In Which Shannon Learns a New Pocket Technique

What is going on here at Shannon's Sewing Room you might ask? Well, I'm working on S2436:


I'm making the adorable little view in the lower right corner, the one with the topstitched pockets and the waist tabs (except I'll be adding the little capped sleeves.)

Here's a sneak peek of the front. Recognize this fabric? That's right, it's the same fabric I used for BWOF 02-2009-124.

This is a cute little pattern and it's going together quite well so far. The pocket technique is very interesting. I'm sure it's nothing new or earth-shattering, maybe you've seen it before. But it's new to me and kind of cool. I like it because it reduces bulk and you don't have pocket bags flapping around inside the garment. So here, step by step, is the process for adding the pockets to S2436 (pretty much exactly as per the pattern instructions.)

First, of course, you have to mark your notches, which you can just barely see I've done by clipping the fabric and then using a fabric marker. Next, you have to stitch a line of reinforcing stitches just a hair's width inside the seam allowance starting about an inch above the top notch and ending about an inch below the bottom notch. I made sure to use a really short stitch length at the notches and lengthened it slightly between them.

Next you clip the seam allowance at the notches all the way to the stitching. You turn the part between the notches to the inside along the stitching, and then fold the raw edge under like this:

Press it well, and then from the right side, you stitch 1/4" away from the fold, squaring the stitching at the top and bottom of the opening.

This is what it looks like from the inside. I used a little bit of Fray Check on the raw edges at the top and bottom of the folded part.

Next, you apply the pocket piece. The pattern did not give any instructions for finishing the edges of the pocket, so I just serged them to keep them nice and neat.

You baste the seam allowances together above and below the pocket opening like so:

Here it is from the right side:

Now the pattern instructs you to baste the pocket 5/8" from the edge from the right side. Hmmm. How do you that when you can't see it? I decided to just pin the pocket and then baste around the very edge from the wrong side:

Here it is basted and pinned from the right side:

Here you can just see the basting stitches on the inside:

Using the basting stitches as a guide, I topstitched 1/4" away:

Then I removed the basting stitches and topstitched again 1/4" inside the first stitching:

Here it is from the outside:

And this is what it looks like from the inside:

I really like this technique. It's pretty simple to do and like I mentioned before, it keeps you from having a lot of bulk inside the dress or pocket bags flapping around. I'll have to let you know how well this holds up when the Princess wears it.

I'm off to make waist tabs! Stay tuned for a progress report soon!