Fire up the blog! The welt pocket mock-up

It's good to be back.  My mom is doing much better and I've left her in the care of her cairn terrier, Tessa.  I'm back in Maine and back on the pea coat project.  My "sew-alonger" in the UK has probably already finished the damn coat!  Anyway, today I did a mock-up of the welt pocket.  

This is the 3rd Japanese welt pocket that I've done, and I'm glad to report that it's also the easiest.  I just always like to do a "run through" of the pocket so I know where I'm headed.  There's a certain finality to welt pockets.  They either come out well, or they're a disaster that's in your face forever.  I think the practice, and finding where the potential pit falls are, is well worth the time and effort.  

I don't usually go into this much detail, but this is for the benefit of my sew-along pal.  

OK.  Here I've chalk marked the placement line on the coat and the stitching line on the welt, which has been turned and had its opening basted together.  Once the welt is flipped back into position it will hide the end of the dart that extends down from the armpit.  

Align the welt stitching line directly over the placement line and baste the welt to the body of the coat.  I always flip the welt over just to be sure I have it going in the right direction.  Put the wrong welt on the wrong side of the coat and you're doomed. 

The pocket pattern of this coat includes all the seam allowances.  Hooray!  Here I have marked the stitching line on the smaller of the 2 pocket pieces.  Align this mark directly over the stitching line on the welt and baste the pocket piece in place.  Now all of the 3 placement / stitching lines are one over the other.  Stitch along the stitching line on the pocket, being sure to start and stop your stitches right at the edge of the welt.  Take some extra care with this step. 

Now press the seam allowance of the welt and pocket back to get them out of the way.  The coat fabric must now be slashed.  This is the part that I truly hate.  The slash lines are clearly denoted on the pattern.  I approach this step with great caution.  Because the welt is angled the "points" at either end of the slash will NOT be identical.  I flip the welt back and forth to be sure the points will be covered by the welt.  Better to slash too little than too much.  After slashing the opening, press the "flaps" back and push the pocketing to the inside of the coat.  It should look like this from the outside.