Welt Pocket Construction

A Welt pocket is standard in the lining of a Richmond jacket. I figured I would go photograph all the different steps to making one.

Firstly, the left hand front lining piece should be used. That means that the armscye opening of the jacket is to the top left. From there, the two pocket bags pieces should be laid above and below where the intended opening goes.

A simple running stitch should then be used about ½" from the top and bottom edges of the pieces. They should end a little farther than ½" from the edges on the right and left.

After that, a slit should be cut between the two bags. It should end ½" from the end of both running stitches, and then be cut up to them.

Turn the pocket pieces to the inside of the lining.

After that, use a simple running stitch to sew along the bottom of the bag, holding down the lower pocket bag piece, but being sure not to catch the top bag piece that is now behind the lower one. If you do catch it, it will sew the bag shut.

After that, push in the small triangles of fabric that will have formed from turning the pieces. Use a buttonhole stitch to hold them in place. Your bag ought to look like this now:

 Now, looking at the inside of the lining, simply sew together the two pieces. Use a backstitch, since it'll provide more strength than a running stitch. From the right side, the backstitch looks just like a running stitch.

And that's it. A relatively simple way to make a pocket. Hopefully this helped anyone having confusion  on how to make one.

Richmond Depot III- Part 1

I'm beginning with a pretty basic jacket: a Richmond Depot III jacket. Lacking the epaulettes and belt loops of the previous Richmond jackets, it goes together pretty quickly and doesn't require much skill. I've put a few together already, the last one made was a type II and a copy of the Brunson Jacket. This one won't be an exact copy of any one original, but will instead be a 'generic' jacket, and include details of different Originals.

This is one half of the body put together. I'm waiting to sew up the back seam, since having with the jacket in halves makes it easier to work with. For those interested, the body jacket is County Cloth's K1 Kersey.

A close up of the collar. Many of the collars on the original jackets are quite small. I've done that here; the height of the collar is less than an inch.

And finally the body of the jacket put together. The simplicity of it meant that this was completed in less than ten minutes. The body still needs to be properly pressed, which is why it looks so poor in the photo, but all the stitching is done.

The lining will take only as long as the main body to put together. It doesn't need a collar or lapel facings, but the pocket needs to worked in. That should be the focus of my next update.