New Look 6030 - pockets and handmade bias binding

Quite a few months ago I promised my sister I would make her a skirt.  She bought a pattern (New Look 6030), and some cord, and sent me off, armed with good intentions.  I made my own version first, and then got her fabric cut out and pinned together, ready for some sewing action...but my good intentions were somewhat distracted by the allure of all the other patterns and fabric, and I've left the skirt sitting for far too long.

At the weekend I finally got things moving again.  New Look 6030 is such a great pattern for a simple, day-to-day skirt - I love mine and I wear it all the time.  However, making it in stripes, I had abandoned the idea of pockets - it was going to be far too hard to get all the stripes to align.  Esther's version was my first attempt at pockets.

As it materialised, as well as learning to make pockets, one of the first things that the pockets needed was handmade bias binding for the edges of the pockets.

It really couldn't be simpler to make some handmade binding that perfectly matches your garment.

The first thing to do is cut out your pieces of fabric, on the bias - this means the grain line should be running perpendicular to the edges of the fabric, rather than parallel.  You can see it quite clearly on the cord, below:

As I was making double fold bias binding, I folded the strips of fabric in half, and pressed:

Then I folded each side in half as well, and pressed again:

It's as simple as that...two pieces of bias binding, ready to be sewn onto my pockets.  You can see how nicely it curves below:

I sewed the binding onto the pockets, and top stitched.  I've chosen a contrasting brown to add a bit of interest to what is a very plain fabric.

One of the main things about sewing with cord that I learnt when I made the first version of this skirt was that it's so important to make sure the nap is facing the correct way on each piece of the skirt,  I was feeling very pleased that I'd got it correct on all four pieces of the skirt, and I was determined that it would be correct on the pockets too.  Imagine my surprise when I pinned the pocket on to the skirt, took this photo and suddenly saw...

Yep - the nap was facing the wrong way!  The good news on this was that it was actually quite a basic mistake - I'd pinned the pocket to the bottom of the skirt, rather than the top - oops!  A quick reversal, and voila...

Those photos just show how important it is to get the nap right - as otherwise, not only the feel but also the look of the garment can be completely spoilt.

All that was left was to topstitch the pockets in place.

Not the prettiest picture (definitely some pressing required!) but the pockets are in place and ready to be filled with phones, change, keys...and even hands!  Now to get the rest of the panels and the waistband inserted and it'll be ready to wear.