Friday, December 17, 2010

Pockets XXIV - Welt Pockets With Flap/ Stand

For our very last welt pocket, let's go out with a bang!

Let's do a few silly crazy things:

  1. Make it on a slant
  2. But make the sides vertical so it's a parallelogram, not a rectangle
  3. Use striped fabric
  4. Add a flap
Oooooo............ Dangerous.

But versatile!

First, all you see on the outside is the flap



but under it - a double welt pocket!



Tuck the flap between the lips and it disappears! Magic!


Fun, huh?

But you will need to be precise, possibly to the point of mania, to work with stripes in welt pockets. Especially if your garment is also striped. Remember, this particular tutorial is an experiment in limits, but you can always play it safe and make it rectangular, horizontal, and in solid fabric.

You will need
  • The main garment fabric
  • A piece of lining for the pocket pouch
  • A piece of facing for the pocket pouch
  • Fabric for the flap
  • Strips of fabric for the lips.
  • and relevant interfacing where desired.


Step 1
Mark out the position of the pocket opening on the right side of your garment. I marked out the four corners and drew the midline. Transfer these markings to the wrong side of the garment fabric also (use pins or a marker that bleeds through). As with the other welt pockets, you will do most of the sewing on the wrong side of the garment fabric.




Step 2

Make the flap (if it's hanging down from the upper edge) or stand (if it's sticking up from the lower edge). The flap is exactly as wide as the opening. This is a slanted pocket, but the stripes are vertical, so you will need to layout the flap accordingly. The upper edge of the flap is left unfinished because it will be tucked into the welt opening later - it has a seam allowance equal to half the height of the welt opening.



Step 3

In this earlier post we made the double lips of a welt pocket from folds in the pouch lining itself. In this post, we are making them the more formal way, with strips of fabric separately attached.

Cut strips of fabric for the lips. These strips will be folded in half later. Again, the lips are slanted but the strips are vertical, so lay them out accordingly. I made mine much longer (and with randomly and strangely-shaped ends) than they need to be to give myself wiggle room to manipulate the stripes to line up.



Step 4

Fold the lip strips in half and sew close to the edge to keep them folded. Trim them so that each of them is exactly as wide as the height of the welt opening. (See picture in Step 5)
Here they are with the flap - notice the stripes are all vertical.



Step 5

Check the size of the flap and lips. First, notice the end of the lip at the side of the photo. Its width is exactly the same as the height of the welt opening (the two purple dots on each side of the flap). Second, notice that the flap is exactly the same width as the welt opening, and fits within the boundaries of the purple dots. OK, now you're ready to assemble the pocket!



Step 6

Flip the flap over and lay its right side on the right side of the garment fabric, so that its unfinished bottom edge is parallel to the upper edge of the welt opening. With appropriate seam allowance (1/4" is sufficient), sew along the upper edge of the welt opening (between the two upper purple dots) to attach the flap.

Note: if you were adding a stand instead of a flap, you'd attach it to the lower edge of the welt.


Step 7

Lay one lip, wrong side up, on the flap so that their seam allowances line up.



Step 8

Lay the second lip, wrong side up, below the first lip, so their unfinished edges are touching. If you line their stripes up on their wrong sides, their stripes will also be lined up on their right sides. It's some wonder of Mathematics, which I can't wrap my mind around, but am grateful for.



Step 9

Flip to the wrong side of the garment. Now sew two lines of stitching
:
  • the first is along the upper edge of the welt opening, which already has one line of stitching from when you attached the flap in Step 6.
  • the second is along the lower edge of the welt opening.
Begin and end exactly at the purple dots, so that each line is exactly the same length, and spans only the width of the welt opening. Backstitch where you start and end.



This is what the right side looks like:



Step 10

Position the facing piece (light blue, solid) over the right side of the pocket opening. It should be centered sideways, and have its upper edge about an inch above the upper edge of the welt opening. Pin in place.



Step 11

Flip back to the wrong side of the garment fabric and sew the same exact two lines you sewed in Step 9, but this time to attach the facing fabric piece.


This is what it looks like on the right side:



Step 12

Cut the welt open, using the standard midline-and-diagonal-corners configuration



and carefully turn everything right side out through the opening.



Step 13
Align the lips and baste in place.



This is what it looks like from the wrong side of the garment fabric i.e. from the 'inside' of the pocket pouch.



Secure the triangles at the sides as with any welt pocket, top-stitch around the welt opening if desired, attach the lining and sew up the pouch.
(See previous posts on welt pockets for more instructions on these steps).


Finished!



And that, dear friends, was the very last of our pockets!


I'll do a summary roundup post soon, with links to all the pockets - easier for bookmarking, no?






7 comments:

  1. Thank you bunches and bunches for this series. It is so informative and there is no reason not to sew pockets now. Your tutorials are very precise but so interesting also. I did not only bookmark your blog I downloaded (created pdfs) for every pocket tute. I love pockets, now I can do them, Oh Happy Days!
    Donna Rae

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  2. If I wanted to make this as a single-welt pocket rather than the double-welt, how tall should my lip be--the width of the welt opening plus seam allowance? I'm working on Burdastyle jacket and their instructions are so convoluted that it generally isn't worth the effort it takes to decipher them. Thanks for the help.

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  3. Hi Leslie - sorry it's taken me till now to reply. Sick as a dog the past few days. Yes, the height of the FINISHED, exposed lip should be the width of the opening. Given that the lip is made from a folded piece of fabric, therefore the height of your fabric lip piece should be (width of opening+ seam allowance) x2. If your welt pocket is slanted like mine, you'll need to measure the vertical width of the opening, not the real width (i.e. the one that's perpendicular to the long sides).

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  4. merci pour toutes ces belles poches !
    j'ai mis un lien sur mon blog !
    bizz

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  5. Ooh, this one was a challenge. glad I left it till last. Three edges are beautiful, all aligned perfectly, and the fourth is wonky - a stitch or two makes all the difference. Thank you! The instructions were great and I'm glad the mistake is on an advent calendar rather than that velvet coat I'm now thinking of taking up again- it's been languishing for two years, waiting to be finished.

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  6. Ooh I didn't like this one. Glad I left it till last. Three edges are perfectly aligned, a work of art, while the fourth is wonky as I overshot my lines by a stitch or two. Very glad that the mistake is on a very cute advent calendar rather than the velvet child's coat I'm now thinking of taking up again after it's been languishing unfinished for two years! Thank you- impeccable instructions... the stuff ups are all my own.

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  7. I´ve just stumbled across this while trying to find how to sew a welt pocket and basta!! Perfect instructions, superb pictures everything just brilliant. Now I can finally add that finishing touch to a dress which I really want to wear but don´t as it looks to boring.
    Thanks a million for this blog.

    ReplyDelete

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