The joy of pockets

My tote bag project included a pocket. I had experience with similar pockets, but for this one I had to miter the corners in a way I had not done before. This type of corner adds a little time to the pocket making process, but it is not too difficult or time consuming. Making pockets is fun. I need a lot more practice before I can make the perfect pocket, but every pocket I make is better than its predecessor. I wish to share with you the joy of pockets. There are many types of pockets out there. This is just one of them, and my method is just one of many for making this particular type. I posted instructions for this type because it is the one with which I am most familiar. By the end of the semester I will know how to make at least three more.

Step 1: Cut out your pattern piece.

The piece will be 1” wider and 1 ¾” taller than the finished pocket. Pockets will usually be cut on the lengthwise grain, but if you are working with stripes, a plaid, or a print you may want your pocket on the crosswise grain or bias for aesthetic purposes. The white line is a fold line that we will get to in step 7. On patterns it may be marked with a line or with notches.

Step 2: Fold in the edges.

Fold in the sides and bottom ½”. Press.
At this point it is possible to skip to step 6, but if you do so the corners of your pockets may bulge out a little. If you are using light weight fabrics it probably will not be a problem, but with heavier fabrics you should use steps 3 through 5.

Step 3: Mitering the corners, part 1

Unfold the edges at the bottom corner, but do not press. Fold in the corners at a 45 degree angle so that the fold lines line up. Press.

Step 4: Mitering the corners, part2

Fold the pocket so that the wrong sides are together. The bottom and side must line up. Stitch along the fold line from step 3.

Step 5: Mitering the corners, part 3

Trim off the seam allowances from step 4. Press the corners.

Step 6: Pocket hem, part 1

Fold in top of pocket ¼”. Press

Step 7: Pocket hem, part 2

Fold the top to the right side of the pocket along the fold line mentioned in step 1. Press only the corners. Stitch along the side fold lines. Cut off part of the seam allowance.

Step 8: Turn

Turn the pocket.

Step 9: Topstitch

Topstitch the top of the pocket 1/8” above the bottom of the hem. Topstitching should be done on the right side of the pocket. The needle thread looks better than the bobbin thread. Backtacks will show, so you may wish to pull the thread to the wrong side and tie it off.

Step 10: Attach pocket

Attach the pocket to your garment by edgestitching 1/8” (or less) from the edge of the pocket. The top of the pocket must be reinforced with additional stitching. I like to stitch two or three stitches along the top and make a triangle (right). Another method is to make a rectangle and continue topstitching along the edge of the pocket 1/8” in from the edgestitching (left). There are many more ways to attach these pockets. The differences are more aesthetic than functional.

This style pocket can be found on shirts. I used denim because I had some scraps available. The back pockets on jeans are a little different. I prefer broadcloth to denim for shirts, but for a demonstration I do not think it matters. If you use a contrasting color thread your topstitching must be perfect. Mine is not. Matching color thread is more forgiving if your stitch lines are not perfectly straight. I like pockets; they hold my stuff.

Tote bag: important lessons from a simple project

On Friday I turned in my tote bag, the first project for my apparel construction class. I do not think anyone at my school harbors dreams of becoming a tote bag designer, but we all begin our apparel design studies by making one. Tote bag construction is a simple process, but in making this bag I learned some valuable lessons that will serve me well throughout my sewing career. Making this bag seemed to serve some additional purposes too: it introduces students to the apparel construction process, and it marks us as apparel design students.
Sewing the bag seems to be a rite of passage for apparel design students at UW-Stout. There are other items we will all make, but the bag is the one I hear mentioned most. I do not know if construction students all have a special tool or if education students all have a special red pen, but every apparel design student has a tote bag. I see students in their fourth year of school use the tote bag they made as freshmen to carry the supplies for their senior projects. Had I know that I am destined to develop such an intimate relationship with my bag I probably would have used a different print.

