This flannel is some of the worst behaving fabric I’ve worked with in a long while. It irons flat just fine, but try to make a narrow hem and it stretches to oblivion and will not cooperate under the machine. It also insists on skewing off grain. So how did I get these pockets to look so nice?
TL;DR Hand basting. But there are pictures!
Take a journey with me.
You’ll have to forgive the terrible, terrible lighting in these pictures. Next time I’ll edit the photos so the white balance is better.
I cannot say enough about how much I love Gütermann threads. This is an all-purpose polyester thread, and the color is so vibrant and the twist is so smooth. It doesn’t fluff up and shed all over my machine. Basically, it’s gorgeous thread.
First, I had to sew the false pleat in the fabric. I am grateful for the built in sewing guidelines on this plaid. It really makes pattern matching easy. I should have used more pins, however, because the layer underneath shifted ever so slightly off grain.
You can see in this photograph how the grain has shifted. I stitched the pocket facing and all around the pocket edge so I’d have a guide for folding the hem, then turned the pocket out after trimming the seam.
Then, using the machine stitch as a folding guide, I hand-basted the seam allowance down for a nice, square result.
I still was having a bit of trouble keeping the pockets on the straight of grain, so I pinned the heck out of the pockets and whip-stitched them down.
Finally, I top-stitched them to the front panels following the pattern instructions.
As you can see, I’m still a bit off-grain at the bottom of the pocket (and I’m just now noticing the crooked pocket facing stitch line...), but I was fairly pleased with the result and had no desire to do all that work again, so I’ve left it!
Next came the pocket flaps. Can’t be a traditional flannel without all these little details.
I had already affixed the iron-on interfacing, so I stitched the pocket flaps to the flap facings and turned them out
I use this mini screw driver to pop out the corners so they’re nice and crisp.
And I love this workhorse of a Rowenta steam iron. Such a wonderful and often-used wedding gift.
I then top-stitched to match the pockets and applied buttonholes. I use a precision knife to cut the buttonholes open. I’ll get a picture when I do the rest of the buttonholes.
I affixed the flaps to the front panels above the pockets and top-stitched them down.
No progress pics but I swear I made this myself. Not perfect but it's black with black stitching so who's going to notice? Needs buttons and buttonholes, I'll probably do those tomorrow.
