Marfy 1876 - Trousers with cute zipped pockets

I have been given some unexpected time off work and was able to go to the fabric shop on Thursday to get the required interfacing to underpin the silk linen which has allowed me to get started sooner than expected on this project.

The fronts went together easily, and I am pleased with the way the fly came together neatly. For once I didn't break my machine needle on the bottom zipper stop either.

The front patch pockets weren't difficult either. I followed the instructions in my new David Page Coffin book, which has you create a little window, by sewing a piece of lining or organza to the front of the pocket, over the placement lines, stitching a box. You then cut the box open, with a triangle at each end, like a bound buttonhole, and turn the lining/organza through to the back, pull it nice and tight and neat (I used Steam a Seam to keep mine in place so you can't see the organza - at least that is the theory, a little of mine did make a bid for publicity but practice makes perfect I suppose). Then put the zipper under the window you made, and sew around the edge of the window with a zipper foot, which attaches the zipper really neatly.

The back zipped pockets were a whole other story. I am still not sure I did these completely correctly, but the end result appears to be OK. There are three pieces involved; the back leg, the pocket/underlay/side back piece, which is all one bit, and a mad triangular piece that has to be set into the junction between the other two pieces. The problem is where to attach the upper edge of the zipper as there isn't a seam to put it in. Here is how I solved the problem.

This is the back pocket piece with the zipper attached. The tacking is the placement line for the zip. The part above the zipper forms the upper section of the back of the trousers, the part below the zip is the pocket bag itself. There is just this one piece for the pocket. As far as I can tell, the pocket bag is side stitched (pick stitched) from the front to form the pocket. At least, that is my understanding of the pattern marking "fine stitchings here" I have laid the zipper with the teeth along the placement line and sewn it on with a zipper foot from the back of the zip, since the face of the zip is laid against the cloth. Once the zip is attached, I pressed it back into the position shown in the second photograph (the one showcasing my bitten fingernails), ready to attach the main part of the trouser to the piece.

This photograph shows how the lower part of the zip pocket is attached. The tacking at the edge of the fold is the seam allowance marking at the top of the back piece of the trousers. I pressed the seam allowance to the wrong side, and here I am placing the folded edge along the second side of the zipper. I pinned it into place then top stitched the folded edge to the second side of the zipper tape. I now have the pocket and the main body attached together. I tacked the side of the pocket, at the side seam, at this point to keep it in place whilst I inserted the mad triangular section that finishes the upper part of the trousers at centre back, and creates the seam that closes the zipper at that end. The zipper pulls are toward the center back on each side. I used longer than necessary zippers so I could place the zipper stop well into the seam allowance at the side seam and cut it off later to reduce bulk.

This photo shows the two pieces attached together with pins so you can see what is really going on. The tacking lines you can see are where the "fine stitchings" will be sewn to hold the pocket bag in place and make it into a useable pocket. You can see here the gap at the top where the mad triangular inserted bit will have to be placed. And boy is that fun to do.

Here is the two pieces, and I have opened up the zipper to about three quarters of the way to the side seam. I found this made it slightly easier to do the first of the two seams of the triangle neatly. This bit needs pin point accuracy, something I am not all that great at. Much ripping went on at this stage. The second photograph shows the mad triangular piece attached to the first side of the L shaped seam. At this point its necessary to wrangle the zip into exactly the right position so that it disappears into the seam neatly, instead of running part way up the seam like a trim before disappearing, leaving an inch of unzippable zipper (and requiring urgent injections of coffee into the sewer before ripping and re-sewing takes place).

I must have got carried away with the process at this point, because evidently I forgot to take the crucial final photograph in which I sewed the other side of the triangle to the other part of the trousers, and stopped my seam exactly at the junction of the first seam so that I did not stop the zipper in its tracks, make a messy curved bit at the point of the triangle, or have a hole (yep, did all three... my seam ripper has had a really good workout today).

In the absence of a proper photograph of this last step, I will have to use this photo. The bit of triangle I have held down flat, has to be attached to the top of the trouser leg section, ensuring all zipping parts are lined up so the zip operates, nothing gets trapped, and it all looks reasonably neat. I don't like doing L shaped seams. They are difficult and fiddly to get right. One came out better than the other... but somehow that always seems to be the case when doing matched pairs of difficult seams, doesn't it?

And finally, here is the finished product, from both the front and the back. The wrong side view shows that pesky L shaped seam.