Butterick 5244: day 3: welt pocket vortex

Broke after PR weekend Chicago...my pockets turned inside out..

Thanks everyone for your comments on my Cynthia Rowley dress, and the Muse dress in progress,  much appreciated!

I sewed almost all of today.  Took breaks for lunch, dinner, a phone call, and I went to my favorite gym class first thing this morning. But what was number 1 on my mind today were welt pockets.  Gwen your comment "where's the food" made me laugh--if I sew something else has to give, and I have a lot of food I made frozen now (in fact the minestrone seems to be multiplying in the freezer...) and didn't read much this weekend.

The Butterick 5244 is rated "easy".  According to the Singer Photo Guide to Sewing, "Making welt pockets is an expert tailoring technique that requires precise marking, cutting and stitching."   Hrm, contradiction.

I've never made welt pockets before, and in the spirit of elevating my sewing post-PR weekend, I learned about welts through the pattern instructions, Singer guide, and a few online tutorials.    Most online tutorials are for double welt pockets; the muse dress has single welts.   I made three practice pockets on "scraps" before cutting to the chase.  As I'm running out of steam tonight, maybe another time I will blog my three test cases.  But if you want to see them they are in my Sewing 2011 album.

I think the big tips I learned that weren't in the pattern instructions are: interface the garment in the area of the pocket; draw the stitching and cutting lines on the interfacing; stitch through the stitching lines you just drew on the interfacing so it's easy to see the pocket placement on the right side of the garment; clip the triangle all the way to the corner...but don't go beyond it (or you end up with pocket sample 1).

Here's what the inside prep looked like (I wound up peeling off the excess interfacing later)


Ok, so here are the finished pockets on the garments themselves.  It was a nerve wracking moment cutting the pocket open...others have written that before on their blogs but now I truly understand!!  "I'm cutting a big slash right in the front of my dress...." anxiety.

My right welt pocket:


My left welt pocket:


On Emma:

Pocket from the inside:


They have a few little flaws; Gorgeous Things warned of 'pinching' and Becky-home-ecky-ness and there's a little bit of pinching with my pockets, but not too bad. 



I've got both hands in my pockets; dress is knee length now!



Side view is still shapeless; one idea is to add some elastic to tighten it up and put a tab with more of those anchor buttons on top of it; another is to add darts! (I have a knit dress I bought 5 years ago. The print isn't "me" but the fit is fab. I just looked at it now to see why it fits so well --it has back darts! in a knit dress! I never would have thought of that).


Back view:


On Emma:


And of course I twin needle stitched the sleeve and dress hems:


If you want to see closeups of the collar, please view my muse day 2 post.

(I have read the word "pocket" so many times, it has lost meaning. Pocket pocket pocket pocket pocket.)

Tmw we get to leave work at 2pm so I'm thinking of going to Joann's for the $3.99 Vogue pattern sale, and buying some denim (I have an urge to make a denim skirt?) then coming home and sewing in darts in the back of the dress.  Or maybe I should come straight home and do everything I neglected to do this weekend that does not involve sewing.

Be well!