THE Q & A SERIES
TIPS FOR SEWING THE DARLOW PANTS WELT POCKETS
Hello!
The Darlow pants are quite interesting. I assembled my digital pattern and decided to make a full blown muslin with all of the details. I am on the welt pocket portion for View B, and right around step 22/23 I start to lose it. I saw that you had a sew along, but didn't see how to access it. I went on the internet and watched a welt pocket video, but I think I am missing something. Do you have a video you would suggest watching? Right now I have the welt that I ‘winged it’ with, and the other is waiting to be done properly. The instructions seem quite good, but I think you are trying to explain something a little more detailed.
In advance thank you for any help you can provide.
Regards,
Lauren
United States
Hi Lauren,
We’re celebrating ‘Make it With Us in May’ in our Curated by ITF community this month, which means our members get to choose any pattern from our current catalogue as their monthly project.
It’s a good opportunity to work on specific techniques they’ve been wanting to up-skill in, or dive into a project they’ve been thinking about for a while. I especially love seeing members choose some of our older patterns (such as the Darlow pants) because it shows they are still relevant many years on from when they were first released, which is a goal of mine as a designer.
GENERAL TIPS FOR SEWING WELT POCKETS
Getting to your question about the welt pockets in the Darlow pants pattern…
I will be the first to say that welt pockets are a bit tricky. There are many different ways to do them and they are usually slightly different depending on where they are placed on the garment. There are also countless ways to sew a welt pocket which is why I am happy to say I have done the work of trying out all the methods on your behalf to come up with a way that I think gives the cleanest finish.
I always encourage makers to try techniques like this out on scraps of fabric first. It can be time consuming, but it does give you a chance to practise and also have something to refer to as you’re sewing the real thing. Also, the other reason I give for doing a practice run on welt pockets is that because you have to cut into the fabric of a pattern piece it can be difficult to fix it if you make a mistake.
The other thing I’d advise is doing one pocket at a time. When sewing a symmetrical garment it is usually faster to sew both things at the same time (so you prepare both pocket bags, cut both welts etc.). But when a skill is new, you’re normally better off doing the process in full on one side and then repeating on the other side. It’s likely you will learn a few things on the first one that you can then apply to the second one.
TIPS FOR SEWING DARLOW PANTS WELT POCKETS
The part of the instructions you mention you’re struggling with is at the point where you are creating the welt. The welt is the rectangle of fabric that is visible on the pocket opening. This step in the process of welt pocket sewing is a common place for sewists to become a little bewildered. The reason for this is that it might not be clear what you are actually doing with this step, so let’s cover that first.
If you look at step 21 (left image) you will see that the welt is formed by folding piece 18 at the notches. (I have made the piece blue in the illustration.)
On the right-hand side I have placed the illustration for step 22 where you can see that the welt has been formed. But at this stage nothing is holding the welt in place.
In step 23 the seam line of the bottom of the welt is pinned through the welt so that it has something to attach to. The welt is no longer just a fold in the fabric but is stitched.
In the illustration you can see what is being secured. The stitching won’t show through the welt as we are pinning and stitching through the seam allowance on the inside, but this is the seam that will hold the bottom of the welt in place.
If you’re still not feeling confident in the process, this video will help.
Happy sewing,
Emily
For more issues of the Q & A series, you can check out the archive here.
WHAT YOU’VE BEEN MAKING
Peppermint Wrap skirt made by @sosewemma
