Copying details

I saw a picture somewhere on the web of a top for a girl with a neat pocket detail I really liked. I didn't take note of where I saw it, and had to sketch it from memory later. Basically the top has a curved front princess seam which forms a gathered pocket. The seam and pocket edge are bound. Here's one front, after I completed it. Creating the pattern pieces was pretty simple. Slash and spread for the gathered pocket, add on pocket bag, draw pocket facing. Mark in a couple of match points before splitting the pattern. Nothing complicated. Oh, and I had to add a hood and give it a zip front. According to the Nine Year Old Fashion Expert all sweatshirts must have hoods (and are therefore designated hoodies, not sweatshirts) and front fastening zips.


Turning it into a finished garment did require a fair amount of head scratching. I had to think very carefully just how to sew the binding so that it was along the outside of the pocket edge, and incorporated into the princess seam. It was easy enough to execute, once I'd worked out where to clip and turn. Which isn't to say that I didn't do the exact same head scratching when it came to doing the second one!

This pic sort of shows where it all lines up at the pocket edge after being topstitched down. The topstitching had to be done in two parts - first along the pocket edge, then the rest of the seam.

Then I sewed the raglan seams as bound seams. I think they may be called strapped seams, but I'm not sure. I am quite willing to be corrected :-) First I lined up the pieces wrong sides together and pinned them, then I added the velour binding/strapping and pinned that. I pinned the seam first to be sure I didn't distort it by adding binding.

Lastly I just folded the binding/strapping under the sewn seam and topstitched it down.


Here are the pieces I started with.

Now I just have to finish the sweatshirt. If Georgia sees it half made when she gets home from school today she'll bug me for the rest of the weekend to get it done! I realised years ago that when sewing for kids you have to pack away the project after each session. If it's out on the desk I'm supposed to be working on it ;-)

This was a fun exercise. I really like the mental challenge of recreating something I've only seen as a picture. I find that if I have too much easy sewing I get bored. If I have too much challenging sewing I get burnt out. I need to have a bunch of projects lined up so that I can just pick whatever takes my fancy when the sewing machine calls.