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Transcript:

Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: And I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Caroline: Join us for today’s topic: pockets.

Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: We’re back from our break.

Helen: We’re back, back, back. It’s so good to be back. Happy spring! I mean, it’s still pretty cold here, but I’m just going to come out and say it, happy spring.

Caroline: Yes. Happy spring! This is the first episode of our Spring 2022 Season of Love to Sew. It feels so good to be recording again, Helen. Tell me how your break was. Catch me up. What’s going on? How are you?

Helen: I’m doing well, thanks. I had a good winter break. I felt like I actually got a lot of sewing done. Um, I’ve been quilting, too, since our quilting episode last season, really enjoying that. And we’ve also been doing a lot of pattern development this fall and winter, so that’s been really great.

And we had a new pattern come out. We have the Cameron Button Up pattern in our collection now. So if you hadn’t checked that out yet, please go and take a look. Sam is one of the models, and he looks so great. And then my cousin’s wife is one of the other models, and she looks amazing, too. So it just was so fun to release that pattern, and I’m really happy with how it came out.

Caroline: Congratulations!

Helen: Thank you!

Caroline: Another baby out in the world.

Helen: I’m so into this one. It’s really fun to wear. It’s, like, the perfect dart-less button up pattern. So you can make, like, that flannel layering piece or you can make the short sleeve view for spring and summer. Very, very versatile and fun to work with lots of different fabrics.

Caroline: That is awesome. I’m really excited that you have a button up in your pattern library now.

Helen: Um, hello? What about the Gilbert Top?

Caroline: Oh, that’s true. But I, it’s more of, like, a camp shirt. It’s not, like, a classic button up.

Helen: Yeah, this one has all the bells and whistles.

Caroline: I’m sorry, Gilbert. I have a Gilbert, and I love it, so don’t be mad.

Helen: And, this pattern has a pocket. So, you know, it’s very topical.

Caroline: Perfect.

Helen: And it’s also March. We have a pattern in our collection called the March Top and Dress. So I could not resist celebrating that pattern this month. So all month it’s going to be on sale, and we’re going to be doing tons of hacks and, uh, supportive, like, tutorial content and stuff like that on the blog, so if you’re interested in that pattern, check it out. I’m very excited to come back around to this one and celebrate it.

Caroline: Of course you’re doing March month.

Helen: March month!

Caroline: That makes sense. Yay. I love my March dress so much. Maybe I should just wear it every day for the month of March.

Helen: I mean, it’s almost the season for it again. It’s, like, a long, flora,l ruffle, tiered situation, right?

Caroline: Yeah, yeah. Yep. Yep.

Helen: How are you doing? Tell me about your break.

Caroline: Oh, I had a really restful break in December. It was really nice. And I’m very grateful that we had that time to, kind of, unplug, and I’ve been making big plans for 2022. Full disclosure: we are recording this in February, so it still feels a bit like a new year to me right now.

Uh, but some of my personal goals for the year are to go on a hike every month and also, to repaint my home office that I’m sitting in right now. So maybe next time we record together, I will have a newly painted office. We’ll see.

Helen: Ooh.

Caroline: Um, and my word of the year this year is grounded. We talked a little bit about this on Patreon, but I thought I would share. It’s definitely gonna be, like, a guiding force for me this year, I think.

Helen: That’s awesome. Yeah, something to come back to. Solid rock.

Caroline: Totally. Um, and at Blackbird, I mean, we have a lot of custom projects that we’ve been working on for a long time that are being released this spring/summer, starting this month, so that is really exciting. We have custom prints. We have custom developed cotton and linen yarn dye collections, one in cotton, one in linen. We have swim prints. We have new linen prints. So yeah, very exciting few months of releases ahead. A lot of these things are things that just have been, like, a long time coming, a long time in the works, so very, very fun to be able to finally show them to the world.

Helen: Ooh, I cannot wait to see the new custom print collection. I love, love, love when you guys release those kinds of things.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s a really cute, fun one. It’s a bit of a smaller collection this time, and we definitely have more up our sleeve for later in the year or early next year, so it’s exciting to keep those things coming for sure. I will say the supply chain, kicking our butt. Like a lot of businesses, uh, we’re seeing a lot of delays. So if there’s a delay with some of these things, don’t be mad, guys, but yes, we’re making it work. Uh, things are just taking a really long time to get to us, and that is understandable right now, so, you know…

Helen: Absolutely.

Caroline: That’s just the reality.

Helen: Aw, I’m sorry to hear that. That sucks.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s okay. It’s, I think, yeah, a lot of businesses are dealing with it, you know. We’re making it work, but yeah, I wanted to say having a break from the podcast, like, it’s awesome because it gives us time and space to rest and, like, focus on our businesses, and I don’t know, more self-care. more time for ourselves, but I’m really excited to be back. I really missed you, Helen.

Helen: Aw, I missed you, too. I’m so excited to be back. We have so many fun episodes planned. We always plan out the whole season as a team, with our assistant Lisa, and we have so many cool guests, so many great episodes, starting off with this episode about pockets, which, how have we not done an episode about pockets?

Caroline: Yeah, this is one of those ones that when we were planning for the season, we were like, pockets, wait, pockets, wait, did we not do pockets yet? Searching our library. Oh my gosh, we haven’t done pockets yet. So that was, kind of, a no brainer to throw in for the season cause we have to have an episode all about pockets.

Helen: I love pockets so, so much and I can’t wait to get into it, but we have some feedback to start us off here from Anna, “Hi, and thanks so much for your podcast! I am sewing a wedding dress for a friend which is pretty high stakes! It’s bias cut with silk chiffon and silk twill lining. I just wanted to share something that has helped me in the past with bias cut silk—tear away vilene. I learned about it when making the Evie Bias Skirt from Tessuti. You sew it in to stop the seam from stretching out when you’re sewing in the invisible zipper, then you gently tear it away when you’re done. It worked really well for me with the skirt, and I’m hoping it will be great for this dress, too! Thanks for all you do!”

Caroline: This is a fabulous tip. Thank you so much, Anna. Vilene is the same brand as Pellon in North America. So Vilene H200, the paper-y tearaway stabiliser is similar to Pelon 906F or 911FF. Thank you to our assistant Lisa for looking that up because that is very good information.

Um, and this is for those projects where stay stitching doesn’t do enough to stabilise the fabric like with bias cut silk chiffon. And thank you so much for writing in to us, Anna.

Helen: Yes, thank you. Okay, are you ready to get into pockets?

Caroline: Oh, I’m ready.

Helen: Did you know the hashtag #ItHasPockets has over 80,000 tags on Instagram?

Caroline: Oh, my gosh. I did not know that, but it doesn’t surprise me. People love their pockets.

Helen: It’s not all sewists. Um, you’ve probably seen some comedy sketches or, like, this is a, an ongoing thing, especially I find, with women’s wear because sometimes garments just don’t have pockets which is ridiculous, or they’re comically small, so you can’t really use them. Um, so I’m not surprised either that people are really into this hashtag and really into their pockets. Uh, it’s a fun tag to look through, too, cause there’s lots of inspiration in there.

