This crust can be used for most pies. It works perfectly for fruit pies, pumpkin, sweet potato, and pecan pies. Feel free to experiment a little with whatever filling you want. This truly is a basic crust.
You can simply double this recipe for a pie with a top crust but I have had issues in the past trying to make sure I split it evenly or made it too thin to make sure I had enough for a top crust. So I took the single ingredients times 2.5 and that has worked much better. It gives you a bigger margin for error and I like a thicker crust on some pies like Apple or Mixed Berry. Here are those measurements:
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter and shortening into chunks and add the chunks to the flour mixture. Work the fat into the flour mixture until the ingredients resemble crumbs (use your hands, a pastry blender or the pulse feature of a food processor). Add the liquid, using only enough to gather pastry into a soft ball of dough (start with 4 tablespoons). Cut the dough in half (if making a top and bottom crust) and flatten each half to make a disk shape. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let stand at least 30 minutes.
With this type of dough, less movement will help create a flakier crust. So don't be afraid of some crumbs that dont have much liquid to them. Smash them into the dough disk and get it wrapped in plastic. The sitting in the refrigerator will allow those crumbs to become part of the dough and the cold will harden the fats again making the dough easier to work with when you get to the next step of making your pie but that's another recipe.