I have known for about a month that I was going to do a pocket tutorial for Vanessa's sew along. I have been really excited to participate! Until yesterday afternoon I was just going to do a simple pocket with rick rack around the edge. Now, I'm sure our grandmas knew that rick rack could make ironing under an edge super easy but it was a great discovery for me when I was making my apron (the full tutorial will be on Whip Up March 12th!) a few weeks ago. Yesterday, due to events happening at my own house, I decided to add some room to that pocket!
My kids are really into finding "treasures" around the house. The treasures include hooks, rocks, keys, buttons, safety pins, chops sticks, toilet paper rolls and drill bits. I was making my pockets and the kids were fighting about a certain new "treasure" they found. I wondered if maybe the girls we are making dresses for might collect treasures? I would think every child would delight in finding a special item that we adults disregard. I decided to change the pocket to accomdate more favorite things.
Before we begin the tutorial, I will tell you a bit about this dress. This fabric is from my sister's college duvet cover and I think it was from Ikea. I have saved it all these years since the fabric is so soft and I love the print. I am not really in the habit of saving things like that but I made an exception for this one! One side of the cover was the "stripes" and the other a criss cross pattern. (Make sure to keep your eye out at the thrift store for linens that can make great kids clothes! The fabric is often really nice!) I made my own bias tape for the arm holes and ties. It took longer but using nice fabric for the bias tape is delightful to sew with! The rick rack is not an exact match and I let that bother me for about 1 minute. Who is going to be looking that close?? Now let's make that pocket…
Begin by printing out the pattern and cut it out.
Choose your pocket fabric and use the pattern to cut out a piece of fabric. Choose a matching piece of rick rack (medium size about 1/2" wide) that measures 14" long.
Iron the top of the pocket back and over 1/4" and then 1/2". Sew across the folded top edge.
Sew the rick rack on the RIGHT side of the pocket like in the picture below. The 14" piece of rick rack should easily have extra on each end.
Go over to your ironing board and you will see how easy it is to iron under the edge with the rick rack on! A perfect curve! No tucking and burning your fingers! See the picture below. Tuck that extra rick rack from the top into the fold you made where the curved edge and the flat top come together. Pin.
Now to do your ruching. This is my new favorite trick! You will be wanting to try this on all sorts of things if you haven't done it before. Cute a piece of 1/4" elastic to 5".
In the picture below you will see where to place the elastic to begin. I found the best place was over the seam you made for the top of the pocket. Move over to your sewing machine and secure the elastic here by doing a backstitch a couple of times.
Now, gently pull on the elastic and begin sewing slowly (but not too slowly!). Move all the way across the top edge of the pocket. Be confident! Your fabric will gather up behind the foot as you go.
Once you have gone all the way across, do another backstitch and cut your threads. Now your pocket will look like this!
Move over to your ironing board and iron the pocket flat.
Cute! Don't worry, it's supposed to poof up like that. Now take the pocket over to your dress and find the place you want to put it. I like the idea of the pockets being closer to the side but still a little in front. I placed mine about 7" from the hem of my dress.
Pin the pocket onto your dress. Give it just a little stretch at the top corners to make the shape a little more even. See the picture on the left. Make sure you only get the top layer of the dress.
Back over to your sewing machine and sew the pocket on. It should gap a little open. Finished!
Make sure to upload your dresses to the dress a girl around the world sew along flickr pool! Thank you so much Vanessa for including me in your sew along! I've had lots of fun.
