With the pocket areas reinforced, we can begin working on the pockets themselves. Although the waist pockets and breast pockets are constructed identically, there are a few slight changes in the breast pocket due to the steeper angle, so we’ll begin with the waist pockets. If you’ve never made a pocket like this before, I highly suggest practicing once or twice on some scraps just to get the process worked out in your mind.

First, draw out the pattern for the pocket welts, you’ll need one for each pocket. The pattern should be rectangular, 1 1/2″ longer than the pocket opening (3/4″ on each end), and twice the width of the finished welt. I like my welts to be 5/8″ wide, slightly more substantial than 1/2″, yet not looking too blocky or bulky like those above 3/4″ do.

Cut out the welt patterns, again, one for each pocket.

Now, to decide how you want to align the stripes, if you have any. Originals could be anything from perfectly matched, to completely mismatched and even sewn on the bias. So it’s up to you how you want to go about doing things.

If you’ve installed a dart into the waist, you’ll only be able to match the stripes along one side or the other most likely, unless your dart happens to perfectly maintain the distance between the stripes.

Lay the pattern onto the pocket, aligning it with the basting stitches indicating the pocket opening, and centering it so 3/4″ extends beyond the opening on each side.

I chose to align the stripes on the pocket near the side seam, as the area is bigger and slightly more noticeable. Lay a ruler along one of the stripes, and draw a line indicating that stripe on the pattern.

Draw as many of the stripes in as you feel you’ll need. I like to draw them across the width of the pocket to try to get the positioning more accurately. Just be consistent though and keep your lines on the same side of each stripe.

Here are my two patterns for the left and right sides. Note how they’re mirror images of each other.

Now you can use the patterns to lay out and cut your welt pieces. Just align the lines on your pattern with the stripes on the fabric and you should be good to go.

Now lay your welt piece into position on the forepart and see how you did with your alignments. Everything looks good so far here. The angle distortion from the dart even helps to align the stripes a little on the left side, so we’ll see how that turns out.

Now actually sewing the dart is where it gets tricky. It takes a bit of practice and developed skill to be able to get the alignment just right.

Flip the pocket welt over the marked opening so that right sides are together, realigning it as necessary so that the edge of the welt is just touching the marked pocket opening. Now shift the welt over ever so slightly so that the stripes align not at the edge of the cloth, but 1/4″ inch from the edge, were the seam will be sewn. I’ll add a closeup in the next photo.

As you can see here in the closeup, I’ve matched as closely as possible the 1/4″ seam allowance, the diagonal stripe on the welt itself, and the vertical stripe on the forepart, all converging on that one intersection. And this must be done for each stripe, though after you get one the rest generally fall into place.

And if you look closely enough in the photo, you’ll see that mine isn’t even perfectly aligned. I’ve ever so slightly offset it to account for the turning of the fabric, which takes up a very slight amount in addition to the seam allowance. This is the part that takes a lot of practice, but I know you can get it with a little effort on your part.

Now baste the pocket welt into position, fine tuning the alignment of the stripes as you go. This can be a little tricky, depending on the angle of your pocket, because the slight bias cut has a tendency to encourage stretching of the welt in comparison to the forepart underneath.

Here’s the welt after being basted on. You can see how the stripes got out of alignment to the left side of the dart.

Turning to the pocket bags for a moment, cut a four rectangular pieces (two for each pocket) 1 1/2″ longer than the pocket opening by about 4 inches in depth. I like to cut them a little over sized, as they’re so much easier to trim to the exact size later on.

Lay one pocket bag, right sides together, on the forepart, just above the pocket opening, aligning it evenly with the pocket welt below it.

And baste the pocket bag to the forepart in the same manner as the welt. Much easier this time since there aren’t any stripes to match!

Here’s the pocket so far.

Now mark the ends of the pocket opening as precisely as possible on the pocket bag and welt at both ends.

