An Estonian girl who has found a home in Sweden.

Friday, July 17

Pocket Origami

July 17, 2015 Posted by Vaire ,

That's what I've been doing for better parts of two days now. On Thursday I got off my butt and started cutting out the trousers. The trouser pieces themselves took way too long because I had to tweak the pattern. I used a non-stretch fabric for the muslin and this fabric is stretch twill. This fabric was meant for tight jeans, not loose trousers, but I can use that stretch for my advantage.

That meant that I had to very carefully re-measure and re-think the waist and hip area. Using a stretch fabric means that it'll relax even more than normal fabric would during wear. Cutting things out of stretch with too much ease will result in baggy and saggy garments. While I do appreciate loads of room in a trouser leg, this pair is supposed to fit through the hips.

Trouser Project

I reduced the front panel by 3 cm, added a fly extension, and redrew the tuck as a dart. The final shape of the darts will be decided while fitting as I'd originally planned, so I'm not worried about that. I just made sure that my waist and high hip measurements hit the mark. I also reduced the circumference at the leg bottom to 76 cm because I think that 86 is too much to support pockets heavy with stuff. After cutting out the trouser pieces, the rest of Thursday was spent on pockets.

Pocket Origami

That's the result of hours of drawing and cutting and folding. The measurements and designs are taken from my favourite pockets on various RTW trousers I've had over the years, minus the studs or eyelets, but reusing some salvaged zippers. There are going to be 9 patch pockets total, 4 per leg that show plus one special one.

One long one at the back (the template on the left), a long one with curved opening at the top (template top centre), a gusseted one with a flap on the thigh (two bottom templates on the right) and another with a flap at the shin (template middle bottom). There is going to be additional double phone pocket inside the thigh pocket on the left (template top right).

Trouser Project

All pieces cut out and ready to sew. I began with the pockets this morning, and I very naively believed that I'd be done with them today. I completely underestimated the time it took to put the more complicated ones together and how much time experimentation with top stitching with all the unpicking would take.

Messing about with the zippers took ages, and I gave up on topstitching the gussets to the thigh pockets when the light went. So far I've finished the shin pockets, the double phone pocket, and the thigh pockets only need top stitching on the gusset and possibly some hand finishing before they are ready. The back and top pockets are not even started yet, and while writing this post I remembered that I decided to put flaps on lower pockets as well, and that I completely forgot to design and cut those.

I did get some sewing done on Wednesday. I sewed the inner layer of the tailor's ham and stuffed it. It may look a little lumpy, but that's because I used somewhat coarse sawdust meant for bedding, and it hasn't got it's cover yet. I must say that this special and very precious pillow fabric has been the most horrid one to sew my hand.

It is woven incredibly tight to prevent the feathers from poking though. This is exactly why I chose it, but when I was done sewing my fingers hurt from gripping the needle so tight. It was very hard to pull even the finest needle though, next one I'm either sewing with pliers or with a machine. I need to make a cover for it where one side is linen and the other is wool, but it'll do for the trousers. Cotton will press fine on cotton.

I am aiming to finish the pockets and the flaps tomorrow and at least make a good start on the zipper fly. Four days remaining...