Sew: Kitschy Valentines Skirt {How To Add A Ruffle & Heart Pockets}

I’m not normally one for hearts but I am huge on kitsch and oversized pocket and a red pink combo! So here we are, with a heart pocket skirt, just in time for Valentines Day. I adore this skirt with its huge heart patch pockets and clashy pink ruffle! And I love that it’s an easy upcycle. I started with a red half-circle skirt that I had made previously but almost any skirt could work. I think a mini could be fun and flirty, especially if you have one that’s a bit too short and could benefit from a ruffle. A pencil skirt could be so chic and modern. You could choose from loads of silhouettes, I even put together some inspo pics below to get you thinking. Choose something from your wardrobe or hit up some op shops for a thrifty find. Ruffles are all the rage right now, so strangely, I am bang on trend! Of course, you don’t need to make something as bold as my creation! Other colour combos or sticking to just the ruffle or just the pockets would be cute too.

I hemmed and hawed over the kind of ruffle I wanted to make. A circular ruffle has more flounce and bounce but takes up a lot of fabric. Plus there’s metres and metres of curvy hem that would need to be sewn. Traditional ruffles are pretty straightforward to cut and sew but have less body and oomph. After toying with the idea of circular ruffles, finished with horsehair hem, I realised something. Sitting on horsehair braid was really uncomfortable and would mean washing it by hand/not putting it in the dryer. I fully intend to wear this on the regular, so ordinary straight ruffles won in the end!

Once you have your chosen skirt, decide on the length of the skirt and of the ruffle (include seam allowance). I will be leaving my skirt as is but adding on the ruffle and pockets. If you want to shorten yours, do that before you start. You won’t need to hem it (you can finish the seam after adding the ruffle) but you can if you prefer. Once your hem is finalized, measure the circumference of the hem opening. As mine is a half-circle skirt my hem circumference is a whopping 3m long! It’s up to you how ruffle-y you want the ruffle or the ruffle ratio, as demonstrated beautifully here by Kate. I decided on 2:1 (double the hem circumference) so I will need 6m of fabric to ruffle. Let’s make this!

I decided I wanted about 4.5” of ruffle showing. I also needed to add a ½” for attaching it to the skirt and I wanted a 1/2” double turned hem. So my ruffle needed to be 6” deep. My fabric was 3m, so I cut two 3m x 6” strips for my skirt. I decided to be tactical and sneaky and use the selvage edge of my fabric as one finished edge. I’m always thinking about saving labour!

You may have more or less strips than me but you should be ready to sew them! I have two long strips, you may have more. We are going to join the short ends together in a French seam. Place the short edges together, wrong sides facing and sew a ¼” seam. Trim the seam allowance and flip so that right sides are facing. Sew another 1/4 “ seam enclosing the previous seam allowance. Repeat until all strips are joined into one long circle. Mmm, giant donut…

Press up your chosen hem allowance, which is 1/2” for me, around the entire hem. Having a sewing gauge to hand is the easiest way but after a few metres, it becomes second nature. Press up one more time, until you have a double fold hem. You can thank me for the steam facial later. You’re gonna look gooood for that date

Stitch the hem in place, sewing close to the edge of the fold. Fall into a soft zen place as you stitch on through the horizon. Honestly, my favourite bit of sewing is long hems, so relaxing and thoughtless. Not a line on your face as you watch the needle blur.

If your skirt is hemmed and ready to ruffle, now is the time to finish the raw edge on the non-hemmed side. Overlock or mock overlock is the bomb here but a small hem would work too. Of course I was wiley and used the selvage, so I am set. Leaving long thread tails and without backstitching, sew a basting (long stitch) 1/4” from the now finished raw edge (or selvage in my case). Don’t backstitch at the end and leave long thread tails. Repeat this but this time a ¼” inch from your previous stitch. It’s up to you if you want to do a 3rd row. We all know it’s good to be prepared in case of breakage. Since my fabric was very long, I only stitched 2 rows and stopped and restarted at the halfway mark.

Pull up the bobbin threads to create gather and gently spread that gather around like confetti at a wedding! And if you wear this skirt, who knows? It could be yours. Try to create nice even gathers, that bring this back to the size of your original skirt hem. It does take a minute, so I caught up on some youtube vids while I worked.

Now slide that ruffle under your hem and pin it in place. I made sure my ruffle was underneath the stitch line of the original hem, so I can sew over it and catch the ruffle. Then I did just that! If you have a skirt with a cut edge, lay the skirt and ruffle right side together, cut edges aligned and sew it on. If you have raw edges, finish those bad boys with a mock overlock or whatever seam finish that floats you boat. If any of your gathering stitches are showing, you can rip them out, now that everything is secure. And BOOM! You have ruffle!