And on the lower end of the pocket bag, mark another line 1/4″ away from the original. Since the pocket is on an angle, we need to end the stitching a little early to make room for the turning in of the pocket ends. This extra quarter inch gives the relief needed.

Now carefully sew the pocket welt to the forepart using a 1/4″ seam, from chalk mark to chalk mark. My presser foot happens to be 1/4″ in width so I use that as a guide. Take care, as the slight bias cut has a tendency to stretch the welt out of alignment.

Repeat for the pocket bag, remembering that the stitching is offset at the lower end by that 1/4″.

Here’s the lower end of the pocket after sewing with the offset stitching on the pocket bag.

And on the other end of the pockets, the stitching should align as closely as possible.

Here’s the stitching from the wrong side. On the left, lower side of the pocket you see the offset stitching, while on the right, upper end, the stitching should align as closely as possible. This one happened to be a little bit off but I wanted to show my errors so you can learn from them. In this case, I wasn’t too worried as the very slight offset won’t affect much.

Not sure what happened with all that thread at the lower left corner. Hmm.

And here’s the final view from the right side, of the opposite pocket.

Finally, remove the basting stitches from the pocket welt and bag. It’s best to do this before cutting open the pocket when there’s more strength in the area.

Before installing the pockets, it’s a good idea to reinforce the area around them with linen stays, particular in more delicate fabrics like silk. In addition, since the pockets are on a slight bias, these stays prevent any unwanted stretching.

First, begin by finalizing the position of the pockets on the wrong side of each forepart. If you’ve installed a waist dart, it will have thrown the position and size of the pocket off. Hopefully you marked the ends of the pockets with tailor tacks earlier. Simply connect the two points with a chalk line, extending the line if necessary due to the loss of width from the dart.

Then measure out the exact width you’d like the pocket. Anywhere from 5″ – 6″ works well, depending on your size. I made mine 5 3/8″. Repeat this immediately for the other pocket to be sure you mirror it correctly.

With a double over basting thread, run a row of running stitches along each of the refined pocket lines. There’s no need to cut these open as they’re only going through a single layer, not both halves of the waistcoat at once as before.

Here’s my pocket after redrawing and marking the lines.

Now draw a line across the entire forepart, parallel to and 1″ above the pockets.

Now cut a strip of linen 1 3/4″ wide and a little longer than the width of the forepart. Place it on the wrong side of the forepart over the pocket, aligned with the line you just drew. Ideally there will be about 1″ of linen above the pocket, and 3/4″ below, to provide an area for the pocket to be attached to.

Baste across the top and bottom of the linen strip, about 1/4″ from the edge, using a straight basting stitch. Try to keep a neutral tension between the linen and the forepart.

The linen stay after basting.

Now trim the linen stay flush with the edges of the forepart.

The breast pocket(s) is stayed in the same manner, but rather than extending the linen across the entire forepart, I go only about an inch beyond the inner edge of the pocket, to avoid the linen from interfering with the roll of the collar.

Here’s the left forepart after staying the breast and waist pockets (I’m not installing a breast pocket on the right side).

Next we’ll install the under collar onto the waistcoat forepart. Lay the collar on top of the forepart, right sides together, and ensure that the proper, shallower edge of the collar is next to the neck line.

Align the bottom of the collar so that the 3/8″ seam allowance meets the edge of the forepart.

You can use a ruler here to make sure you get the correct position.

Begin basting the under collar to the forepart, beginning at the bottom of the collar. Try to keep a neutral tension between the two pieces – the collar will naturally want to fall into the correct position as you baste, though it may take a few tries before you get the hang of it.

Here’s the under collar after basting. If you look closely, I did take slightly smaller basting stitches in areas where the curve deepens, for example near the shoulder at the top of the collar, and anywhere I could feel the tension between the two pieces needing the extra support.

Here you can see the tension that is naturally built into the under collar seam, due to the opposing curves of each piece. This will help the collar and neck line stay closer to the body.

