Making a zipper pocket

I uploaded this video a few days ago, but forgot to add it here. This is about making a simple zipper pocket. It's really the simplest design you can make. 

Pinstripe pants

The last part of the outfit is pants. I actually made an entire 3-piece suit for myself. The pattern was again from Burda, this time issue 4/2011, pattern 117. I made some changes to the pattern. The picture below shows the changes to the pockets. The original had pockets in side seams, but the altered pattern below is for slanted pockets.

Another change was the zipper. The pattern had a hidden zipper, but I opted for a regular one, which we had just practiced (I used a hidden zipper in the light blue skirt I made earlier, so I knew how to do that already).

The instructions said to use Petersham ribbon on the waist, but there wasn't any available, so I used twill to make a facing. There was already enough stuff at the side seams, so I made the facing in two pieces with a seam at the back center.

Here are the finished pants. The pinstripe fabric is a nightmare to photograph. It either shows too dark, like here, or washed out as in some of the previous pictures (in this and the two earlier posts). It actually looks quite nice, just not in photos.

Double pocket

I managed to finish the lower pockets of the vest this week. Or not quite, two corners of each pocket still need a bit of stitching, but my sewing machine isn't powerful enough to do it as there are so many layers of fabric there. So that'll have to wait until I get to the school's sewing machine on Monday.

The structure of the pocket is such that there are two pockets in one. A flat one in front and a bit deeper one behind it. Here you can see the almost finished pocket. The front pocket is accessed from the top, under the flap, and the back pocket through the opening on the side that has a zipper.

I'm giving here the basic instructions, explaining the order of things, but not all details, because a lot depends on the thickness of the fabrics you're using. I had to do some tweaking in the corners to minimize the layers of fabric, but with different kinds of fabrics, those things probably would not have been necessary. 

To begin with, you need two identical parts for the pocket, one made of the outside fabric, another made of the lining fabric. Turn the upper edge of the outer part and sew it. At this stage, the inner part should be 1 cm (seam allowance) higher than the outer part.

Sew the pieces together with a narrow strip of the lining fabric in between (this part can be seen from the outside when accessing the zipper pocket). The original vest had black lining, which looked the same on both sides, but in my version it took some thought to figure out which way the lining fabric used inside the pocket should be facing. When sewing the vertical seam that attaches the pieces together here, the inner and outer parts should have the right side facing up with the inner part on top of the outer part, while the strip in between them should be the right side down. Lay the pieces flat, turn the strip on top of the inner part, turn the edge of the strip under and stitch near the edge.

The next step is to sew the zipper. It should be entirely under the edge of the fabric, so it stays out of sight. It needs to be sewn with the right side of the outer part facing up, so you're basically going blind, but it is fairly easy to feel the zipper underneath. You just need to be very careful, if you're using a metal zipper, so you don't break the needle when sewing the horizontal part at the bottom. Here you can also see how the narrow strip in the previous picture shows to the outside.

The next step is the side of the back pocket. Sew it in place, turn the right side out, iron flat and stitch near the edge. Note that when you're stitching the upper corner, you need to first turn the seam allowance of the inner part as shown in the picture.

Turn and iron the seam allowances of the other edge. Draw the shape of the pocket to the fabric to which you're sewing the pocket, so you get the edges of the side to the correct place (to get the curved parts identical in both pockets), and sew the pocket in place. Start with the zipper, then the upper edge (the lining fabric, this is why the inner part needs the seam allowance to go 1 cm above the upper edge of the outer part) and finally the edges of the side piece. Stitch the corners neat and flat.

To get the pockets straight, you can either measure from the bottom edge or the vertical middle, but in this case, I used the fabric patterns, because anything else would have looked strange.

The very final part will be to add buttons, but that also requires machines I only have access to at school, so it'll be done later.

Last couple of weeks

The only finished item for the last couple of weeks is a skirt. It took ages and I was starting to feel quite desperate with all the alterations that had to be made to make it fit the customer (another student for whom I was making it). However, I managed to finish it and it looks nice, although I can't stop thinking of all the things that went wrong with it and had to be fixed.

I think the best thing I learned with this was how to sew a zipper that's totally hidden when it's closed. It took a couple of tries, but the result looks nice.

We also learned another way to sew a zipper for a skirt. This one was done on a piece of fabric as it was just an exercise. I used the skirt fabric as I was doing this before starting to sew the skirt and wanted to practice a bit with the fabric as the teachers said it wouldn't be the easiest fabric to sew. They were right, it was slippery and difficult to keep in check in addition to being really resistant to ironing (just couldn't get it flat no matter how hard I tried).

The next project will be a vest, which I'll be making for myself based on one I've had for 10 years or so. However, next week is the spring break and on week 10 we won't be going to school because of the new restrictions laid out this week. There haven't been any cases in our school in several weeks, so I think the measures we've had in place would have been enough, but obviously people in charge think otherwise.

So, after the break it'll be some theory on textile materials, plus sewing some pockets for the vest. And of course I've got my private projects, the current one being one in which I'm using the bunny picture from the previous post. I'll be posting about that once it's ready.

On a final note, Lidl again had one of the sewing thread sets I really like. The thread isn't the best quality, but it works for doll clothes at least. The reason I like it so much is that you get a good selection of colors, and every color also comes in spools, so you don't need to do that yourself. I think it's a good deal for 6.99€.

I'm back after a long break

I have been neglecting everything else online except Instagram, but I thought I might start posting my projects here again. The difference between the current ones and the previous ones is that I'm currently not doing miniature stuff, but clothes and other sewing for myself.

This post is a collection of some alteration/mending, which started my current projects. I haven't had much work this year and didn't get much done before summer due to severe lack of motivation (caused by the depressing work situation). However, when I had a duvet cover that was too frayed on the edges and decided to turn it into a couple of pillow covers, I suddenly found motivation to do some other sewing as well, and now I have several unfinished projects going on.

Let's start with the pillow covers. The duvet cover had a picture of Garfield ready to go to bed. I decided to use his face for the pillow covers.

The next project was mending a cardigan that had a hole in the elbow. I got it used from my aunt and it's made in China, so it's not like it's valuable, I just thought it might be a good idea to try mending it. I learned this sort of mending at school (5th or 6th grade), but haven't needed the skill for years (maybe decades), so I had to do some Internet searches to refresh my memory. The result is not a square as it should be, but it's good enough for me.

Discussing the mending with an online friend led me to sashiko, visible mending. Of course I had to try that as well. I had been mending some jeans just using a zigzag stitch to attach a piece of fabric under the part that was too worn. Visible mending turned out to be much more fun. I have only used it for two pairs of jeans for now, but probably will use it more later, experimenting with different kind of stitches.

The last one for this post is replacing the zipper in a winter jacket. The original zipper was of poor quality and had been causing trouble since I bought the jacket. So I bought a sturdy zipper in a nicer color and replaced it. This was the first time ever I did something like this, but the result looks quite nice.

I have made some alterations and totally new items after these, so those will be described in future posts. I'll try to post once a project is ready, so I'll get all the different stages in one post.