We were not given enough time in class to complete the bag. The only way to finish the project was to work on it in the open lab sessions. Students are permitted to work on their projects at home too, but at certain points in the construction process an instructor or lab supervisor must sign off on our work before we can continue. I finished my bag well ahead of schedule as did some of my classmates, while others are struggling to finish it on time. Late assignments are not accepted. I hope everyone in class finishes the bag and that they now understand the importance of good time management for our sewing projects.

Before this semester I would not have thought of a tote bag as a college level project, but I now understand that a simple project is the best way to teach the important skills that form the basis of advanced techniques. We had one lesson just about pressing fabric. Everyone knows how to iron, but there is a lot more to it that most people realize. We learned about pressing equipment (ham, sleeve board, point presser, pounding block, needle board, seam roll, press cloths) and how to press fabrics without damaging or distorting them. I did not know that I should iron in the direction of the fabric grain, nor did I know to press seams flat to set stitches before pressing them open. I have a few yards of corduroy at home. I knew about nap, but I had never heard of a needle board. I am glad I did not try pressing my corduroy before this lesson. I used to think I knew how to iron, but now I worry about what I do not yet know.

My fabric is a 60% cotton, 40% polyester blend. It took a while to find a setting on the irons that would not damage the fabric. I was smart enough to test the iron on scrap pieces first. I found the fabric in the drapery section of Hancock Fabrics. It was on sale for $3.00 per yard, down from $12.00. Nobody wants drapes with a print that is five years old.

The measurements for the bag’s pieces were posted to the class web page. All the pieces were rectangles. It would have been easy to measure the rectangles onto the fabric and cut them, but we were not allowed to do so. We had to make pattern pieces, pin the pieces to the fabric, then cut. Learning how to make a tote bag was nice, but learning about patterns will be more useful. I do not expect to make too many more tote bags, but I will use lots of patterns.

Before we could lay out the pattern pieces we had to ensure that our fabric was on grain. Last semester I could simply measure from the grainline on the pattern piece to the selvage, but that method is no longer good enough. Now I begin by pulling a crosswise yarn and cutting along the line it makes. I then fold the fabric so that the selvages are parallel and see if the crosswise cut I made is perpendicular to the selvage. No one in class had fabric that was perfectly on grain. What can you expect for $3.00 per yard? The way to straighten the fabric is to have two people grab the short corners of the folded fabric and pull in the direction of true bias. Fold, check, pull, and repeat until the fabric lines up right.

The bag’s seams were finished with a serger. I would have preferred to make enclosed seams or to hide the seams with a lining, but my ability to follow directions is a large portion of my grade. Projects I work on now must be made the way their designers intended. Once I begin designing my own items I will be able to make them as I please.

The straps were the most difficult part of the project. Sewing them was easy as was attaching them to the rest of the bag. The problem was turning them right side out. The pattern pieces were 3” wide and 31” long, and we used a ½” seam allowance. Turning each strap took more than 15 minutes. The rest of the project seemed quite easy. I worked slowly because I wanted to do everything as best as I could. I do not yet know how demanding my instructor is. I hope I get a good grade on the bag. I may need it to balance out my grades for the other projects which will be a lot more difficult.

Yesterday I began work on a shirt at home, and in class today I will start work on a skirt, but the next item I finish will be another tote bag. My instructor is allowing me to use the industrial lockstitch machines in the lab so that I will not lose the skills I picked up last semester. I may not use the industrial machines for class projects, but I can use them for my own stuff. I bought some nice fabric for a shirt, but the first thing I will make is a tote bag. Every industrial machine has a unique personality, so I want to become accustomed to the lab machines before I start work on something complicated. A tote bag will let me do this. It will be my fourth tote bag of the semester. I made two at home as practice and one in class. I have no idea what I will do with all these bags. Anyone need one?

