I require constant entertainment and as such, am completely unable to travel anywhere, even from my front door to my car, without listening to an audiobook. That’s completely normal, right? I often utilize my support garments for convenient iPod storage. With the Lady Grey I saw an opportunity to try something new. An iPod pocket. Since this will be in heavy rotation as a dog-walking coat, it will come in handy. Plus, I can pad my iPod pocket with extra plastic doggie bags to give my self a nice, lopsided look. What every girl wants.

In any case, here’s what it looks like, and here’s how I did it. I did a modified sloppy version of the single welt pocket, sort of following the directions in the tailoring book. The directions were confusing. The end result makes me happy! I chose this type of pocket for two reasons – one, it seemed slightly more sturdy than a plain ‘ole patch pocket and TWO, much less precision required, compared to a double welt pocket. Sewn improperly, I’d have some ripples, as opposed to the slanty mess I’m anticipating with my first double welt or bound buttonhole.
I’ve grouped the pocket-making steps into the following. For more thorough (but confusing) instructions, check out the tailoring book. This is a mix of the single welt and jacket pocket instructions in that book.

1. Mark the pocket position, cut and prepare the pocket pieces and the welt piece.
2. Apply the welt and pocket pieces.
3. Pull through and assemble the pocket, pink and fasten the welt piece

The pocket I made is 5.5” wide and 6.5” high.

Mark the pocket position, cut and prepare the pocket pieces and the welt piece
[Step 1] Mark the pocket position. First I decided where to put the pocket. I put the lining on and marked my pocket-spot with pins (one on each side.) Interestingly, the book said that the interior jacket pockets should be on the right side – for lipstick and theater tickets. Really, that’s what it says. Since they didn’t mention iPods, I put mine on the left side.

Once I took off the lining I basted a line between the two pins with some bright thread – I sort of drew a line in pink below to show**.

**interesting fact on my golden rule ruler… we found it in our walls when we remodeled. It must have been stuck in there when the house was built in the 50’s!
[Step 1 – mark the position of the pocket]

***
[Step 2] – cut the welt piece
Cut out the piece for the welt. For my pocket size, I cut it 5.5” x 3”.
[Step 2 – cut out welt fabric]

***
[Step 3] – interface and stitch the welt piece
To do this step correctly, cut a piece of fusible interfacing the same size as the welt piece cut in Step 2 and apply. For those wishing to emulate me, cut a piece of fusible interfacing the same size as the welt piece and apply about half of it to the ironing board cover and half to the welt fabric. Decide to use half-interfaced piece as is.

Fold in half, right sides together, and sew the ends together (marked in pink) with a quarter inch seam allowance.
[Step 3 – apply interfacing, fold and sew ends of welt piece]

***
[Step 4] – finish welt piece
I grabbed on to this as another opportunity to use giant rick rack. What I did next was turn right side out, press and stitch the rick rack on. For those not going the rick rack route (and really, who are these non-rickracketeers, anyway?), turn right side out, press and machine-baste where the pink arrows are pointing.
[Step 4 – finish welt piece]

***
[Step 5] – apply interfacing to lining
Cut a big circle out of fusible interfacing with pinking shears – enough to cover the area where the welt is going. My big circle is probably about 7 inches long and 3 or 4 inches high. Apply to the wrong side of the lining where marked for the pocket in Step 1.
[Step 5 – apply interfacing to lining]

***
[Step 6] – cut out and prepare pocket pieces
Cut two pieces from lining fabric for the pockets. They should each be 6.5 x 7.5 inches. Don’t be tempted to cut one piece that’s 6.5 x 15”. You will be setting yourself up for disappointment. I know, for I have gone down that path. I added a strip of fusible interfacing to one of the pieces for support. I probably should have done it for both, but the finished pocket feels nice and sturdy, so all’s well that ends well.
[Step 6 – cut out and prepare pocket pieces]

And with that, we’re done with preparation and ready to start assembling!
 

Applying the welt and the outside pocket piece. And clipping.

[Step 7] – line up one pocket piece and the welt piece.
This is where every single welt-related tutorial (with the one notable exception!) has made the eyes roll back in my head, but I’ll give it a shot anyway…

So first, what’s going on in the photo below? I have the coat lying on my table with the right side of the lining facing me and the interfaced circle I applied in Step 5 facing the desk. I’ve noted in the photo below where the top of the coat and the bottom of the coat are(on the right, black text.) The pink line marks the pocket placement line that I made in Step 1.

Line up the welt piece with the raw edges lined up to the placement line – the folded side points towards the bottom of the coat. The pocket piece – I used the one I interfaced – lines up to the placement line, right sides together. When the pocket is done, this will be the pocket piece that is closest to the body.
[Step 7 – line up one pocket piece and the welt piece]  

***
[Step 8] – Mark side seam
This photo is sort of a mess, but what I’m trying to show in this step is how to mark the edges of the pocket. Especially important by the opening! Use a ruler to make marks 1/8” in from the edge of the WELT PIECE – there will be a whole bunch of extra pocket piece sticking out, because that’s wider than the welt piece by an inch or so. I’ve shown in pink below where it’s important to mark – that’s where we will sew in the next step.