Caroline: Yeah, and pockets that are actually spacious enough to use are, kind of, a game changer. And one of the most frustrating things about ready to wear garments designed for women is that the pockets are tiny or, like you said, non-existent, so it’s really nice to be able to carry things around hands-free and as a sewist, it’s awesome because we can customise our pockets. We can make them bigger if we want. You can add them to a garment, change their shape or size, even add extra pockets. You can even put in some secret pockets. I don’t know. Helen, what kinds of things would you keep in a secret pocket?

Helen: Obviously, snacks. Hands down.

Caroline: Naturally.

Helen: Naturally, snacks.

Caroline: My mom actually used to sew secret pockets into her and my dad’s clothes. They used to travel a lot. They both worked for the airlines, uh, in their thirties. And yeah, I remember my mom talking about, like, sewing little secret pockets to keep her passport and cash, like, inside her clothing…

Helen: Smart.

Caroline: …when travelling. Yeah.

Helen: Now, you don’t have to wear one of those awkward money belt things under your pants.

Caroline: Yeah, mhm.

Helen: Okay, so today we are going to talk about all the different kinds of pockets, how to sew them, how to add pockets to pocket-less patterns, and even how to omit pockets. Can’t relate to that last one, but we’re going to talk about it. I do sometimes, I’ll admit, skip pockets on patterns if I’m in a rush, sewing, something, like, for a vacation or for an event or something, for a dinner, and I want to finish my new dress before I get going. And I will sometimes omit pockets, especially inseam pockets cause they’re just really easy to not do.

Caroline: It’s so easy to just sew the seam.

Helen: They save so much time to not do that step, but I almost always regret it.

Caroline: Yeah, I’m totally the same. I always regret omitting pockets. You just got to take the time.

Helen: Right? And in seam pockets are easy to omit, but, like, a pain to put in retroactively.

Caroline: Mhm, I would sooner just throw a patch pocket on there.

Helen: Exactly. Patch pockets are much easier. Okay, to kick off the episode, we thought we’d do a short history of European and North American pockets. We did look for historical info on pockets around the world, but it wasn’t super easy to find. So if any of our listeners have resources for the world history of pockets, we would love to hear them. And, of course, as always with our little history bits, it’s going to be short and sweet, and we’re not experts.

Caroline: That’s a niche topic if I’ve ever heard one. Please tell me more about the world history of pockets.

Helen: Any book recommendations welcome.

Caroline: Yeah, so the first pockets in European history were little bags that were tied around the waist. This was the same for all genders. These pockets were often worn underneath loose outer garments that had slits in them, and people could reach in to get them.

Helen: And starting in the 17th century, sewn in pockets started to be attached to men’s garments only. There were pockets of all sizes in coats, jackets, waistcoats, and breeches, and women continue to tie their pockets on and access them through those slits in skirts and petticoats. Women’s pockets could be plain white linen, but there were also wonderfully decorated pockets made out of bright silks and embroidered with details, and there were even quilted pockets. We’ll put some pictures of these in the show notes. They are amazing to see. So inspiring. And these pockets were pretty big. They were usually around 10 inches wide and 17 inches long. You really got to dig in there.

Caroline: That would weigh you down, no? Big 17 inch long pocket.

Helen: You’d have to, like, twist your body sideways to get to the bottom of that.

Caroline: Yeah. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, the fashionable silhouette for women’s clothing became much slimmer, dresses had empire waists and clung closely to the body, and if you tied a pocket around your waist, the lump would be visible. So many women turned to reticules which are little purses to carry their things around. Meanwhile, sewn in pockets were still a firm feature in men’s clothing.

Helen: When skirts became full again in the 1840s, sewn in pockets became the norm for the first time. However, they never matched the usefulness and number of men’s pockets. Relatable.

Caroline: World War One had an enormous impact on Western culture. Many women worked jobs usually reserved for men, and early feminists pushed for more practicality in their clothing. Tailoring elements that were associated with men’s wear began to migrate to women’s wear including multiple sewn in pockets.

Helen: In the 20th century, styles began to change more quickly as mass production and post-World War II wealth increased. There are so many different types of pockets now, of course. We see all different kinds in all different garments. And we’re going to talk about all the different types of pockets now.

Caroline: Yeah, let’s talk about it. There are four general categories that we’re talking about. With all the variations you can make on these four pockets types, you’ll never run out of interesting pockets to try. We’ll start with the most beginner friendly and move up to the most difficult. Do you wanna start us off, Helen?

Helen: Yeah, so patch pockets, they’re pretty dang simple. It’s a flat patch of fabric that you topstitch onto a garment. The back pockets of jeans are a good example of patch pockets. The first step of making patch pockets is cutting them out. If your pattern calls for patch pockets, there will be a pattern piece for you. And since pockets are usually small, you don’t have to worry so much about cutting on the grain. This is a good time to play with stripe or directional print. For example, a gingham patch pocket looks great when cut on the bias.

Caroline: And when you’re able to, I would say, do cut the pocket on the grain. I would only cut off grain for, like, a desired design element. Another thing I’ll say is, I’ve noticed some patterns don’t grade the size of their pockets for different sizes. So it’s the same size patch pocket would be used for the lower end of the size range and the higher end of the size range. And personally, I like my pockets to be, like, proportional to my garment. So you might want to grade up your pocket if you’re noticing that that pattern piece is the same for all sizes. Like, when I’m making jeans, I usually end up grading up the back pockets several inches because I prefer the look of, like, a larger pocket on my bum.

Helen: Yes, a hundred percent. This is such a pet peeve of mine, especially cause it’s easy to grade up a rectangle, too.

Caroline: Totally. Yeah, I think it must just be a total oversight, but I think we’ve learned no. Let’s, let’s do better everyone. Grade those pockets.

Helen: Patch pockets usually have the seam allowance pressed under before you sew them on. And a great trick for pressing a patch pocket with curves or another unusual shape is to make a little template of the pattern piece out of cardstock. This is sometimes called a jig. So you trim the seam allowance off your template, so it’s just the inner size of the, or the actual finished size of the pocket, and you lay it down on top of your pocket piece. You fold the seam allowance over the cardstock, and you press right on top of both the fabric and that card stock. Don’t worry, it can handle it, and it makes everything much less fiddly, and it gives you a really neat press. And if you don’t have card stock on hand, a cereal box is a great weight to cut jigs out of.

Caroline: Patch pockets, especially jeans patch pockets, look great with some decorative topstitching on them. If you want to do this, make sure to do it before you sew the pockets on though, or else you’re just going to be topstitching your pockets onto the pants pocket. It won’t work.

Helen: It sounds obvious, but I could see making that mistake.

Caroline: Totally. Closet Core has a great free download with 33 back pocket topstitching templates. It’s a very cool resource, and you can use a paper template to mark out your design. Then, flip it over to make a mirror design on the other pocket. Just draw or print your design on paper. Cut along the stitch line. Then, use each half of the paper to guide you, as you use a marking tool to draw it out, and make sure to test your marking tool on your fabric to make sure the marks are going to come out. And when you topstitch along your marked line, go slowly. You can slow down the stitch speed on many sewing machines. You can also start and stop as much as you need. You can even use the hand crank to get you going, and leaving the needle in the down position is super helpful here as you’re, kind of, manoeuvring around.