Manufactured fibers: an angry rant

My homework for textiles class yesterday was to answer four questions about natural fibers from the textbook. The first two questions were about cellulosic fibers, and the last two were about protein fibers. I had no problems with the first three questions, but the final question was quite difficult. For five products I had to describe the properties of wool and silk that some manufactured fibers attempt to duplicate. The products are carpeting, blanket, blouse, interview suit (wool), and interview suit (silk). Wool carpets and blankets along with silk blouses are clearly better than ones made from manufactured fibers, but the use of manufactured fibers to make these items is perfectly acceptable. But suits! Suits MUST be 100% natural. I hope that the purpose of this question was to demonstrate how inappropriate manufactured fibers are for suits rather than to countenance their use. I will not bore you with my answers to the first three parts of this question, but I will share with you my answers to the final two parts so that you might better understand my indignation about suits made with manufactured fibers.

(d) A suit should be 100% natural. Unfortunately, some men lack the necessary fashion sense or money, so suits made of natural/manufactured blends or even 100% manufactured fibers are available. No manufactured fiber will ever come close to matching the prestige of a 100% wool suit, but they do attempt to duplicate the luster, hand, drape, and resiliency of worsted wool. They are doomed to fail, but from a distance it may be difficult to tell the difference between wool and manufactured fiber suits.
My required uniforms for my last two jobs included 100% polyester suits. These suits looked cheap, they were uncomfortable, and I was embarrassed to be seen in them. I am pleased to say that every suit or blazer that I have purchased for myself was 100% wool.

(e) The lining of a suit should be made of silk, but silk’s high cost has made linings of manufactured fabrics acceptable. A 100% silk suit possesses aesthetic and comfort properties that cannot be matched by manufactured fibers, and the attempt should not be made. Silk suits cost thousands of dollars. Prices for wool suits start below $200. Silk suits are better than wool, but there is no situation in which an imitation silk suit made of manufactured fibers would be better than one made of wool.

One day in 1995, while I was shopping for a new blazer, I spotted a silk blazer on the rack. The moment I spotted it I knew it was better than any of the wool blazers I had already tried on. It was cheap for a silk blazer but still far beyond my price range. I had to try it on. It was the nicest, most comfortable blazer I have ever worn. Blazers made with manufactured fibers may look like wool blazers if one does not look too closely, but no manufactured fiber blazer will ever resemble a silk one. This was fifteen years ago, yet I still look back on the experience fondly. Wearing it, even for just a moment in the store, made me feel great. No manufactured fiber garment has ever engendered such a strong positive emotional response in me.

A swatch, a bag, and a seam

I spent the first weekend of the semester sewing, studying, and doing homework. I hope I can keep up these good work habits for the next four years.

I mounted the 125 swatches in the kit for my textiles lab. Hopefully they are still in the correct order. If by the end of the semester I can identify all 125 swatches I will consider my tuition money to have been very well spent.
As I was mounting my swatches I was thrilled every time I found one I recognized: muslin, corduroy, denim, and duck. Of those muslin is the one I know the most about, and even for muslin I cannot yet fill out all the lines in the book. As I learn more about textiles I will start making smarter choices at the fabric store.

Last semester I learned how important experience is while trying to sew. Tomorrow my apparel construction class will make tote bags, so yesterday I made one at home.I already had a copy of the pattern we will use, so the bag I made at home is quite similar to the one I will make in class. I had to guess about the exact way to attach the pocket and handles. My methods may not be the ones I will use in class, but any sewing practice is good. I will use a serger for the seam finishes in class. I do not yet have my own serger, so I had to find another way to finish the seams. I used denim, so I decided flat-felled seams would be most appropriate.
I am quite fond of flat-felled seams, but they were by far the most difficult part of the project. I do not know if I will be using them for any of my class projects this semester, but I plan to work on them a lot at home. One year ago I would have laughed at the notion of having a favorite seam. Now I look forward to learning additional types of seams, and I wonder if I will find any of them as pleasing as flat-felled seams.

The swatches are swimwear tricot, brushed tricot, raschel crochet, raschel knit lace, Coolmax® mesh, and pleather. I could tell you what my book has to say about them, but I would not understand it. Ask me again in a few months.