One last look at the bottom point of the collar before sewing. It’s so important to get this alignment just right.

Sew the undercollar to the forepart from the top of the shoulder the shoulder to the bottom of the collar, using a 3/8″ seam allowance. I recommend sewing with the underside of the forepart facing up, opposite from what is shown.

You can see some of the excess fabric from the under collar in this photo. While it works just fine as shown, you’ll have to manipulate the fullness with your fingers as you sew, whereas if the under collar was underneath, the presser foot would help distribute this excess.

And continue sewing right to the edge at the bottom of the collar, ensuring the pieces are still properly aligned.

Here’s the undercollar after being sewn.

The bottom of the collar showing the alignment of the two pieces in relation to the seam line.

And shown here is the top of the collar at the shoulder. Ignore the little mark I had made there – made a mistake with overthinking things and ended my stitching there instead of at the very edge of the shoulder.

Pressing

Press the collar and seams up away from the forepart, beginning from the wrong side. Definitely use a tailor’s ham here due to the curved nature of the seam.

Turn the forepart over and press from the right side as well. I didn’t use any steam here because it wasn’t necessary, but also because the steam can cause the polished cotton to lose its special finish.

Here’s the forepart so far after attaching the under collar.

I like to transfer the darts to the remaining side of the forepart by just tracing them with the original pattern, rather than using the tailor’s tacks. It seems to be a little more accurate, and quicker as well.

Fold each of the darts in half, aligning the sides as closely as you can. Shown here is the neck dart.

Baste the dart closed, keeping about 1/4″ away from the lines.

Do the same with the rest of the darts if you’re putting them in. Here’s my waist dart going in (again not recommended unless you have the proper figure).

To check my alignment, I like to stick the needle directly through the dart and see how close it is to the opposite line. Then I’ll adjust accordingly.

Continue basting. It’s easier to get both sides to line up, the closer you get to the end of the dart.

For any darts that take a strain, such as the waist darts or perhaps a dart in the armscye (not covered in this course), I like to reinforce them with a piece of linen to strengthen the area. I left them out of the neck dart so as to facilitate the roll of the collar and because it doesn’t take much stress.

Take a square of linen, about 1″ to 1 1/2″ square, and fold and press it in half.

Place the linen firmly against the dart, so that the end of the dart falls in the middle of the linen.

Baste the linen piece in place through all layers.

Now redraw the line at the tip of the dart over the linen as necessary using a sharp pencil (should take my own advice). Just line a ruler up with the rest of the dart and redraw.

Starting at the edge of the dart, begin sewing on the outside of the chalk line towards the tip.

As you get near the tip, adjust your sewing machine to take smaller stitches, to firm up the area.

The idea is to pretty much sew right off the edge of the fabric, after tapering out very slightly at the tip.

Leave the threads long after sewing so that you can tie them off by hand, rather than trying to back stitch with the sewing machine on such a narrow area.

Here you can see how the stitching gets smaller as it approaches the tip of the darts.

Now trim the linen on each side down to about 1/4″.

Pressing

Pressing the darts is fairly straightforward. Begin by pressing the dart along its length while it is still folded in half. Don’t press beyond the tip though or you’ll begin creasing the waistcoat itself.

Using a tailor’s ham, press the dart over to one side or the other, from the wrong side. Here for the neck dart I’m pressing the dart downwards so that it won’t be fighting gravity the entire time.

Then turn to the right side and press the dart again along its length. Pay particular attention to the tip of the dart and get it smoothed out as nicely as possible.

The waist dart is a little trickier since it’s more of a compound shape. Press the dart while folded in half.

Then press the lower portion of the dart to one side, being sure it’s fully opened underneath.

Then readjust the dart over the tailor’s ham and press the remaining bit of dart in the same direction.

Flip over and press from the right side.

Here’s the forepart so far after installing both darts.