A pinch and a punch

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month and no punch backs.
Ancient English saying

Finally! Here is the promised pocket tutorial. I'm going to do this in two parts.
Today is the embroidered fabric for the pocket and Friday I will show the making of the pocket.
This is the lovely pocket I'll be making, displayed around my slender, photoshoped waist (well I had to have some help, since the stripes are so obviously working against me).

1. I began by constructing a pieced, appliqued, embroidered and quilted fabric that I cut my pocket and backing from. Obviously you can skip all this and just make a pocket from plain or printed fabric but let's have some fun here.
I started out with some silk duponi which had gold threads on the warp and red on the weft. This stuff looks great when frayed and slashed. I mixed this with some old pieced quilt squares. I seamed them together allowing the frayed edge of the silk to fold to the right side.

2. Next I added another piece of silk, with the seams on the wrong side.

3. I've added a few stips of torn silk in different colours, stitching them to the backing fabric with a straight stitch and encouraging them to fray.

Then I have pinned a piece of checked cotton with a traced flower, on to the backing fabric.

4. The flower was machine embroidered to the backing fabric with a straight stitch and then the excess fabric was cut away.

5. I machine stiched the centre circle and cut away fabric.

6. Using a piece of white card with the pocket shape cut out of it, I framed different areas of the appliqued fabric to see which I liked.

7. When I selected an area I liked I traced the pocket pattern on to the fabric and cut it out of the fabric allowing plenty of seam allowance (which will shrink in the embroidery/quilting phase). I also cut out the same size of a muslin fabric to quilt the pocket to.

8. Finally I machine and hand stitched these fabrics together, adding sequins and beads.

This last picture gives you a better idea of what the fabric looks like.

See you Friday.

Comments

[Laura]

Oooo... I love this. I'm going to be using some of these ideas for a strippy patchy throw/quilt for my daughters (without sequins of course!).

[nina]

you are fun, fun, fun....xx

[Blair]

Oh my, there is so much cute to take in, thank you for not doing all in one post. I love that skirt you're wearing!

[lyn]

That is SO gorgeous.
Thank you Juju.
: )

[Brenda]

Wow! you have such a vocabulary of embellishing techniques! Makes it seem easy!

[risa]

thanks soooo much for this! i too love your skirt. you have the best style. also, i was wondering if you still plan to arrange some purchases of julie arkell's book?

[Tongue_in_Cheek_Antiques]

Now that is a pocket I could keep my hand in all day! So pretty and creative and rich in texture! Your pocket seems full of happy love!

[sara]

love the pocket, but your skirt!....it is lovelly.
great work!!

[Carol]

Thank you for this fabulous tutorial. Wonderful techniques and so full of texture.

[wilsonian]

I've never been very good at layering embellishment like that... but I'm rather fabulous at admiring what you're making!!