Riley Blake Lulabelle Blog Tour and Inseam Pocket Tutorial

Welcome to our stop on the beautiful Lulabelle Collection blog tour! I hope you're enjoying the fresh colors and sweet designs in this collection. I had so much fun sewing it up, and the talented designer, Dodi Poulson, was wonderful to work with while we prepared for the blog tour. Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for your chance to win some of these beauties!

I chose to sew with Lulabelle Main, with its adorable birds, birdcages, and flowers, and the Bowtie print as an accent, both in the Mint colorway. The fabric was provided to me free of charge so I could bring you this tutorial, but all opinions are my own. And look how cute the selvedge is! "Squirrel!"

I chose our Sugarplum Skirt Pattern just to show how easy it is to take this special-occasion skirt pattern, leave out the optional underskirt, and make it in these pretty cottons for every day wear! And every day wear made me think ... SQUIRREL! No wait. POCKETS!

So let me show you how to add inseam pockets to any pattern. It's much easier than you might think. You'll need only scraps of same or coordinating fabric for the pockets, a pocket pattern, and a few minutes of your time.

How to Add Inseam Pockets to Any Pattern

You just need a pattern with a side seam! We have more than 90 different downloadable PDF sewing patterns for children at Tie Dye Diva patterns, so grab a pants, skirt, or dress pattern and get ready to add some fun and useful pockets. 

Also, you'll need a pocket pattern piece. I grabbed the inseam pocket pattern piece from the Tie Dye Diva Hello Hoodie pattern, which is easy for me to do because I have all my patterns right here at hand, but you can easily draft your own if you don't own Hello Hoodie. It's not an exact science, just make a downward-sloping "D" shape big enough for the wearer's hand and be sure it's at least 4" finished on the open end so you can easily get your own hand in there to check for treasures before you do the wash!  Be sure to add seam allowance.

Cut 4 pockets, 2 reversed so that you have two matched pairs. Finish the edges all around. I've used a narrow 3-thread stitch on my serger, but you can also zigzag the edges or using pinking shears. Also finish the side edges of your garment pieces, be it pants, skirt, or whatever.

Place the pockets at a comfortable height for the wearer. The Sugarplum Skirt has a wide flat front waistband that finishes at 2" wide. I guessed at a good height for this girl's size 5 skirt and measured about another 1.5" down on my skirt fabric *but I wish I hadn't*. They came out a little low, so next time with this pattern I'd just set them 5/8" from the top edge to allow for the seam allowance. With right sides together, stitch a pocket piece to each side edge of your garment piece. You want to use a seam allowance that is 1/8" less than you will be using for your garment side seams. For the Sugarplum Skirt, the seam allowance is 1/2", so I am sewing pockets at 3/8". Repeat for front and back.

Press the pocket toward the seam allowance. Do not turn the seam allowance under - press only the pocket.

Lay the garment front and back right sides together, aligning the pockets. Sew down the side seam going around the pocket. Press the seam allowance toward the front of the garment.

Finish the garment per pattern instructions.  Fill with hands, treasures, etc. and enjoy!

Photo by Rock Princess Photography

The bow instructions are included with the Sugarplum Skirt pattern. I love how this clever Bowtie print (look closely! There are little bows.) coordinates with the main.

Lulabelle is shipping in late November and you can find it soon at Hawthorne Threads and wherever you buy your favorite Riley Blake fabrics.

You can find the Sugarplum Skirt pattern and more than 90 other downloadable patterns for childrens clothes on the Tie Dye Diva Patterns website.

Don’t miss out on the great giveaway that Dodi is offering this week. Simply go to www.sashgals.com and leave a comment to win Lulabelle Fat Quarters and/or check out Lulabelle on Instagram @sashgal to win 5, ½ yard pieces of Lulabelle. (Rules for the Instagram contest will be posted there.)  Contests will end at 12:00 p.m. (pacific )on Saturday the 14th with Riley Blake doing a wrap up for the tour! Winners will be chosen after the close of the tours. Best of luck!