Sewing a "Hot Dog" skirt

A couple of years ago, I purchased a scrap of yellow and rust colored novelty fabric, featuring an anthropomorphic hot dog chef with his pet dachshund. The scrap of fabric was only about 16 inches wide, so not large enough for a skirt or top. My first thought was to make an apron out of it, but I already have a large collection of vintage aprons. My friend suggested using the fabric as an accent for a skirt, so the idea of a skirt with patch pockets was developed.

The hot dog fabric

 My first challenge was to find matching fabric for the main part of the skirt. My initial idea was to try and find a yellow and white gingham fabric that matched the background of the hot dog fabric, but this proved to be quite difficult. As luck would have it I came across some rust colored linen fabric that matched the hot dogs exactly.

The hot dog fabric and rust-colored linen.  I was going to use the rust-colored buttons shown here, but ultimately decided to go with the yellow ones.

I drafted a dirndl-style skirt, using instructions from the book "Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing", by Gretchen Hirsch.  The construction of the skirt is basically a long rectangle, gathered into a waistband.  I used 4 full yards of length, so the finished skirt is quite full. I originally planned to make this a circle skirt but felt the pockets would work better on a gathered skirt. 

The finished skirt.

For the patch pockets, I cut out two rectangles from the hot dog fabric, making sure that the same parts of the graphic appeared on both.  I added a round top to the pocket because I wanted to turn down the top of the pocket.  I lined the pocket with some of the rust-colored fabric, turned the top down and added a yellow and white vintage button as an accent.  I attached both pockets to the front of the dress.

A close-up of the patch pocket. I was happy to discover that I had some bakelite bangles that matched really well.

I'm happy with how the skirt came out.  At first I was concerned that the rust color would be overwhelming, but when I paired it with a yellow top and shoes, the whole outfit came together.  The skirt itself was very easy to draft and sew. My only issue is that I really hate doing gathers so that part was a bit tedious for me.  Overall I'm pleased that I was able to make something that highlighted the fabulous hot dog fabric so well.

Modeling my new skirt.  The top is from Pinup Girl Clothing, shoes by Rocket Originals and jewelry all vintage.