Welt Pocket Technique
Posted on 10. Feb, 2010 by Gail Yellen in Blog
If you think creating a welt pocket is too hard–it isn’t. A bunch of years ago, Judy Barlup taught this Japanese tailoring technique at a local sewing center and I was lucky enough to be in the class. I loved the method so much that when I designed the Berkshire Jacket pattern, I emailed Judy and asked for permission to use it. She graciously said yes. I made some modifications to the original instructions because they were for a lined jacket and mine can be used for either lined or unlined ones.
You’ll notice that the shape of the welt isn’t a rectangle and there’s a good reason why. This shape eliminates side seams that can be bulky and hard to hide. Very cool. The photos are from my step-by-step welt pocket kit used in classes, so you won’t see a jacket front. Beige linen represents the jacket fabric. The pocket bags are 10″ x 10″. They are larger than the finished bag to make the finishing easier. For better visibility in the photos, a Sharpie marker was used. For your jacket, chalk or a wash away marker is the way to go. Very accurate stitching is required and it’s a good idea to practice on scrap fabric before embarking on your jacket. Use a press cloth. Just go one step at a time and don’t be intimidated-you’ll love the results!
The steps indicated in the photo captions refer to the Berkshire Jacket pattern instructions. Click on the photos for a larger image.
Here are some useful tools for professional results. A 6″ clear ruler is handy for a million different things. A point presser/clapper makes pressing hard-to-get-at points easy.
And a point turner eliminates those holes you’ve poked in your corners using a pencil!
Mark the pocket placement line and its center point on the jacket front. I draw the line longer than the welt to insure that the welt stitching line matches perfectly on the left and right edges.
Here are the components. (The interfacing is fused to the wrong side of the welt. Bemberg rayon was used for the pocket bags.)
Wrong side of welt. Interfacing is outlined in green with hatch marks.
Right sides together, fold the welt and stitch. (Step 4b)
Press the seams open. Don’t clip the corners-the fabric will help retain the shape of the welt corners.
Turn right sides out and press. Serge or zigzag the raw edges together. From the underside you can see that the seam is diagonal, so no lumps and bumps on the welt edges. (Step 4c)
Measure 1″ down from the top fold and draw a line on the underside of the welt. This is the stitching line. (Step 4d)
Right sides together and with the top edge of the welt toward the bottom edge of the jacket (the opposite direction of the final position), place the welt stitching line on the jacket front pocket placement line. (Step 4e)
Be sure that the center mark on the welt aligns with the center of the pocket placement line on the jacket. Use a very short stitch length (0.6 – 0.8). Begin and end stitching exactly on the welt edges. You may need to adjust your stitch length to end exactly on the edge. Check your accuracy by turning the welt up to its finished position. Make any necessary corrections. (Step 4f)
Serge or zigzag the top edges of the pocket bags.
With right sides together on the jacket front, center the pocket bag on the welt with the top edge of the bag even with the serged or zigzag stitched welt edge. If the pocket fabric isn’t the same on both sides, place right sides together. The pocket bag is in its finished position, except outside the garment rather than inside (to be turned later). Stitch from the wrong side of the jacket over the previous line of stitches. (Note the double row of stitching.) (Step 4f)
Here it is from the right side. You can see that the stitching begins and ends at the welt edges. If your stitching extends even 1 stitch beyond the welt end, you’ll have a pucker. If it’s 1 stitch too short, you’ll have a hole. Make corrections if necessary.
With right sides together, butt the inner pocket bag serged edge against the outer pocket bag serged edge. Stitch 1/4″ from the edge through the inner bag and jacket, beginning and ending 1/2″ shorter than the lower row of stitching. (I like to mark the start and stop points for stitching.) By making this stitching line shorter, it eliminates the chance of the seam extending past the welt edge. From the right side, turn up the welt to be sure that the stitching line is completely concealed. Correct if necessary. If you flip the inner pocket bag down, it won’t match the outer pocket bag precisely and both bags will probably hang below the bottom edge of the jacket. This will be corrected at the end of the technique. (Step 4g)
Here it is from the wrong side.The top line of stitching is clearly 1/2″ shorter on either end.
Starting at the midpoint, through the jacket fabric only and between the pocket bags, carefully cut to within a 1/2″ of the end point of the shorter line of stitching. Clip diagonally to within 1 or 2 threads of each stitching line to form irregular triangles. (Very scary.) Check by flipping the pocket bags to the inside of the jacket and turning up the welt. If you see a pucker, clip another thread or 2 and recheck. It’s better to see a pucker on the jacket that you can correct. If you clip too far, you’ll have a visible hole on the jacket. If you do clip too far, don’t despair–I’ve done it. Just consider it an opportunity to be creative! My solution was to choose a built in decorative stitch on my sewing machine and embellish over the boo-boo. (Step 4h)
Turn the pocket bags to the inside and turn the welt up. Press the bags and welt in their final positions. (Steps 4i and 4j)
Turn the welt down to expose the triangles. Position them toward the center of the pocket and zigzag stitch over them. This step strengthens the corners and reduces bulk. (I didn’t like the idea of leaving the triangles the first time I tried this technique. It seemed messy. However, once the welt is stitched in its final position, you’ll never even notice them.) (Step 4k)
You can also see that I’ve zigzag stitched through the pocket bag and jacket fabric after pressing. This step isn’t absolutely necessary, but it does hold everything flat.
Position the welt in its final position and beginning at the bottom edge, lock stitch or leave thread tails and stitch close to the side edges using a 1.5 mm stitch length. When you reach the top edge, with the needle down, pivot and stitch right next to the first stitching line to the bottom. Lock stitch or pull the thread tails to the wrong side and tie off. If you prefer, the welts can be hand stitched to the jacket. (Step 4l)
Lay the jacket front right side up on a flat surface. Fold the bottom edge up to expose the pocket bags. Don’t try to force the bottom edges to match. Pin them as they lay. You can see that the pocket bag hangs below the jacket bottom edge.
Determine the desired length and mark with chalk. Be sure they don’t hang below the jacket bottom edge. If you’re using a zigzag stitch, stitch first, then trim close to the stitching. (It’s easier than trying to stay exactly on the fabric edge.) Beginning at the bag’s top edge, serge or zigzag the bags together. It’s a good idea to curve the bottom corners to eliminate lint traps. (Step 4m)
Aren’t you proud of yourself?!