Helen: Yeah, and be kind to yourself. It totally does not have to be perfect. This is, like, the back of your pants we’re talking about here. No, one’s going to be up close checking out your topstitching.

Caroline: And if they are, they better love it cause hey are a privileged person to be able to be that close to your butt.

Helen: Exactly. You’ll want to use a thread colour that contrasts with your fabric in order to see the beautiful topstitching on your pocket, so we really like Mara 70 thread by Gutterman for topstitching on denim because it’s thick enough to be bold, and it’s high quality. Another option is to use double thread for your top thread, so fill a bobbin with your thread colour and add it to the spindle with your top thread spool. And then you just thread your machine normally with two threads instead of one, so you get a bit of a thicker look.

Caroline: And if you don’t like the look of machine decorative top stitching, this is also a great spot for hand embroidery or embellishment, patches. There’s so many things you can do with a patch pocket to kind of zhuzh it up.

Helen: Definitely, and if you’re working with a pattern, there will usually be markings to show you where to place the patch pockets, but it’s always a good idea to test out the placement by pinning the pockets on and trying on the garment or holding that piece up to your body, and then you can be really sure that it looks the way you like. Keep re-pinning and trying it on until it looks good to you. You don’t have to go with the suggested placement, and then you can topstitch it on.

And many patterns do have you sew the pockets first because it’s easy to sew a patch pocket to one flat pattern piece, but you can often wait until the very end to sew on the pockets. The benefit of this is that you get perfectly placed pockets. The con of this is that it can be harder to sew them onto the project and pivot around corners and stuff when you’re working with a finished garment like a pair of jeans, and you’re trying to pin and so those back pockets on.

Caroline: Yeah, and make sure if it’s a lined garment that you, especially like a bagged lining, like in a jacket, that you’re sewing that patch pocket on before you put the lining in or else you’re going to have to sew over the lining…

Helen: It’s true.

Caroline: …which won’t really work. Also, once you make a pattern once and you’ve, like, decided on your preferred pocket placement, you can mark that on the pattern pieces. So, like, switch up the markings and then next time you sew that garment, if it’s a tnt, let’s say, then you can sew it first, and it’s, it’ll be a little bit easier than manoeuvring, like Helen said. Oh, and also, if you make a muslin, you can draw the pockets on just with, like, pencil to figure out placement in advance.

Helen: Oh, I love this tip. Or even a Sharpie, like, go nuts.

Caroline: Oh, yeah!

Helen: It’s super fun to draw on your thing. I love it. Okay. Our favourite topstitching tip is to use an edge stitch foot. This will get you that distance from the edge consistently and make your patch pockets look super sharp.

Caroline: So a variation on the patch pocket is a patch pocket with a flap, and you can use a button or a snap to keep that patch pocket with the flap closed. And also, the flap just, kind of, looks cool. So it’s a really nice design element that you can add if you want to mix it up with the patch pockets.

Helen: Yeah! I did this on one of our Cameron button-up packs. I added a little flap, and it looks so cute.

Caroline: Ooh, can’t wait to see!

Helen: Another variation is to add pleats or gathers into a patch pocket. This makes the pocket even roomier. Pleated pockets are often combined with flaps for cargo styles. There’s also bellows pockets, or accordion pockets, which are patch pockets that are three dimensional, so they open out like an accordion from the garment.

I think they have this kind of pocket on the Closet Core Kelly Anorak cause I’ve only sewn a bellows pocket once, and it was that project. Uh, these are another sporty pocket. They show up on cargo pants and safari jackets and things like that.

Caroline: I haven’t sewn one of those. I’ve always wanted to. It seems complicated.

Helen: Yeah, it’s not too bad. Like, you do have to get in there with your sewing machine and edge stitch along, like, a piece that’s, like, sticking out from the garment. So that part is a little tricky, but once you get it on there, it’s, it’s great. You can fit so much stuff in there.

Caroline: I know. Yeah, three dimensional-ness means just more snacks. And there’s no limit to the shapes you can use for patch pockets. Generally, they’re square or rectangular with various shapes on the bottom. Some are flat bottomed and some are rounded or angled in the bottom corners. Another common shape is a pork chop pocket. I always loved this name for a pocket, a pork chop pocket.

Helen: Me, too.

Caroline: I mean, it just makes sense, but this shape has, kind of, an angled side that your hand goes into. Think Lander Pants by True Bias. I love the pork chop pocket.

Helen: Me, too. There’s also the kangaroo pocket, like, on a hoodie or a pullover jacket. And that’s basically two pork chop pockets that have met in the middle, melded in the middle. Make one giant pork chop.

Caroline: Yes. Like a double pork chop.

Helen: A hoodie pocket, otherwise known as the double pork chop.

Caroline: But you can also do fun custom shapes. The most practical ones will be thick in the middle like hearts or circles or egg shapes. Um, if you have a part that sticks up, like the top point of a star, you could use some heavy interfacing on the pocket piece to keep it from flopping over. But it’s pretty fun to think about all the custom shapes that we could make our pockets into, like…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: …I don’t know. Strawberries or other fruit. Bananas? Would a banana pocket work?

Helen: I think it, maybe it could for, like, something quite thin. A pencil pocket, but it’s shaped like a banana.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: I mean, pockets are low stakes. So if you have an idea for a pocket, just try it on some scrap fabric and see if it works.

Caroline: So true.

Helen: One thing you’ll see with patch pockets is that they often have reinforcement in their upper corners. So these corners can get stressed and pull away from the garment. If you’re, kind of, jamming your hands into patch pockets regularly, that top corner really needs to be stable. It needs to, like, hold on to the garment so it doesn’t rip away.

So you can add bar tacks. You can topstitch small little triangles or hammer on some rivets to keep them firmly attached. At the very least, make sure you backstitch at the top of your pocket. Your choice of reinforcement method depends on your fabric and the look you’re going for. Denim and canvas would work great with rivets while flimsier fabrics might be weighed down by them.

If your machine is having a hard time sewing bar tacks or triangles through so many layers of fabric, you might benefit from a hump jumper tool, or just a bit of cardboard or a sewing needle case placed under the back of your presser foot, to help get you up onto that height of that pocket in order to, so, uh, that triangle. And with heavier fabrics, you could also literally hammer the fabrics down so that they lay flatter before you go in and try to stitch over top all of them.

Caroline: Yeah, that works really well with, like, a stiff denim or a duck canvas or something like that. Just get some anger out with a hammer.

Helen: I like the triangle method. I think I use that one the most, and it’s easier than it looks. And the triangles do not have to match or be perfect.

Caroline: Mhm, totally. In-seam pockets or another type of pocket that isn’t super difficult to sew, and they’re not difficult to add to a pattern either. In-seam pockets are a pouch that’s sewn into an existing seam, which is why they’re so easy to skip, but don’t do it.

