February's Quilt Lesson

Secret Pocket Vest

Contributed by Gypsy (Mary Jo Hodge)

Inserting a secret pocket in a reversible vest, one side of which is piecework, such as Carol Doak's describes.

1.Make a pocket slightly larger than the zipper size you want - I recommend a 7 or a 9 in. zipper. To make pocket for a 9" zipper, cut 2 rectangles about 9" x 7" in a color of fabric that will blend with lighter side of outer vest. Muslin may be used for this.

2.Stitch together on 3 sides, leaving one of the 9" sides open. Turn and press.

3.Also, cut a strip of fabric 4 1/2 in width (wider if the strips you are adding are larger than 2" finished size) and the length of your vest, fold right sides together and press. Set aside as you do the next steps.

4.As you make the front of jacket, pieced side, leave an opening in your piecing about 9 1/2" long. If right handed you may want this on the left hand side of front, but if your piecing works better on the right hand side for hiding the pocket, you may use this.

5.If you are foundation piecing you will need to start this process at center front and work toward the side seam. When you get about 2" from the center front (assuming a 5/8" seam allowance at edge) leave your opening at a point in the length of the vest where the line of vest is straightest (usually this will be toward the lower part of vest.

6.As you work from front edge toward side seam, The next strip or series of blocks sewn in a strip will be the place to insert the strip or flange you made in step 3 above. To insert this simply pin raw edges to the raw edge of the as yet unsewn side of the strip which you just added, but left the opening for eventual insertion of the pocket. Check to be sure your flange is wide enough to cover the strip to it's left, plus a little more, so that it hides the seam between the two strips that the opening falls between. If not, make a wider flange.

7.Also If you are foundation piecing you will need to slit the backing fabric at the point where you left an opening in the piecing (in other words the point where you did not stitch down the strip. If you are piecing together 3" minis with squares or watercolor sized squares, you will probably not have a backing fabric so need to slit. If you do and want a smooth edge by the slit, zigzaz the edges which you cut. My recommendation is to always use strips toward the front edge until you are past the point where the opening is left to insert the pocket, even if you want to use 3" squares or larger thereafter. If doing watercolor size (2") squares, it works out like a strip anyway as it is a length of 2" squares sewn together.

8. After your front side with opening is all pieced, insert the pocket you have made into the slit. Place your zipper face down so that the left hand side of zipper, as you face the BACK of the zipper, lines up with the edge of the piecework you did not stitch down. Pin. Now pick up the entire front half of vest, fold back the center of the vest front so that you can hold in your hand just the zipper, portion of vest it is pinned to, and the top portion of the pocket. Do not sew all the way through as you will sew the pocket together. Baste and stitch using zipper foot.

9. Now, turn the zipper over so that the seam you have just made is tucked into the pocket and the zipper faces up. Sew the free side of the zipper in place between the opening you left in the piecing and the front edge of your vest.

10. Press the flange toward the front so that it covers the zipper opening. From the back side pin the free sides of the pocket so you can see where the two unsewn corners are. Now pin from the front and remove back pins. Stitch the pocket to the vest front from the top of vests, using thread that blends inconspiciously with top of vest or using some kind of braid or homemade bias that adds to your vest, applying this above pocket as well so you don't just have a square. If you want some of this over the pocket area, you will have to plan ahead and sew this braid on before inserting the pocket, adding zipper, etc. Another trick is to cut your pocket to begin with so that it is as wide as your vest and the far side of the pocket will get caught in the seam allowance at the side of vest. Can also do this so that the pocket extends below the zipper and gets caught in seam allowance at bottom edge of vest, leaving you only one top-stitching line to "hide".

If you have a hint, drop a line to csimmerman@noqers.org. We'll add it to next month's tips and give you credit!