Let’s sew these pockets!

I am not a super precise sewist. I try, I really do but my slap dash nature just over takes me. Poorly sewn hearts look really janky, I know from experience. I’ve devised a method and it works!  I printed out a heart but you can totally hand draw one. Whichever way you go, it’s best to choose a heart with straight edge somewhere, as it will make turning it out much easier. For ease, I traced my heart on to thin cardboard, like a cereal or coke box. I made the heart exactly the size I wanted the finished pockets. I wanted pretty sizeable pockets, I mean go big or go home, right? I’m talking one heart here but you’ll obviously need to make two, if you want two pockets. Grab two bits of fabric that are bigger than your heart template. Whack some iron on interfacing on one bit. I’m using some very floaty poplin, so I went with more of a craft interfacing. Draw around the heart template on one piece. Pin the two pieces together, inside the heart and not too close to the edge.

Sew around the heart, sewing on top the marked line as a guide. Backstitch at beginning and end and be sure to leave a turning gap in one straight side. I’m a speed racer and I can tell you, slow and steady is what you need for the win! It’s much easier to be neat and tidy when you are sewing exactly on the line! No more hearts that come out as weirdly shaped blobs! Use pinking shears to trim away the excess, clipping close to the stitches but not cutting though any. Part of the brillance of the plan is that you don’t need to fiddly cut lips into the curves, the pinking shears do the job for you! Turn your heart inside out, no heartbreak hotel here! Push out all the edges and press everything nice and flat but don’t lose the beat! ____/\____/\____/\____/\____

Decide where your heart wants to be and pin it down. I like to pin on both pockets where I think they should be, fold the skirt in half and use my fingertips to see if they are in the same spot on each side and adjust as needed. Starting towards the top of the heart, topstitch around the heart until you get back to an even place on the other side. I actually marked out my start & stop points (as the arrows show) based on the top line drawn on my heart template. Because I swing from slap dash to perfectionist! And I didn’t want my pockets to flop forward too much. Rinse and repeat for the other pocket (have you even washed your hair yet?) and you are done. Two beautiful hearts beating as one skirt…awww! And there you are, a perfectly kitsch ruffle skirt with heart pockets!

Some girls get chocolate and flowers for Valentine but I got 3D prints! Mr Ask knew what I was working on and printed me some matching heart earrings – how sweet is that?? He also printed me a anatomical heart because he knows I am into them (remember this anatomical heart tee). The anatomical heart was going to be a surprise but Mr Ask gave it to me early, in case I wanted to use it as prop. I tell you, that man knows exactly what I want! I feel like I’m so lucky! We are coming up to out 8th wedding anniversary and 10 years together. We are so happy and have such fun being silly and making things together. As always, we will be spending Valentines at home together with some homemade pizza and some kind of decadent dessert but we will watch some kind of horror or dark type movie to cut the treacle lol!

When it came to styling this, my first instinct was to go with a pink top and pink shoes – so extra! But I knew I wanted to accessorise! I had Mr Asks heart earrings and this amazing ‘Lady Loves Luck’ brooch from Daisy Jean floral that I just love so much! It’s such a sweet and quirky design and pictures will never capture just how shiny and intricate and wonderful it really is in person. Sadly, this design is sold out but they have other great styles, including some valentines ones and they have expedited shipping options. I added a cheap flower crown headband from eBay to top the look off. So I decided that a basic black tee and black Kira sandals would be a nice, simple backdrop for all the kitschy, crazy fun! I will be wearing this skirt on the regular because I am all about kitsch, so if you want to see how I style this again in different ways, you should follow me on facebook or instagram because I post loads of outfit pics there.

I am so freaking in love with the whole look, everything together. The skirt is sweet as sundae with a cherry on top! Huge and beautiful heart pockets that could hold a phone and a lipstick and a small wallet without missing a beat! Cute as hell but practical too. You don’t need to take a bag at all! The ruffle is fun and flirty and makes the whole look very playful and sweet. I feel like I could stay home and bake cookies or dance the night away! I keep hearing that song, Perry Como’s Mamma Loves Mambo and wanting to give this skirt a good ole’ dance! I hope you can use this to make the skirt of your desires and even more than that, I hope you have a great Valentines! I’m all boring and married but for those heading out for a first date, I wish you every luck! And for those of you staying home alone, don’t feel bad, just enjoy it! Watch up this great video on self love, it’s a bit of an oldie but still so very good. Lots of love, hearts and ruffles, Sarah xxxx

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