Welter Skelter

 I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Okay I know I said I’d be posting Robin’s Nest entries every Wednesday, but it’s been a crazy couple of weeks, and the website kinda blew up yesterday (we’re still dealing with some shrapnel so bear with us here).

We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about how men’s suits and waistcoats and proper tailoring. So I thought we’d do a little series on some techniques you find in menswear. These aren’t things limited to menswear but will definitely help take your lounge jacket or waistcoat up a notch. I shall start by drawing your attention to the black bands on my favorite waistcoat pattern. Those are pocket welts. They’re single pocket welts, the black being the welt.

So here we go!

Single Welt Pocket
  1. Step 1: You need your item you’re putting a pocket slit into represented here by my lovely burgundy wool and a piece for the welt itself. I’m using this natural contrasting linen so you can see it very clearly. (Okay it’s also what happened to be in the scrap pile from my last project, but contrast is good too!) You will find pocket welts in self fabric or contrasting fabric in both period suits and modern suits, so it’s a versatile tool in your arsenal. 

    Your welt piece needs to be 2″ bigger (an inch on each side) than your finished slit on all sides. Place your welt on your fashion fabric right sides to right sides.  I’ve marked my stitching lines with sharpie to make them more easy to photograph, I wouldn’t really do this. but then again I wouldn’t put a linen welt in a wool flannel suit either. Notice I have NOT stitched the small sides of my rectangle, this is VERY important.

  2. We iron the welt up on either side, this will give us nice creases to work with later, a key to professional quality results is to iron often!!!

  3. Now we cut our slit, it’s very important to cut at an angle into those corners! if you don’t clip right to the edge you’ll get goopy corners, and no one likes that.

  4. Now you turn your pocket through. 

  5.  Iron Iron Iron your seam allowances open! Do I sound like a broken record yet?

    NOW you can iron your pocket flat, notice how nicely it lays? Iron open first THEN flat. 

  6. Okay now this is the one slightly tricky part, you’re going to fold bottom edge of the w up to meet the top edge. Hmm that does sound confusing maybe a picture will help.

    It should look like this when you’ve ironed it nice and flat. (Did I mention ironing’s important yet?)

  7. Okay you’re almost there!! Last step! NOW we sew those short sides of the rectangle closed. just fold away the fashion fabric so you don’t catch it. DO NOT trim off that extra inch when it’s sewn, the extra width adds stability. Leave it be…I said leave it…

  8. You’re DONE!!! WOOOHOO! 

    If you find you’re having problems with your welt drooping you can slip an underwelt inside, either sew in interfacing or horsehair canvas. 

Tune in next week for the ever popular….DOUBLE WELTS!!  

Fred is tired from all the website excitement and pocket excitement.