Helen: The first step is to cut out. In-seam pockets are only barely visible from the outside, if at all. So it can be, kind of, fun to use a contrasting fabric for this. This is a perfect opportunity to use some fun scraps or to choose a fabric that is lighter weight than your main fabric which would be ideal for a pocket bag cause you won’t notice the bulk under there, and also, it won’t weigh down so much.

Caroline: Mhm, and how do you like to finish the edge of your pocket bags? Do you do it before you sew, or after?

Helen: I found this really interesting when I started sewing because a lot of garments do include in-seam pockets. And even before I started designing patterns, I was always confused about the order of operations. When do you finish the seams in order to end up with all your seams beautifully finished at the end? There’s no actual raw ones.

So there is a specific order that I like to do it in, but I think it works best if you finish the edges of the pocket bags before you even get started, so that’s out of the way and done, and finish the edges of, like, the legs or the side seam or whatever that you’re attaching it to. Basically, finish everything, and then, it’s all finished.

And then you can just sew the pocket bag. And if you want to do a final line of serging or overlocking at the very end to, like, tie the edges together, then that’s great. But I don’t like any raw edges showing, but you can do in-seam pockets with French seams. It is possible. There’s blog articles out there about it. I’ve done it. It works really well. So if you don’t have a serger or overlocker, that is totally an option.

Caroline: That’s a good point. Yeah, I was going to say, I, I, kind of, flip flop. Sometimes I do it before. Sometimes I do it after, but I’m always grateful when I finish those seam allowances before cause there’s just, like, less manoeuvring around raw edges and worrying about the serger cutting into, like, a weird angle and accidentally cutting a hole into your garment. And then, you know you’re not going to have any raw edges, so there’s that assurance there, too.

Helen: Yeah, definitely. So once you get your pockets cut out, and maybe finish the edges, your next step is to sew the pockets to your pattern pieces with the right sides together. And you do this using a slightly smaller seam allowance. You may have noticed this when you’re sewing. So your pattern should have markings for placement. And if you’re adding in-seam pockets to a pattern that doesn’t call for pockets, you can just make your own markings. Figure out where you want them to sit on your body. Just try to keep in mind the length of your arms so that you can easily reach into them and make sure that you’re marking the same place on the front and back pieces of your garment.

I’ve totally sewn in the in-seam pockets too low, and it sucks because you put in all this effort and you finish the garment and you’re like, I didn’t skip the pockets. Yay me. And then you reach down into your pocket and, like, yeah. Yeah. You have to tilt your body to get down there. It’s not fun.

Caroline: This is a measure twice, sew once situation.

Helen: Yes.

Caroline: After you’ve sewn the pocket pieces to the garment, it’s time to understitch. Don’t skip this step. It might be tempting to do so, but it’s going to keep the pocket fabric from turning out to the outside of your garment, and you can press the seam allowance towards the pocket and understitch on the pocket side next to the seam. It just creates, like, a really clean, professional finish. I find it so satisfying to, like, press that edge stitching and then, know it’s going to disappear into the pocket, but, like, I know it’s there, and it gives me a lot of comfort.

Helen: Yes, it really is a beautiful finish. And finally, when you sew your front and back pieces together, you will sew the side seam, and then you’re going to do a little pivot, go around the pocket shape, and then finish the side seam underneath the pocket. This will give you a pocket bag that seems to disappear into the side seam, an in-seam pocket.

Caroline: Oh, it makes so much sense now. And the great thing about in-seam pockets is that if you have a favourite pocket pattern that, like, fits your hand perfectly, you can use it over and over, and you’ll always have pockets of your favourite size and shape. I like to keep my favourite in-seam pocket pattern piece, like, on my bulletin board in my sewing room…

Helen: So smart.

Caroline: …so it’s always accessible, and I can always just pull it out and use it if there’s, like, a weird shaped or a really small pocket or something.

Helen: Genius. Do you know what pattern it’s from?

Caroline: Honestly, no cause it’s, like, a trace version of an old pattern. I think it might be a Sewaholic one though.

Helen: Oh, yeah.

Caroline: Yeah. Our friend Tasia used to always make really large, perfect pockets, I thought.

Helen: I like my in-seam pockets to be quite large. I want to be able to, like, spread my whole hand open in there.

Caroline: Cause, like, it’s super awkward when you have to, like, squish up your hand to, like, get it into the pocket, and then, you can’t casually put your hands into your pockets when you’re standing around awkwardly.

Helen: Yeah, if you’re standing around awkwardly, then you’re going to be fidgeting. So you need, like, enough room to move your hands around it.

Caroline: Mhm, mhm.

Helen: Yeah, okay. And as you can imagine, in-seam pockets are really easy to add to garments, too. Because basically anywhere where there’s a seam, you could potentially put a pocket. You might not want to put one in every seam, but you can, right? They’re in-seam pockets. So you can pretty much put them anywhere where there’s a seam, so you can really get creative, but they can sometimes get a little unruly since they’re just hanging out on the inside of the garment.

So for a variation that stays firmly in place, you can topstitch the pocket to the front of the garment. Um, and this can look really cool as a design detail, especially in a fabric like linen. I think it can add a really nice detail to the outside of the garment.

Caroline: Yeah, and if your garment has a waist seam, you can also modify your in-seam pocket to be anchored to the waist seam which can be a really cool touch that just, like, keeps it in place facing the front. I’ve also seen pockets anchored to each other or into a seam with, like, a thread chain to keep them sitting in the right direction. So if you’ve forgotten to modify that pocket to, like, go into your waistband, you can make a little thread chain and practice that hand sewing technique and just attach your pockets together.

Helen: Ooh, totally. That’s a great idea. Okay. We’re onto our third type of pocket. We’ve done patch. We’ve done in-seam. Next, there are slash pockets. The opening of a slash pocket slashes from the waistband to the side seam typically. So most jeans have a style of slash pocket in the front.

Caroline: I don’t know why. I feel like slash pockets are, kind of, aggressive.

Helen: Like, an aggressive name?

Caroline: Yeah, as a result, they’re an aggressive pocket. Slash pocket!

Helen: Call them angled pockets or I don’t know. There’s probably different names for it. Cause it seems like you could call it lots of different things.

Caroline: Totally. But they are more stable than in-seam pockets. Slash pockets are anchored at the waistband and at the side seam, whereas inseam pockets are usually only anchored at the side seam. So you’re getting a little bit more, like, stability and structure in that pocket construction.

Helen: Mhm, and you can use that same fabric as your garment to make a slash pocket. This has the benefit of fewer pattern pieces and fabrics, but you can also use a different fabric for the bag of the pocket that will not be visible on the outside. This requires more pattern pieces cause you’ll have to piece the part of the pocket that shows up at the garment hip. Some patterns have this facing already drafted, or you could draft your own.

However, using a different fabric for the bag can be a good thing cause you could use a more tightly woven fabric for the pocket bag, and it will be sturdier and less likely to develop holes. You could also use a more lightweight fabric than your garment fabric to reduce bulk. Think, like, in the jeans pockets is usually not denim, right? It’s usually just white cotton.

