A clever thing...

Oh Gentle Reader, how I have neglected you.  Come over to the dark side of Instagram, where I am @isabella.golightly and I post often...

I'm here to talk about clever sewing, something I do from time to time.  Did I ever blog about this magic thing I did to #mrgolightly's jacket?

I inserted a pocket between the lining and the facing.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I don't understand why men's clothing would ever come without an inner pocket, especially for wallets & essential documents... anyway, I fixed it by adding one on each side of the jacket.  

My only regret is that I got the pocket itself round the wrong way, so you can't see the funky frogs that make up the pocket, but I know they're there.

Anyway, I just did it again on the jacket I'm taking to the Northern Hemisphere with me in February, and I promised a tutorial, so here goes:

You will need:

A zipper, reasonably long (14"/35cm)

Pins

Matching thread

An unpicker

Courage

Start by very very carefully undoing the stitching that holds the lining & facing together:

You can take the opportunity, as I did here, to improve the finish inside the lining with my pinking shears.  Not that anybody except you is ever going to see it, but... 

Make your pocket.  This is simply two pieces of material to your taste, attached to the wrong side of the zip so that the right side of the material is going to be seen when you open the zip.  Don't be like me & forget to attach the pocket to the zip properly so the pocket facings show :-( - 


Size up your hole to match your pocket, or you can size up your pocket to match the hole.  Doesn't really matter.  Just make sure your zip is long enough when you start so that you can trim to size.  Chop off the end of the zip that has the metal stopper.  Carefully insert the pocket into the hole, zipper closed.  Do I need to say the zipper pull should be at the top?

With the zipper closed, insert the pocket into the gap, just to make sure you've got the sizes right, then open the zipper.

  

I repinned mine about 3 times to make sure I had it sitting right.  There are no limits here :-D

(You can clearly see on the next photo that the underneath of the zip shows over the lining - if I'd done it right, you would only see a neat finish and none of the underneath of the zip, as in the photos up the top.)

Anyhoo, pin both sides of the pocket separately to make sure you have no puckers:

 And then with the zipper foot attached on the right hand side, push the rest of the jacket out of the way (underneath & to the left), and carefully stitch the zipper.  You're stitching the facing for one side, and the lining for the other side.

Repeat for the other side, being very careful not to catch the jacket when you're doing the lining side.  You will need to turn the jacket upside down & stitch from bottom to top for the lining side, whereas doing the facing side you will stitch from top to bottom.













From the inside - a very functional pocket, custom made to my size requirements.

From the outside, there's no evidence of a pocket, but the usefulness of your jacket has just been increased at least two-fold.  

You may have to handstitch the ends closed to reinforce them, as it's very difficult to get the machine to get the required neatness of finish here.  I'd love to find a better technique for doing this, but the handstitching with doubled thread works pretty well.

That's it.  Please let me know if you're brave enough to try it.  You could always make a test piece using two different fabrics as lining & facing, just to try it out.  

Enjoy!

PS Next job, new buttons.  Those brown things are just awful!