This step by step tutorial will teach you the best way to sew a placket, specifically known as a continuous bound placket. It’s almost invisible and is a breeze to sew with a little practice!
The thing about sewing plackets is that they can seem really intimidating at first. But once you have the hang of this technique, you will be able to sew one in about 5 minutes. If you plan to sew many clothes for yourself, or if you have daughters that you will be sewing dresses for, then this is an essential skill to learn. Plackets can be added to the skirt (just a skirt or the skirt of a dress), sleeves, or the top of a shirt/dress. They can also easily be added to a pattern when it doesn’t call for one, or even on store bought clothes if needed.
Supplies and materials
- Sewing machine
- Woven fabric (like linen, quilting cotton, poplin, old sheets, etc)
- Matching thread
- Iron and Ironing board
- Scissors
- Pins
- Pencil or tailor’s chalk
For this tutorial, I’m using a contrasting fabric for the placket and contrasting thread, but you should use the same fabric and a matching thread.
I will be giving instructions for a skirt placket that has a 3/4 inch overlap. But it’s basically the same process for sleeves or tops as well, and for wider or narrower plackets.
The placket is sewn to cut pieces that haven’t been sewn to other pieces yet, so that they are easy to work with.
Preparing the placket piece
Step 1 – First you will cut out all your pattern pieces. Regardless of what your pattern calls for, for this method you will need to cut your placket piece in the following way:
- The length needs to be twice as long as the slit will be, plus 1 inch for wiggle room.
- The width needs to be 3 x the width of the overlap + 1/4 inch. So for a 3/4 inch overlap it will be 2 1/2 inches wide.
Step 2 – Iron the long side 3/4 inches (width of the overlap) to the wrong side.
Preparing the skirt piece
Step 3 – Take the skirt piece that will have the placket and turn to the wrong side. Mark a line going down the center from the top (I usually do 3 inches, or you can follow your pattern). Then draw a line going across to mark the end clearly. Then draw diagonal lines on either side of the center line, starting 1/8 inch from the center at the top, and meeting in a point at the end.
Step 4 – Set your machine to a short straight stitch (I do 1.8, 2.5 is normal on my machine). Sew, following your diagonal lines. Pivot at the bottom, take 1 stitch across, pivot again, and go back up to the top in the same way.
*Keep in mind, when sewing a placket this way, all the stitching will be done from the wrong side.
Step 5 – Now cut straight down the middle of your stitching, getting very close to the point.
Attaching the placket piece to the skirt
Lining the placket up along the edge of the slit
Step 6 – Next, lay your placket behind your skirt piece, right sides together. You want to line it up so that your stitched line is consistently 1/4 inch from the edge of the placket piece. I don’t find pinning helpful, but I did for this tutorial so I could get good pictures. Just do whatever works for you!
Sewing the placket piece to the skirt
Step 7 – Now set your stitch length back to normal and sew just barely to the left of your stitched line.
Sew down to the point of your slit, making sure not to sew in any folds when you get to the point. I took out my pins so that I could orient the second half of the slit to the right, to avoid folds.
Once you get to the point, keep the needle down and raise your presser foot. Take the second half of the slit and line it up in the same way as the first half (If it’s not pinned. Either way, just make sure it’s arranged neatly, lined up, no folds, etc.). Push the extra skirt fabric behind the presser foot, making sure not to get any folds where you are about to sew. Continue sewing down to the end.
This is what it will look like. You can see the original stitching line on top, and the stitching line you just made just barely below it.
Enclosing the seam in the placket
At this point you could iron the placket and seam allowance away from the skirt. I actually don’t find it necessary though, I just smooth everything out with my fingers and keep going.
Step 8 – Bring the placket from behind and wrap it around to the wrong side, enclosing the seam allowance completely. Your folded edge should just barely cover the stitching line that you just made. Pin in place if desired.
Step 9 – Edgestitch as close to the edge as you possibly can. You want to be stitching basically right on top of your previous line of stitching.
This is what both sides will look like.
Securing the placket so it stays on the wrong side of the skirt
Step 10 – Now fold, right sides together. Line up the placket perfectly and sew diagonally across the bottom corner.
Step 11 – Now turn to the right side, and orient the placket so that it folds to the left side. This is how plackets on women’s and girl’s clothes always lay. Give it a good iron.
At this point, you could use your sewing machine to baste the folded left side of the placket to the skirt. A pattern will usually tell you to, but for me it depends on the design. If it’s in a gathered skirt, then I don’t, because I want to be able to have gathers over the placket area, too.
Read on for instructions on how to gather over a placket. For a full tutorial on gathering, you can check out my blog post Learn to Sew Gathers Easily here.
How to sew gathers on a skirt with a placket
Step 12 – Sew the front and back of the skirt together.
Step 13 – Unfold your placket and sew two parallel lines of gathering stitches (longest straight stitch, needle tension low) with fabric right side up. Sew to just past the unfolded placket on both sides. You will not be gathering the placket.
Step 14 – Then, pull the bobbin tails to gather and fold the left side of the placket back into place. At this point you could baste it (sewing between the gathering stitches) if you wanted to.
And you’re all done! This is what it will look like (in this picture, it’s actually already pinned to a bodice):
(If you’re interested in a full tutorial on how to attach a skirt with a placket to a lined bodice, you can check out my post here.)
What do you think? Have you ever sewn a placket using a different method before? I’d love to know in the comments below!
Leave a Reply