Caroline: Yeah, so the point is that, like, if your pattern and fabric isn’t, like, a perfect match with the pocket pieces, you can adjust them so that you have, like, a lighter weight pocket or more stable pocket, depending on your needs. It makes a lot of sense.

And sewing slash pockets isn’t difficult, but it’s, kind of, hard to explain over a podcast, as a lot of things are. It’s a lot like sewing in-seam pockets with some added basting and piecing. Seamwork has a great article called “Design Your Own In-Seam Pockets” which walks you through drafting and sewing a few variations. And on the Helen’s Closet blog, there’s a Winslow Culottes hack to add slash pockets, so we’ll link both of those in the show notes so you can have the visual.

Helen: Yes, and you can make variations on slash pockets by changing the angle and shape of the slash. In that Seamwork article we just mentioned, they demonstrate slash pockets with a really cute little notch in them. You can do a curved slash pocket and a Western slash pocket with a little triangle of fabric that turns over to show the pocket facing fabric. You can really get creative here, but you can also just play with whether or not it’s straight or curved, how curved it is. There’s tons of variation. And, of course, you can also customise the bag shape. Like, with many other pocket designs, they don’t always have deep bags. So if you want a big bag, you get one.

Caroline: You get that bag. Go out there and get it.

Helen: And just like with in-seam pockets, slash pockets call for understitching, and we still don’t want you to skip it. This is going to keep the lines of your pockets crisp even while you move around throughout the day. And because you’re cutting fabric on the bias or on an angle from the grainline, this area is prone to stretching. So you can reinforce the angle on your slash pockets with a bit of interfacing. You could even add some,stay tape in there if you want it to be real sturdy. And this will prevent your pocket from gaping open.

Caroline: Yeah. Slash pockets are usually reinforced at the point where one end of the slash meets the waistband and at the point where the other end of the slash meets the side seam. Just like with patch pockets, you can sew small triangles. Um, you can hav-,hammer in rivets, or you can stitch some bar tacks.

I’ll also mention some slash pockets will have a bit of ease drafted into the slash to accommodate for our hands reaching in. So that might depend on the fit of the garment. If you’re working with really, like, a form fitting or tighter fitting garment, then you need that room to be able to fit your hand in. So the drafting will, kind of, accommodate for that. And you can even add more ease to give the pocket, like, a droopy look which can be, kind of, a cool design detail. Um, so I thought I’d just throw in that little bit of knowledge that I have from design school.

Helen: Very cool. Okay. We mentioned at the top that most jeans have slash pockets in the front. You might not think of jeans pockets as slash pockets because of the shape, but jeans pockets are usually more rounded or scooped, but they are constructed the same as slash pockets. They just require a bit more clipping into those curves, and they often have a facing and a coin pocket in the mix, too. These are not as hard to construct as they look. You can totally sew a jeans pocket if you ever sewn a straight slash pocket.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing.

Helen: I also wanted to note that we use slash pockets on our Arden Pants. And one thing we get a lot of questions about is how we adjust the rise on these pants without messing up the pocket shape. Because when you adjust the rise, you would cut across the pattern perpendicular to the grainline around the crotch area, and often, that intersects with where the pockets sit. So what happens when you start to make changes and then your pocket angle gets all out of whack? So we do have a post about how to do this on the blog, and you can use it for most pants with slash pockets. It’s super handy.

And another thing we got a lot of questions about is how to grade between sizes with slash pockets. Because again, you get up to that high hip area and all of a sudden there’s an angle on the pattern piece. And you’re like, what do I do now? So it throws people off, so we have a blog post about that, too. And I just wanted to mention that.

Caroline: Oh, thanks. That’s awesome. Great resource. Okay, next type of pocket is the dreaded welt pocket.

Helen: Wow.

Caroline: And maybe I’m projecting my own personal feelings on that one.

Helen: I mean, maybe, just, like, a little bit.

Caroline: But the only part of a welt pocket that shows on the outside of the garment is, like, that horizontal band of fabric. Or you might be making a double welt pocket which would just give you two horizontal bands, and the pocket bag hangs on the inside of the garment. So you often see pockets like these on blazers, vests, on the back of dressier pants, that kind of thing.

Helen: And sometimes these garments have a lining that hides that pocket bag, um, so you won’t even see that, like, in a nice blazer, or sometimes the pocket bag is just loosey goosey on the inside, like, on a jean jacket. And it’s true that only those little bars show, but they’re not always horizontal because you can actually angle a welt pocket any which way. Vertical, uh, diagonal, horizontal.

Caroline: Any direction you want.

Helen: Any direction. Any size, any direction. Very versatile.

Caroline: Yes, a welt is just another name for abandoned fabric. And in welt pockets, the band finishes the raw edges of the pocket opening and makes the opening stronger by reinforcing it. I’ll speak for myself, also, maybe for some of you, that I think that we often find welt pockets a bit scary, as sewists, because you have to cut a slit into your fabric to make them. And a lot of the time, this is further down in the process.

You’ve already cut out your garment. You’ve maybe done some interfacing and other work on the garment, and then you have to cut into it, but don’t be scared. Let’s all not be scared together. Uh, we definitely recommend trying your first welt pocket on scrap fabric to get the hang of it. Before you cut into your precious wool coating, for example, and it’s, kind of, like, the first pancake in a batch, the first welt pocket you ever do, probably won’t turn out perfect. It’s your learning pocket, and hopefully, that won’t happen every time you have to make a welt pocket like every time I make pancakes. First pancake is always bad.

But I wanted to mention, I still have my welt pocket samples from design school somewhere in my sewing room, and it was one of the first, like, advanced sewing techniques we learned in school. And I remember being, like, terrified, even though it was on a sample, you know? Cause your teachers’ watching you over your shoulder, and I just recommend doing a sample if it’s your first time and just, you know, it’s, it’s not only great for practice, but it’s, kind of, nice to keep it as a reference for the next time that you make a welt pocket. So you can, kind of, look back and look at the guts and see exactly how you did it. And, um, yeah, so definitely practice.

Helen: Always a good idea to practice those more technical sewing things. I’ve only sewn welt pockets a few times, and I definitely shy away from them when it comes to choosing pocket styles, even for our patterns, I don’t think we’ve included one. Oh, we have one in the Dogwood Apron actually. It’s a, it’s a good one. You add it to, like, a smaller project, like a bag or something. I think that’s a great idea.

But it is one of those techniques that when you finish it, you feel like a superhero because it feels very magical when it’s all done. It looks so neat and tidy and cool. And you’re like, I did that. Like, I did that, so cool.

Caroline: It’s just so hard to make that, that first cut.

Helen: I know the first cut is the deepest.

Caroline: First cut is the deepest. Okay. Let’s talk about the basic steps of sewing a welt pocket. So the first thing you’re going to do is mark out the placement on your garment and sew the welt to your garment, cutting the pocket opening, and then turn the welt through, and then you’re going to finish the pocket on the garment’s wrong side. This kind of pocket is definitely one that’s difficult to describe. So we’re going to recommend Jennifer’s tutorial “How to Make Welt Pockets with No Hand Sewing” on the Workroom Social blog. There are tons of pictures, and we’ll link it up in the show notes for you.

