Finishing up the welt pockets.

As planned, I completed the welt pockets this morning.  A couple cups of coffee and I was ready to go.  I find it much easier to work on difficult things when I'm fresh.  

Here is the pocket all basted into place.  I find the little extra time this takes is well worth it.  

With everything securely basted in position, it's very easy to flip the work over and edgestitch the fold onto the pocketing below.  I can't imagine trying to do this with pins. 

The pocket bags are then stitched together.  Easy.  

The only step remaining is to secure the edges of the welt.  This is the technique used by Roberto Cabrera in his tailoring tome.  The welt edges are secured from behind using small diagonal stitches.  You will be able to feel the welt edge through the fabric.  Your stitches will be invisible from the front.  I stitched back and forth along the edge of the welt twice to really secure it well. 

Let's get this party started!

All the pattern pieces are cut out so I'm ready to start.  I like to get the hardest parts out of the way first.  For most coats that means the fronts, and that's the case for this pea coat.  My plan is to do them over two days.  Even though I've walked myself through the pockets, it will take a lot of focus and attention to detail.  One welt pocket a day is enough for me.  

I interfaced the welts with hair canvas cut on the cross grain (otherwise it's impossible to fold).  The seam allowances have been cut off and the canvas is basted into place.  I also marked the wrong sides of my fabric with a chalk X immediately after removing the pattern.  With fabric like this it gets almost impossible to tell one side from another.  Sometimes it doesn't seem to matter.  But I noticed while cutting out this "Not so much wool" wool, that the nap on one side is brushed very unevenly.  I never noticed this in the store.  Probably another reason it was in a pile at the back of the store!  

Here are my finished welts.  I've topstitched them all around.  For my sew-alonger, this will be much neater and easier than the craziness shown on Pg. 62.  Rather than topstitch the completed welts into place I will handstitch them from the back side with diagonal stitches.  

The front darts are stitched, cut open and then pressed open.  A 1" wide piece of lightweight fusible interfacing is placed where the pocket will be slashed open.  This is represented by a shaded rectangle on the pattern sheet.  

I then proceed to make the pocket, ever thankful that I took the time to make a muslin mock-up.  

Here I've chalked marked the slash marks, checked and re-checked them to be sure the welt flap will cover them when flipped back into place.  

Voila, the finished pocket lined with cotton flannel!  I'm going to switch gears and work on something less intensive, like making the sleeves.  The other pocket can wait till tomorrow morning.  There's less chance of screwing it up then.  

Completing the welt pocket

Moving right along.  

Now we're working on the inside of the coat.  Take the larger pocket piece and align it with the other piece of pocketing.  While doing this,  smooth the pocketing and the coat fabric flat.  Pin the pocket bags together, but BASTE the the upper pocketing to the coat fabric above the welt opening.  This will hold the pocketing in place for the next step.  I'm a "baste-a-holic" so I would probably baste the entire pocket assembly to the coat front.  

Now from the outside of the coat, edge stitch along the fold where the fabric was slashed and pressed back.  The basting will help hold all this together and keep things flat.  This will secure the pocketing at the opening of the pocket.  

Now stitch around the pocket bags to complete the inside.  

The welts are then pressed back into position and stitched down.  I hope this has been helpful.  I know I'll be more confident when it comes to working on the real coat.  

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.  

Saying NO to Japanese pockets

Against all your wise advice, I've cut out the coat and started construction.  BTW here's a photo of the design.  Black flannel... Yawn.  Maybe now you can see why a contrasting collar might bring this severe design a little life.  One of the photos shows the wool glen plaid fabric that I'll be using for the upper collar.  It's shot through with rust and purple, so it coordinates nicely.  The first step in construction is the welt/flap pockets.  Thank goodness I did a dry run on the muslin.  These have to be the most over complicated pockets in the world, and I immediately went running to my Bishop Method book for advice and a more reasonable alternative.  According to Edna only 3 pieces are required, an upper and lower pocket and the welt.  The Japanese nightmare consists of 5 pieces, one of which is a piece of the fashion fabric sewn inside the pocket that will never be seen.  Sorry, that step is out.  I did keep an interfaced piece of my fabric placed above the pocket and held in place with top stitching.  Because this is a Fall coat, and I love warm hands, I used flannel for the lower pocket and a piece of lining material for the upper pocket.  I'm glad this step is over.  The next challenge will be an inside chest pocket, but I will need to cut out part of the lining before attempting it.