The first week of school

The first week of the semester is over. We are still just getting started, but I think I have seen enough to have a good notion of what the coming few month hold in store for me. My goal for the semester is a 4.0 average, so I will be spending a lot of time studying. Studying and doing homework is a break from my earlier college strategy of doing just the bare minimum to get by, but looking at how earlier attempts at college turned out I think a new strategy is necessary.

I will not be learning about apparel design or the fashion industry in my sociology and packaging classes, but the classes are still interesting. While they are not about apparel/fashion, I expect that some of the lessons learned will prove to be useful in my eventual career.

I will not be using industrial sewing machines for class this semester, but I hope to be able to spend some time on them in open lab to retain my skills. In class I will use an Elna 3210 mechanical lockstitch and a Juki 4-thread serger. Some computerized lockstitch machines are also available. I will spend some time learning how to use them, but I plan to do most of my work on the mechanical machines. So far I have just sewn a few lines on muslin in order to learn the machine, but I think I like it a lot.

I will not be working with any knit fabrics this semester; the serger will be used for seam finishes on woven fabrics. I will spend a lot of time sewing on muslin rectangles, but I also have four projects to make. Next week I start work on the first project, a tote bag. The other three projects are a pair of pants, a skirt, and a shirt. The pants and shirt will be for me; I do not know who the skirt will be for.

This semester’s sewing class is an introductory class as was the class I took last semester, but I will learn a lot more this time. Last semester was mostly about using industrial machines. I learned how to use the machines and how to follow a pattern to make shirts. My class this semester will go into much more detail. Not only will I learn how to make items, I will learn how to modify the patterns in order to fit the items to a specific body.

The textiles class will probably be my most difficult class this semester. There is so much I need to memorize. In textile lab today I looked at canvas swatch under a stereoscopic microscope. I knew it was a woven fabric, but I had no idea how much detail I would find. The threads on the lengthwise grain were made of three pieces of yarn laid parallel to each other, while the crosswise grain thread was made of one larger piece of yarn. I had no idea fabrics were so complicated, and this is a comparatively simple fabric. It was exciting, but also daunting to realize how little I know and how much I have to learn.

My fashion industry class has only met once. We were supposed to meet yesterday, but another class was using our classroom. This should be sorted out by next week. The class seems interesting, but I do not have much to go on yet. I already have an idea for what my final project will be, but I will keep that to myself until I start working on it.

Notebooks, folders, textbooks, and a computer

My classes begin Monday. This is my last weekend with nothing to do. I could spend it in a productive manner by sewing something, but I probably won’t. I plan to take advantage of these last few days free from obligations by sitting on my sofa watching movies and eating cheesy poofs.

Yesterday I picked up supplies for the semester: notebooks, folders, textbooks, and a new computer. Students at my school do not need to purchase their textbooks; the school has a textbook rental program. A $5.22 fee is added to the cost of each credit to cover the cost of books. Students pick up the books required for their classes at the start of the semester, and return them after the semester is over. Books a student wishes to keep can be purchased at reduced prices. I far prefer renting books to purchasing them. In the past I would spend a few hundred dollars each semester on books. The only thing I needed to buy this semester was the fabric swatch kit for my textiles class.

In addition to the textbook rental fee, a laptop rental fee is also added to tuition. Students get a new computer every two years. I already had a computer, so I am not sure what I will do with my new one. The fee is not optional, so now I have two computers. My music, photos, and other documents are on my old computer. The new computer has some good graphics programs that I will probably need in future semesters, but for now I plan to continue using my old one.

Click here for more information about UW-Stout’s textbook rental system or here for information about laptop rental.

Following is a list of the textbooks I received and my thoughts about them. I have not yet read the books, so these are not reviews, just my initial impressions.

APRL 145 – Interior Decorating/Design Textiles

- Kadolph, Sara J. Textiles. Upper Saddle Rivers, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 2007.

This looks like a good book. I need to memorize a lot for this class, and this book will make it easier. There are a lot of pictures and table. A list of key terms can be found at the end of every chapter along with some discussion questions. Furthermore every chapter ends with a suggested reading list that includes page numbers which will make any additional research I have to do a lot easier.