Helen: One tip we have for this is to shorten your stitch length as you sew around that rectangle before you cut it open. This helps you to get nice stable corners and to prevent your fabric from.

Caroline: A double welt pocket uses the same process as a single welt pocket, but you have two welts showing on the outside instead of one. The article “Add Polish to your Wardrobe with a Double Welt Pocket” by Andrea Brown on Craftsy is a really great resource.

Helen: Even though very little shows on the outside of a welt pocket, we still recommend trying out the placement. You could cut a strip of paper the size of the finished welt and, like, pin it on your garment. Or you could even stick a strip of masking tape on there to get an idea of where that welt pocket’s going to sit. After a certain point in the making process, welt pockets are not reversible. It is best to double check that you like the placement before you cut that pocket opening.

Caroline: Yeah, there are a few unpicking opportunities with a welt pocket. And you can combine welt pockets with a pocket flat, so all that will be visible on the outside will be the pocket flap, and this is a really cool and unique look. I love to see it on fancy coats. I’ve also seen double welt pockets with a flap. So you do see the welt at the top and then a flap and then there’s a welt below as well. Um, I’ve seen them in blazers before.

Helen: Whoa. Very cool. Welt pockets can be closed with a little button. One option is to add a flap that buttons onto the outside of the garment, like we mentioned before. Another option is to sew the buttonhole through the garment fabric and pocket facing and sew the button inside the pocket bag. From the outside, you’ll see a little horizontal welt with a button centred underneath it, a very classic look.

Caroline: And you can close your welt pockets with a zipper. Oh my gosh. Zippers and welts. I’m terrified. No, these pock-, these pockets can look pretty sporty with a colourful, like, chunky zipper or very cool with a metal zipper. Valerie from Insatiable Need has a great tutorial for these called “Perfect Zippers: Making a Welt Zipper Pocket.”

Helen: Very cool. Yeah. I could picture it on, like, a cool, uh, moto jacket.

Caroline: Mhm, yeah. And in terms of fabric, uh, we wouldn’t recommend a welt pocket in, like, a super delicate shifty or super lightweight fabric because the corners are clipped really close to the stitch line. And those corners, when you’re putting your hands in and out of the pockets, are going to withstand some stress. So holes and fraying could happen more easily on a lightweight or delicate textile. If you absolutely have to use a lightweight or delicate fabric, I would interface the crud out of it.

Helen: Yes. Okay. Those are the four main types of pockets; patch pockets, in-seam pockets, slash pockets, and welt pockets. We’ve gone over a few variations for each already, but we also wanted to talk about combining pocket types. So, for example, let’s say you’re making a jacket and you want the look of patch pockets, but you prefer the functionality of a zippered welt pocket. You can put patch pockets on top of a welt pocket and cover that zipper with a flap. Best of both worlds.

Caroline: Whoa.

Helen: Whoa.

Caroline: That’s a lot of pocket. Yes. And a coin pocket is that little hip pocket that you can find on a lot of jeans. It’s only big enough to hold a little bit of folded up money or coins. I always thought coin pockets were kind of funny, but they’re a patch pocket inside of a slash pocket.

And if you want to make one for yourself and you don’t have a pattern piece, you can position a small patch pocket at the side seam edge of your pocket bag. And your pocket bag should be fashion fabric on the top and pocket fabric on the bottom. And make sure your patch pocket sticks up onto the fashion fabric part. And then sew it on and continue sewing your slash pocket. And you can finish it with bar tacks or rivets, and then you’re done.

Helen: Very cool. I love the idea of adding coin pockets just because they’re fun to sew. I never use them though.

Caroline: Yeah. You don’t put your little toonie in there.

Helen: No, I don’t put my toonies or my loonies in there. We’re showing our Canadian-ness. Alright, hidden pockets I think are so fun, and they can be some of the most practical, too. Hidden pockets can be a safe place to keep important things. Usually they’re either patch pockets or welt pockets that are sewn into the lining of a garment.

You can also sew small hidden pockets into the inside of wide waistbands. There’s a post on Sewing with Sarah about putting a zipper pocket into the back of leggings waistbands. We’ll link that in the show notes, but I love having a safe place to put my phone, or, you know, in a going out outfit, maybe a little hidden pocket to put your credit card, you know? Then you don’t need to have a big purse.

Caroline: This is making me think of, uh, Shea has a jacket with pockets that ha-, have holes. The pockets have holes in them. So he has accidental secret pockets in his jacket where he often will find random things like change and Kleenexes, like, in the lining of the jacket.

And sometimes it, like, migrates to the back and I’m like, Shea, what is in your jacket? And he has to, like, reach in through the hole in the pocket and find it. And then like, that could be useful sometime, maybe.

Helen: If it’s loonies and toonies, thenI’m all in.

Caroline: Okay, and when you’re thinking about what kind of pocket to put in your next project, because naturally you’ll be thinking about that now after this episode, there are some things you might want to consider. So think about: how do you want the garment to hang? If you have a lightweight shift dress that hangs from your shoulders, putting a heavy phone in your pocket could pull your dress to one side so that it, kind of, looks lopsided.

On the other hand, if you have a fit and flare dress where the skirt hangs from your waist, and it’s, kind of, anchored at the waist, putting a phone in the pocket won’t affect the look as much. This totally happens to me. Like, I will put heavy things in my pockets on big, kind of, loose dresses. And then I end up with, like, a lopsided, really heavy side to my dress, and I, kind of, just go with it, but yeah…

Helen: I end up walking around with my hand in my pocket, like, holding my phone, so it doesn’t, like, weigh my…

Caroline: Which defeats the purpose of the pocket.

Helen: I know. This is why we have to consider these things. Maybe we should go back to the slit system where you reach in and you tie the pocket around your waist.

Caroline: Then you just have a slit. I love that.

Helen: The other thing to think about is: do you want your pocket bag fabric facing right side in or right side out? If you have the fabric facing right side in, you’re going to see that cute fabric that you chose when you peek into your pockets while you’re wearing the garment, or if you turn out your pockets to show everyone how broke you are. Everybody will see.

Caroline: Something we do often around here.

Helen: Sorry, I don’t. But if you have the facing right side out, you’ll see it when you’re putting on your jeans or taking them off. There’s no right answer here. It all depends on what you like best. So don’t sweat it if you accidentally sew it the wrong way around. There isn’t really a wrong or right way to do it.

Caroline: Yeah, totally. And it’s also important to think what you’re going to use the pockets for. Do you fill your pockets with heavy keys and a big phone like I do? Maybe you like to carry snacks and a paperback at all times. Will your pockets fit everything you need? If not, you can enlarge the pocket bag.

Helen: Do you have a habit of pushing your hands into your pockets and creating holes because you have beautifully manicured pointy nails? Use a tightly woven fabric for the pocket bags if this is the case for you and reinforce this area with two lines of stitching so that you don’t end up with stuff in the back of your coat, like Shea.

