Mom Skirts!

I have been on such a skirt kick lately!  And every time I wear a skirt without pockets, it drives me crazy all day.  Can't... stand... to... put... my... phone... down... where... is... my... chapstick... what... did... I... do... with... my... keys... this is my internal monologue any time my outfit is devoid of pockets.  Soooo, I have finally started making some of the great skirts that have been in my Pinterest "grown-up projects" folder for ages, and I love them!  I think of these as my "mom skirts" because they are comfortable, forgiving of the tummy, and most importantly, they have POCKETS!

The first skirt pictured, the olive green one, is The Milkmaid Skirt from Crafterhours.  I decided to make it out of this lightweight olive green stretch denim when I realized that the 24" long remnant that I bought was too short to make a pair of pants for the boy, which was the plan when I bought it.  (NO, I could NOT have made him a pair of shorts instead! Lalalalala I can't hear you.)  Luckily the fabric was 58 inches wide, so I just barely had enough to make the skirt--I had to fudge on the waistband seam allowance a little, and I had to use a contrast fabric for the pocket lining (that doesn't show), and instead of a hem I had to use bias tape so it didn't end up as a mini-skirt.

I just gotta put my hand in there!

I had a package of pre-made coordinating bias tape that I had picked up on clearance ages ago, luckily.  I didn't do the bias trim on my pockets the way she describes in the tutorial--as a matter of fact, I did mine according to her Milkmaid skirt for little girls instead, using the same pre-made bias tape as I used on the hem :).  By the way, one 3-yard pack of bias tape was plenty for the pockets and hem, with a little left over (maybe 1/2 yard?)  My skirt ended up being kind of a hybrid of the two, but I think the subtle fabrics made it look grown-up enough for me.

I pulled out the pocket so you could see the contrast lining;
also a close-up view of the bias trim on the pocket.

Oh!  I almost forgot!  In the tutorial she says she made her pockets about 5"x7".  That looked too small to me, so I made mine 5x9.  Now that I'm wearing it (that's right, I am wearing it at this moment), I think I could have even gone a little deeper--maybe 5x10.

The skirt in the middle is my favorite.  This one was an upcycle of this plus-size sundress I picked up at the Goodwill Outlet, where you buy clothes by the pound.

Another item originally purchased with a kid project in mind--
I must be getting selfish!

It's also the Milkmaid skirt--how appropriate, for this white eyelet fabric, don't you think?  I made this one the day after I made the olive green one, while it was fresh in my mind.  The green one came out a little bigger than I wanted (it still fits fine, thanks to the elastic waist), so I adjusted accordingly for the white one and I'm very happy with it.  The directions for this skirt are so simple that I didn't even have to refer back to the tutorial when I made it the second time around.  It's really very intuitive.

Also, this one has a lining.  I wish I could describe to you how I did the lining, but I just totally made it up as I went, and it came out ok--but while we're on the subject, hey, does anyone know how to make a skirt with pockets AND a lining?  LMK!   This was another one where I was just scraping by to have enough fabric, but luckily I was using the existing hem so the length worked out!  The hidden pocket linings are made from scraps of some white fabric I had laying around though.

Close-up of the pocket.

One of my favorite elements on this one is the visible pocket lining.  I used the extra eyelet trim from the yoke of the dress so that it would peek out from the pocket.  I thought it would also be nice to have an extra place for crumbs and lint to gather, so there's that, too.  Speaking of crumbs and such, we will have to see how wearing this skirt around the wee ones will work out.  Today I have already cleaned yogurt, barbecue sauce, and nutella off of my olive green skirt (should have taken my pictures first thing this morning, I guess), so I will be taking a real risk to wear something white.  We shall see, I suppose.

Finally, the patterned skirt is actually the first of the three that I made.  I originally found this design from Naptime Crafters when I was trying to figure out how to add pockets to this skirt, and was really excited to make the whole thing someday.  I The tutorial is easy to follow and fairly simple to execute--I recommend it.  If you look closely, there is a pineapple in the print, so it is only fitting that I debuted it at a night out for karaoke at a tiki bar (at which I was the ONLY person in our group of SIX to actually sing!  At the microphone, that is.  They were all more than willing to belt it out at the table.) I like this one because it DOESN'T have an elastic waist, so that's something different--it has button closures, so I have still put off learning how to put in a zipper.

This fabric was another remnant that I picked up.  It's a rayon, which is not a fabric I'm used to working with.  It's great for a skirt because it's soft, washable, and has a really nice drape and is lightweight without being sheer.  This print is a little crazy for me!  But it caught my eye, and it is nice to have something lively to pair with my black or white tops.  The rayon did stretch after wearing it for a while, so I had to move the buttons over.  Luckily that's pretty easy to do with this skirt.

Look at me, tucking in my shirts like a proper grown-up.

However, when I make another skirt like this, I will make BIGGER POCKETS.  She mentions in the tutorial that the pockets are great for carrying around a chapstick, but she doesn't say that a chapstick is literally all that you can fit in there.  See the way my hand is sticking almost all the way out of my pocket?  That's as far as I can put it in there, for real.  So, bigger pockets and this skirt would be a real winner.

So I officially have a new mom uniform!