[Step 8 – Mark side seam]

***
[Step 9] – Sew along sides and sew pocket piece to lining.
Go ahead and sew along where marked in step 8 – not much, 1/2” or less. Also sew the pocket piece to the lining (shown with the longer pink line) – use about a quarter inch seam allowance. Cut the pocket opening. I stabbed through the fabric with some pointy embroidery scissors. Cut along the yellow line. See how I didn’t cut all the way to pink lines at the ends? Stop a quarter inch short of the pink line, then clip to the corners (on the pocket piece, not the welt piece yet.) Don’t clip through the stitching (the pink line).

This is where my way is a bit different from the instructions. I wanted the opening cut in now so that I could stick my fingers through it to hold the fabric in come of the later steps.
[Step 9 – Sew along sides and sew pocket piece to lining. And clip!]

[Step 9 – a pocket opening!]

***
[Step 10] – Placing the second pocket piece
Sigh. If I’ve managed to keep you this far, here’s where I started scratching my head. I’ll see if I can stay away from nonsense…

Take the second pocket piece – the one not sewn to anything yet – and place it right side up so that it covers the pocket piece already sewed on, and slightly overlaps the welt piece by a quarter inch. The pink line shows the pocket opening and the yellow line shows the rough placement of the top edge of the pocket piece.

[Step 10 – Placing the second pocket piece.] 

***
[Step 11 ] – Sewing the pocket piece
Sew that pocket piece on! Run the stitch line between where the yellow and pink lines are marked in the photo for the previous step. Make sure to catch everything. I pulled the pocket opening open a bit while I was sewing to make sure I didn’t sew the pocket shut accidentally.

Also – I want to note that this photo is oriented differently than the photo in step 10 – sorry. I took this while the fabric was in the sewing machine. In the Step 10 photo the top of the pocket piece was pointing towards 7 or 8 o’clock. In this photo, it’s point towards 3 o’clock.
 [Step 11 – Sew on second pocket piece.] 

***
[Step 12] – Clip corners
Clip the corners on the welt side as done on the pocket side in step 9. Double check to make sure your Step 9 diagonal corner clips are all the way to the corners of your stitched lines.
[Step 12 – Clip corners]

Ah! We’ve done all the tricky bits. The rest is smoothing and sewing! Yay!

Pulling through, assembling the pocket and finishing

[Step 13] – pull pockets through
This was the least ridiculous photo I could take for this step. I know it’s not super helpful. Pull the pocket pieces through the opening so they are on the same side of the lining as the fusible circle applied in Step 5.

Don’t pull the welt to the other side – but it will flip ‘up’ when the pocket pieces are pulled though, showing off the lovely rick rack, for those who went the rick-rack-route.
 
[Step 13  pull pockets through]

***
[Step 14] – sew pocket pieces together.
Smooth out the pocket pieces and pin together. Note in the photo below the white pin right in the center. I used a lot of pins to keep the awful slippery lining fabric under control. The pocket sides should line up reasonably well, but the pocket bottom edges will not. Smooth the pockets in the direction they will hang, check from the other side to get rid of any major wrinkles. It will look pretty crazy around the welt at this
 point – just smooth away. Once everything is secured, stitch the pocket sides and bottom. Start on one side and sew in a nice big swoop. Rounded corners!
[Step 14] – sew pocket pieces together.

 ***
[Step 15] – slipstitch welt
Flip the lining over and smooth out the welt piece and secure with pins. I had a little trouble getting everything super smooth, because of all the layers of fabric, rick rack and interfacing. That’s part of the allure of this type of pocket… a few snips here and there got everything lying much more smoothly, and the welt piece covers a fair amount of bad sewing and other shenanigans.

Once everything is smoothed down, slipstitch the edges of the welt piece to the lining fabric.
[Step 15 – slipstitch welt]

***
[Step 16] – finish pocket
Before the final pressing I went backed and ran another line of stitching around the edge of the pocket (for stability) and trimmed the excess fabric with pinking shears.
[Step 16 – finish pocket]

Here’s another shot of the finished pocket.
One final note of funny for any and all who read this far. I had the lining hanging on in my sewing room last night when Mr. Bug passed through. The giant rick rack caught his eye and he was pleased. Also, he thought the lining might be a new nightie! Mmmmmm… rick-rack and polka dot night with bits of orange upholstery fabric. What a silly boy…

And that’s it! An iPod and doggie bag pocket! Coming up next: dream jobs and my first giveaway! Here’s a hint… where, oh where, did I find such excellent fabric for my vintage-style circle skirt apron??