Caroline: Yes, and this is a great place to use some of those fun prints and like cotton lawn or quilting cotton as well. And do you end up losing important things when they fall out of your pockets? You can alter your pattern to deepen the pocket bag or add a closure like a button or a zipper. This is also a pet peeve of mine. Like, the small pockets lead to not only my hand not being comfortable, but when I sit down things just, sort of, like, fall out.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: And that feels like it defeats the purpose too, right?

Helen: Absolutely. I mean, the important thing to remember is that you are in charge here. If you’re not happy with the pockets on a pattern, you have the power to alter your pockets so that they fit your life, and you also get the look you want. There’s so many fun things you can do.

Caroline: Speaking of power… Interfacing is a powerful part of pocket sewing. This is how you’re going to keep pockets from collapsing or gaping, and you can interface along the top of a patch pocket or along the opening of a slash pocket. You can interface an entire patch pocket so that it doesn’t fold up and lose its shape. Pretty much all welt pockets call for a rectangle of interfacing over where the opening of the pocket will be. Even if your pattern doesn’t call for pocket interfacing, you might want to add some if you’re working with a light or medium weight fabric. And remember we have an episode all about interfacing. It’s Episode 78 called Interfacing 101, so check that out if you want more interfacing tips.

Helen: Yeah, and if you’re sewing with a printed fabric, do you want your pockets to match the pattern or to stand out from it? Pattern matching can be challenging, but also really cool when it’s finished. We have a whole episode on pattern matching that we’ll link in the show notes. And you can pattern match patch pockets by tracing the pocket pattern onto tracing paper, place the traced pocket pattern onto the garment shell piece, match where the placement should be, and then take a pencil and draw out the pattern or at least enough of it so you can tell which part of the pattern it is. And then you can use that pattern piece to cut out the correct area of your fabric.

And when you press and finish the patch pocket, you’ll be ready to topstitch it to the garment. Use lots of pins so everything will be really matched up well and then topstitch, and you might find a walking foot also called an even feed foot, helpful in this case. It will make sure that the pocket fabric won’t shift out of place as you sew it onto the garment shell so you get the really clean match. And one thing that I’ve done in the past on projects is to pattern match the pocket, like, really do a good job and then use a contrasting thread so that people can still tell it’s there because there is something nice about being able to see that there is a pocket, but then also being impressed by the pattern matching.

Caroline: I was totally going to bring this up because I remember you made a dress, I want to say, with the patch pocket perfectly, perfectly matched, might I say, Helen, and topstitched with the contrast. And it’s, kind of, your way of being, like, this is a flex. I have matched my pattern perfectly, but I need you to know that I did it, right?

Helen: Right? Look at it.

Caroline: I still want you to look. It shouldn’t be that invisible.

Helen: Total flex. A lot of hard work goes into that.

Caroline: And pattern highlighting can also look great on pockets. Stripes look really cool turned, like, 90 degrees so that they’re perpendicular to the shell fabric. You can do this for cuffs, yokes, and plackets, too. Plaids, ginghams and stripes look great with pockets cut on the bias, as well. So you can, kind of, do a lot playing with pattern direction if you want that to be a design feature.

Helen: Totally, and you can consider using a completely different fabric for pockets. If they are patch pockets, you’ll want to stay within the same general weight and drape category. But pocket bags don’t have to be the same weight and drape. You can use a light cotton lawn for the pocket bags of heavyweight overalls, and that will work really well cause again, it will just reduce that bulk. I like the idea of, like, a solid colored button up shirt with, like, a floral patch pocket or something like that, you know?

Caroline: Yeah, totally. That’d be so cute and also, like, a great way to use up your scraps or…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: …do, like, a fun, I don’t know, patchy patchwork garment with, like, con-. I feel like you’ve probably done that, right?

Helen: It sounds like something I would do. I’ll add it to the list.

Caroline: Okay, and pockets can definitely go on your knit garments, too. Patch pockets look great on t-shirts. In-seam pockets are great on sweatpants. Kangaroo pockets are a must on hoodies. And in ready to wear, patch pockets are usually cover stitched. A cover stitch machine is a specialised sewing machine that makes a single or double line of stitching on the outside of the garment, and then on the inside, the threads are looped so the seam can stretch.

And if you don’t have a cover stitch machine, you still have options. You can mimic a cover stitch with a twin needle in your regular. The most common issue with using a twin needle is the fabric tunnelling between the lines of stitching. So this can be fixed by adjusting the bobbin tension and make sure you use a ballpoint twin needle for knit fabrics because you can find twin needles for wovens as well.

You can also use a triple stretch stitch, usually represented by an image of three rows of stitches next to each other on sewing machines. This looks like a heavier straight stitch, but it stretches. You can also use zigzag. It won’t look exactly like ready to wear, but it can still look great. If you have a really stable knit, you may be able to get away with using just a regular straight stitch, too, especially for a small patch pocket on a loose knit garment. So you’ve got options with knits. You can do it a lot of ways.

Helen: Definitely, and I am a huge fan of double-sided wash away tape for knit patch pockets.

Caroline: Oh, yeah.

Helen: It’s so handy. You just get some Wonder Tape. You just slap that pocket on there, and then you can do things like a twin needle and not get tunnelling because there’s stabilising under there. You don’t get waves. I mean, Wonder Tape is your friend.

Caroline: Yep. Love Wonder Tape.

Helen: Okay. Let’s talk about pattern hacks. Hashtag #YouCanHackItt. Adding pockets is almost always a good idea, in my opinion. You can add pockets to a pocket-less pattern, or you can add additional pockets to a pattern that already has them. The more, the better we say.

Caroline: Adding patch pockets is pretty simple to draft your own. You can just draw out the shape and size you like and pin them onto your garment to see if you like the placement. And then trace out that shape and add seam allowances around the sides and bottom. For the opening, add length to allow for a hem. Press the seam allowance in towards the centre of the pocket, press the hem under an edge, stitch it down, and then you’re going to pin the pocket on. Double-check that placement and topstitch, and then that’s it.

If you’re using an unusual shape, you might want to draft a facing to finish the opening edge instead of hemming it. And you might also want to interface the opening if you’re using a light or medium weight fabrics, and I’ll also say it might feel daunting to just draft a pocket from scratch if you’ve never done it before, or you’re maybe not sure of, like, the scale or the shape that you want. So Pinterest is your friend here. Also, using patch pocket pattern pieces. That’s a tongue twister. Patch pocket pattern pieces from other patterns that you have in your stash, like, use those and just use them on the garment that you’re working on.

It’s totally okay.

Helen: Totally. I like to cut my pockets bigger, too, when I’m experimenting with patch pockets cause you can always trim down, but you can’t add back.

Caroline: So true.

