1/8 inch.

4.  Trim the seam allowance and clip the center  of the “V” down to the seam allowance.

5.  Fold the placket over twice, hiding raw edge of placket and covering seam allowance.  Pin.

6.  Topstitch placket.  To hide stitches “stitch in the ditch” or sew right at the point where the two fabrics are attached.  Just make sure that you are catching the inside (see next photo).

7.  This is what it should look like from the inside.

8.  Fold the right side of the placket under and stitch across the top, reinforcing by going back and forth.

9.  This is what it should look like from the inside.

10.  Finished!  Now you are ready to add the waistband or bodice.

So hopefully that will help clarify the plackets section! 

Have you seen the new "Flutter Skirt" pattern? 

Thanks to Melinda from My2SugarPlums for providing the name!

Ok, back to work on our new patterns!  Hoping to have them ready to go very soon!  

Tutorial #1- Putting pattern pieces together

For our first tutorial, we thought we would layout the easiest way we have found to put the pattern pieces together.

1.  Print out pattern pieces following the printing instructions:
When printing pattern pieces, make sure that “page scaling” is set to “none” and “auto center and rotate” is checked.  Pattern pieces print on 8.5” x 11” paper (with the exception of The Harper Dress pattern which prints on legal sized paper.  We will be changing that to print on letter sized soon!)

2. Cut out pieces around the largest size (In this example, we are using the Sophia Tunic pattern and cutting out a size 3T).

3.  Tape piece number #1 of 4 to a window.

4.  Holding piece  #2 of 4 over piece #1 of 4, overlay dots and tape the pieces together so the dots appear as one.

5.  Place piece  #3 of 4 over piece #2 of 4, overlaying dots so they appear as one.  Tape.

6.  Place piece #4 of 4 over what you have so far, matching dots on piece #3 of 4 and piece  #2 of 4.  Tape.

7.  Now cut out the entire pattern to the size you want.  You can keep the sizes you cut off to tape on later, or you can reprint the pattern for next time!

8.  Repeat steps for back of tunic and sleeve. This is what the pattern pieces should look like.  Now you are ready to cut the pattern pieces out of your fabric!

Happy Sewing!