Friday, April 22, 2011

Pocket opening - using silk organza

With the warm weather we are having at the moment (25 degrees Celsius, very hot for The Netherlands in April) I’m longing to sew linen trousers and not doing much hand-sewing. I’m also enjoying the sun, having a lunch or a cup of coffee in the garden is so nice!

For the enforcement of the pocket opening I used a technique I found in the book “Couture sewing techniques” by Linda Maynard that I bought recently. It’s a wonderful book with a lot of special techniques that I’d like to try. Like Ann said in her review of the book (must be the same book, though my version has a different cover) it’s not about haute couture techniques. The techniques are more high end RTW and as I’m striving more towards high end rtw for my own sewing than real couture techniques, this is a book I like and will use more in the future.

These are not the complete instructions of the book to sew the pocket, but I like to show the way the opening is made.

For the pocket opening a strip of silk organza is used, cut on the straight of grain, 3 cm wide. Fold the strip in the length and iron it. Place it on the seamline of the pocket (wrong side of fabric), clip where necessary to make the curve. Stitch in the crease.

Sew the pocket facing with right sides together, the stitchline just beside the previous stitching.

From this point I made the pocket opening like I always do: trim the seams, clip where necessary, turn and topstitch.

This is the result on the inside of the pocket.

And here you can see the trimmed seam allowance and the silk organza. Nothing to be seen after completing the trousers.

10 comments:

  1. It looks like an interesting book. I have her De-Mystifying Fit book and really like it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Huh - what a good tip. THanks for passing it along.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for sharing this technique!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like the idea of using silk organza for reinforcement. It's invisible in the finished garment.

    And I like the book, too. There are several techniques in it that I would like to try soon, namely the banded V-neck, the balanced darts, and the wide charmeuse hem band.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Clever idea. I think I must buy this book while the Australian $ is so high.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very interesting - seems like the book is quite popular.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This pocket technique looks nice. Your book sounds like a great resource. I think I have another book by Maynard, I need to take a look

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a lovely technique! Thanks for illustrating it so well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh my God! Is 25ºC hot? Here in Rio, I use to fix my air conditioned in 24/25... In summer, outside use to be hotter, much much hotter.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I took this book out of the library and just used the knit neckline technique. It's fantastic. The best looking knit binding I've made. Easiest to do well too. We do have a different cover here. I was wavering about buying it because I thought the organization of the book a bit weird, but the techniques are well photographed and explained.

    ReplyDelete