Helen: Make ‘em big to start and then pin them on, and then you’ll find that shape and size eventually.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Adding in-seam pockets is easy, too. We already went over this when we talked all about the style of pocket, but there’s one variation we didn’t mention yet. You can add a fashion seam to your garment and put an inseam pocket there. A fashion seam isn’t functional. It’s there for looks only. It doesn’t have any shaping or anything in it. You can make these by cutting your pattern open where you want to add a seam, adding some seam allowance there, and then you have two pattern pieces, and inside of that seam is where you can put an in-seam pocket.

So I think that Grainline Studio where’s the crown, when it comes to hiding pockets in cool places, especially in-seam pockets. The Grainline Studio Farrow Dress is a great example of this kind of pocket. It’s a trapeze style dress that has two fashion seams, kind of, coming up from the side at the hips to meet in the centre, and it creates this triangle effect. And then in these seams are in-seam pockets that hang down, and it’s such a cool, kind of, sixties way of doing it a shift dress.

Caroline: Adding slash pockets to a pocket-less pattern, or doing slash pockets instead of in-seam pockets isn’t too bad. We already talked about this one, too. And you don’t need to alter your pattern at all to add a welt pocket. You can use a welt pocket pattern you already like, and you can follow a tutorial like the ones we talked about before. Just don’t forget to interface over the place where the pocket opening will be before you do anything else.

Helen: And there’s another option that almost doesn’t even belong in this episode, but we have to talk about. This is to omit or skip the pockets. And, of course, there are plenty of reasons that you might want to skip pockets. We do it, too. It’s all up to you. You are the boss of your own wardrobe. And skipping patch pockets is the easiest to do. You just skip the steps where you’re asked to cut them out and stitch them on.

Caroline: Yeah, and in-seam pockets are also easy to skip as we’ve already mentioned, but don’t do it. Just sewing a seam up all the way and skip the steps for inserting the pockets. Super easy.

Helen: Skipping slash pockets might take a little bit of adjusting to the pattern. You will need your front pattern piece and the pattern piece for the pocket. Use any notches or markings to line those pieces up at the side seam and the waist seam. And then you can either take the pieces together to make one pattern piece or trace out that corner that you’re missing. And after that, you just skip the steps for making the pockets.

Caroline: Yeah, and welt pockets are also really easy to skip. Just skip the steps for inserting the pockets, and you’ll be left with an intact piece of fabric.

Helen: And you don’t have to cut a hole.

Caroline: Okay, before we go, we wanted to recommend a few patterns with great pockets. The pocket standouts of the episode. If you have any to add to the list, don’t hesitate to let us know. We love pockets clearly, and we want to see what you have to recommend. So the most iconic pockets are probably the ones on classic five pocket jeans. That’s two curved slash pockets on the front, two patch back pockets, and a coin pocket. For jeans patterns, we love the Morgan Jeans by Closet Core and the Dawn Jeans by Megan Nielsen. And as we mentioned, if you want to add a coin pocket to a pattern if it doesn’t have one, you can follow our instructions above. Uh, also Helen, do you want to maybe give a little sneaky peak of one of your oncoming patterns here? I don’t know, maybe you want to.

Helen: I’m so excited. I’ve been wanting to do a jeans pattern since I started my business pretty much, but it is a bit daunting to come up with a jeans pattern that I’m really excited about. So we’ve been working on it for a while and I am thrilled with the results so far. I’m excited to share more. I don’t have a release date just yet, but yes, there will be Helen’s Closet jeans in 2022.

Caroline: I am so excited for this one.

Helen: Thanks!

Caroline: I mean, we can always use another jeans pattern out in the world.

Helen: Absolutely.

Caroline: And yours are pretty dang cute, so I’m excited to make them.

Helen: Aw, thanks.

Caroline: Okay. And the Thayer Jacket by Grainline Studio is a workwear jacket with some really amazing pockets. The pockets over the chest are in-seam that start just under the yoke, and the pockets over the belly are patch pockets with a curve to them, so that it’s easier to put your hands in. And the topstitching goes around the pockets in a really cool and unique way in this pattern, so check it out.

Helen: Yeah, I do love when jacket patterns have, like, a little bit of an angle to the pockets because it’s hard to stick your hands vertically down into patch pockets comfortably, and you end up putting a lot of stress on the pockets, too. I agree the pockets on this pattern are maybe the coolest ever.

Caroline: They’re pretty cool. Yeah, I appreciate the thought that went into them for sure.

Helen: Yes the Peppermint Pocket Skirt, I mean, it’s got the word pocket in it, designed by Tara Vigo from Paper Theory is a sewing community favourite. The elastic waistband makes it comfy, and the oversized panel pockets make it very cool.

Caroline: The Arenite Pants by Sew Liberated have really unique pockets. They’re side panel pockets that curve low at the hip point and they’re, kind of, like, slash pockets, but the slash goes all the way to the back of the pants and the pockets slouch out to make that unique, kind of, slouchy shape.

Helen: Yes, and you can probably tell that I really love pockets. And there’s a few Helen’s Closet Patterns that have some pretty cool pockets. The York Pinafore has two options. These big curved patch pockets, about as big as you can get, maybe the biggest pocket on the market, I might even say.

Caroline: That’s a bold claim: the biggest pocket on the market.

Helen: They’re huge. Like, they’re so fun though. You can fit so much stuff in them. And people have been posting for years since that pattern’s come out, on Instagram, all of the fun things that they put in their York Pinafore pockets, like, cause you literally can put, like, a book in there. It’s a very fun and distinctive look.

And our apron patterns also have so many pockets. The Dogwood has lots of utility pockets and a hidden welt pocket. The Sam Apron, which is free, has lots of pockets, and they look amazing with top stitching and bar tacks. Yanta Overalls got lots of pockets. We are pocket-friendly, and we do not release patterns that don’t have pockets.

Caroline: Another bold claim. I love it. Okay. But listeners, we’d love to hear about your favourite patterns with iconic pockets. Let us know via email, comment, or DM. We can never have enough pockets. We love pockets. I don’t know what else there is to say.

Helen: Thank you for listening. Thank you for coming back for our spring season. Now you’re empowered to make all the pockets you want. Pocket power forever. Hey, what’s your favourite type of pocket, Caroline.

Caroline: Oh, you know, I love an easy win. It’s definitely the patch.

Helen: Yeah, the patch. It’s the patch for me, too. So versatile, too, you know, and you can do all these fun shapes. Yeah, I’m into it.

Caroline: Yeah, I’m Team Patch. Pocket power forever.

Helen: I love that.

Caroline: Bye everyone!

Helen: Bye!

Caroline: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Caroline, at BlackbirdFabrics.com and Helen at HelensClosetPatterns.com! We’re recording in beautiful, I guess it’s pretty beautiful, British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: Go to lovetosewpodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. If you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at hello@LoveToSewPodcast.com.

Caroline: And if you love Love to Sew and want more Love to Sew, you can sign up for our Patreon! For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pics. For $10 a month, you get all that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. So please, go to patreon.com/LoveToSew, if you can, for more info.

Helen: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you so much for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.

Caroline: Bye.

Helen: Buh-bye.

Caroline: Slash pocket!

Helen: Slash pocket!

Caroline: Slash pocket! In-seam pocket!

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