An Old Mistake Means a New Pocket

After recuperating from CoCo’14 and the flurry of the new semester, I noticed that an old pair of pockets I had were chewed up.  The pocket slits also hadn’t been the easiest thing to get into at Costume College, making me have to twist around awkwardly to get at my wallet and phone. A new pocket was in order.

Research:

I took out my handy Costume Close-up by Linda Baumgarten, and flipped through to the construction of the embroidered pockets. I had sort of winged it with my previous pair, and wanted to get it right this time.

Many extant pockets are a single pocket on a waist tape. I wanted to try this, and decided on tying it to my left side, so my dominant hand could fish around for my keys or phone.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Reproducing the correct method of construction is what I find the most interesting and ultimately most rewarding in reconstructing historical clothing, and to my astonishment, the way I had constructed my previous pockets was completely incorrect. After searching through several additional images of extant pockets, realized my mistake: I had topstitched my binding to the edge of the pocket and pocket slit. On the Costume Close-up example, and several others, the binding was applied the same way that stay binding was applied. The right side of the binding was sewn through both layers of the pocket along the edge, and then flipped over and slip-stitched to the back.

 I decided that my thrashed, topstitched pockets had to go.

Museum Wales St Fagan's/Cardiff 

Materials:

I tried to use what I had on hand, which was some lighter weight white linen, and some indigo linen I had dyed when messing around with historical dye methods for class. The indigo hadn’t taken evenly, and looked almost like a batik. Indigo resist prints were extremely popular in the American Colonies in the mid-18^th century, so this was the perfect opportunity to use a colorful, accurate binding.

The waist tape is white cotton, since Burnley & Trowbridge only has natural linen tapes  in at the moment. Extant examples of mid-century pockets have cotton waist tapes and cotton binding, so I didn’t feel that I was taking liberties. 100/3 linen thread was used for all of the stitching.

The pattern I used was from Costume Close-up.

Construction:

The pocket pattern is fairly standard for extant examples. I scaled up the drawing to 17” long by proportionate (about 8” across the top). My previous pockets were tiny, only about 10” long. I did have two, but they were still a pain to get into and barely contained my phone and keys and wallet.

A combination of running and backstitches were used for attaching the binding to the front of the pockets. Backstitches were used for the small reinforcement diamond beneath the pocket slit. Slipstitches were used for attaching the binding to the back of the pocket and attaching the waist tape.

The binding was cut on the Straight of Grain, as it saves fabric and is easily manipulated when hand-sewing. I cut two 1” strips equaling 75”, and then used my wooden creaser to make a ¼” double fold binding. I really recommend using a creaser instead of an iron when creating bias or binding out of natural fabrics; it saves fingers J

On my last pockets, the pocket slits had started to tear with my fumbling around and the yanking out of my keys and phone. The new slit is longer with the bigger overall size of the pocket, but I also wanted to add a reinforcement diamond to the bottom of the slit because the linen is on the lighter side.

A 2” diamond with a ½” slit down one corner was cut out and matched to the bottom of the slit on the pocket front. The Seam Allowance was turned down and backstitched to the wrong side of the pocket front. Reinforcement pieces beneath slit openings are common on shirts from the period, though I haven’t seen any on extant pockets. But if it were useful and saved fabric in the long run, it makes sense that they could have added it.  

The binding was then sewn to the pocket slit. Thread was whipstitched twice over the bottom of the pocket slit before continuing up the other side. The binding was folded over and slipstitched into place.

The pocket slit process was repeated along the outer edge of the pocket with the front and back of the pocket treated as one.

The waist tape was slipstitched to the pocket after finding the most comfortable spot along my side. The ends of the waist tape were finished, and the pocket was done!

End Result:

I love this pocket. The contrast of the white and indigo really pops, and the binding looks really clean. I think I’m going to make some more indigo-accented accessories, as I have a yard of the indigo linen left.

I’m actually glad that I had made that construction mistake. For me, the end garment is never what I love the most about a project; I like to learn about the construction materials and methods while also building up an awesome kit. And I'm trying to keep my eye on the average and mundane (but well-made) silhouettes and materials for my historical wardrobes. I just want to look like a normal person from the time, whether the garments are beautiful or plain. It would be quite an accomplishment to completely blend in if we ever figure out that whole time travel thing J

Thoughts:

What is your favorite part about historical costuming?

What costuming mistake have you learned the most from?

Thank you again for reading!

-Meg