Easy Placket Tutorial – Avoiding the Continuous Lap Placket (if you must!)

Today we have an easy placket tutorial for you. We’ve done a few continuous lap placket tutorials here for the skirt portion of a dress or back of a top. I love them! Some people don’t. So here’s a way to do a very simple alternative to the placket.  It’s not my preferred method because it needs some advance planning, requires a center back seam, and is not as durable as a continuous lap. However, it’s perfectly acceptable, so if you’d like to learn, read on!

Easy Placket Tutorial

You’ll just need a pattern with no placket or a continuous lap placket, and a sincere dislike of continuous lap. I am using the Fair & Square Dress and Top Pattern for Baby, which ordinarily uses a continuous lap placket.

First, you’ll need to create a center back seam. So, cut your back skirt piece 1” wider than given in the pattern instructions, then cut this back skirt into two equal halves vertically. This will give you an extra ½” at center back for a seam allowance. Finish the center back edges of both skirt back pieces, either with a serger, zigzag stitch, or pinking shears.

With right sides together, sew (don’t use a serger) the pieces together along center back using a ½” seam allowance. Begin at the bottom, and sew up to a point that is 2” from the top edge. Backstitch to secure your stitches.

Press the seam open. Topstitch around the opening to secure it.

That’s all there is to this easy placket tutorial! You can see this opening at left below, and how it looks when the dress is buttoned/snapped also.

That was so quick, let’s have some more fun and learn another new trick! I’m using this adorable The Promise of Spring collection by Cori Dantini for Blend Fabrics. Blend has provided it to me free of charge so I can bring you helpful free tutorials like this one.

You are probably not sewing with Easter fabric just yet but you might want to snap up The Promise of Spring as soon as you can and stash it away. It makes such adorable Easter dresses with its spring animals, teacups, and flowers. I see it in stock at Shabby Fabrics and several other online sites.

I loved the patchwork effect of the panel fabric so much that I created a patchwork hem band rather than the single-fabric band called for in the Fair & Square pattern. It is simple to do so I thought I’d show you with a quick patchwork hem band tutorial.

I chose 5 fabrics because I think an uneven number creates a focal point that is most pleasing to the eye. Check the chart in the pattern to see how wide (direction going across the dress) to cut the hem band for the size you are making, subtract 1”, and divide by 5 (the number of fabrics I am using). It worked out very evenly for this 12-18 month dress that 21” width minus 1” = 20”, divided by 5 = 4”. That’s the finished width of each patch on the hem band. Add back 1” seam allowance to each (½” on each side) for a total of 5”. So for each hem band (front and back) I cut 5 patches 5” wide x the 4.5” long given in the pattern.

Cutting the 10 pieces goes quickly if you create a cardstock template! You can fold each fabric so you are cutting the 2 you need at once and even stack a few fabrics.

Then just piece them together using 1/2″ seam allowance, trim the seams if desired, press them open, and fold the hem band with wrong sides together. Complete per the pattern instructions.

Sigh. Do you see my mistake? Look again, and don’t make it. If you have directional prints in your patches check to be sure they will be right side up when you are finished. I decided to leave this but it does bug me, especially because if I had read my own pattern I’d see the note and photo reminding me to check print orientation before attaching the hem band.

Thank goodness it is so cute on this little one that you’d never notice upside-down eggs!