- Textile Fabric Consultants, Inc. Basic Swatch Kit. Smyrna, TN: 2008.

It is a swatch kit. I have never had a swatch kit before so I have nothing to compare it to. The swatches are bound together with a rubber band, and a warning label on the package warns me to not remove the rubber band lest I get the swatches out of their proper order. Without such a dire warning I probably would have removed it. The plastic bag already tore, but I was planning to make a snazzy new bag anyway. Sixty dollars seems a lot to pay for some scraps of fabric, but it is the only book I had to buy so I can’t complain.


APRL 166 – Apparel Construction

- Brackelsberg, Phyllis and Marshall, Ruth. Unit Method of Clothing Construction. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. 1999.

This book is intended to be used as a textbook. I think it will be a very useful tool, and I may purchase it at the end of the semester.

- Reader’s Digest. New Complete Guide to Sewing. Montreal: The Reader’s Digest Association. 2002.

I already owned a copy of this book. It was my textbook last semester at MCTC, and I was not surprised to learn I would be using it again. The book is intended for home sewers, but it is still quite useful as a textbook.


APRL 274 – Fashion Industry

- Johnson, Maurice J. and Moore, Evelyn C. Apparel Product Development. Upper Saddle Rivers, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 2001.

I was hoping to see The Teen Vogue Handbook on the required list for this class, but I suppose Apparel Product Development is more appropriate for use as a textbook. The first edition of this book was titled So You Want to Work in the Fashion Business: A Practical Look at Apparel Product Development and Global Manufacturing. This book seems to provide a detailed and impartial view of the fashion industry. Hopefully by the end of this class I will have a better idea of what exactly it is I wish to do in the industry.


PKG 100 – Packaging and Society

- Hine, Thomas. The Total Package. Toronto: Little, Brown & Company. 1995.

I do not know what this class will be about, so I started reading the book. The book seems to be about the way manufactures package their products for sale. The book is interesting, but I find it difficult to read. I feel it is poorly written, and I am not sure it is an appropriate textbook. The author states facts and refers to studies, but never cites the source of the information.


SOC110 - Introductory Sociology

- Ferris, Kerry and Stein, Jill. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2008.

The title says it all, this is an introductory sociology textbook. I am not too excited about sociology, but the book is filled with big colorful interesting pictures, so maybe the text will be interesting too.

- Goodwin, Jeff and Jasper, James M., ed. The Contexts Reader. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2008.

This book is a collection of articles from Contexts, a magazine from the American Sociological Association intended to introduce sociological research and perspectives to non specialists. I think sociology articles written for non sociologists will be easier to read than ones written for sociologists.

What I did on break

I apologize for letting so much time pass since my last blog entry. Classes at MCTC ended on December 15, and classes at Stout begin on January 25. I planned to do a lot of sewing while on break, but I have not had the time. The move from Minnesota to Wisconsin has been very time consuming. My sewing machine, fabrics, and tools were among the first things I boxed up. The sewing machine and tools have been put away in my new apartment, but all my fabric is still in boxes.

I love my new apartment. It is larger and nicer than the apartment I had in Minneapolis, it is in a better neighborhood, and the rent is nearly 30% less. I have a dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer in my new apartment. I do not own enough dishes to justify the use of the dishwasher, but I am excited about having a washing machine and dryer. I hate going to Laundromats.

I did a little prep work for school over break. I took the English Composition CLEP test, and my score was high enough to place me out of two semesters of required English classes. Yay, two classes closer to graduation. With the English class out of my schedule I had room for something else. I enrolled in PKG 100, Packaging and Society. I have no idea what this class is about, but it is required for my major. I will write more about it after the semester begins.

I am feeling quite nervous about the coming semester. It is not my classes that scare me, rather it is my classmates. I am nearly twice the age of most of the other apparel design students. Will I find new friends, or will everyone see me as the weird alter cocker? Oh, well. No point worrying now. I will find out soon enough.