Tutorial: Bellow pockets (my way)

-assalammualaikum-
Good morning all,

It's very cold today and very refreshing. I woke up a little late than I supposed to, about 4.40am, I'd plan to start my day at 3.30am, not that I'm an early riser, but that's the only time I can sew without being distracted by my kids, especially little Enaydia.

I had make a promise to post a tutorial yesterday on my fb status on how to make bellow pockets, my way, of course! I love bellow pockets, you can see my obsession on bellow pockets almost on my every bag collection!

So, while making the handbag/car organizer for my shop today, I'll show you how to make the bellow pockets. The neat version...haha...

This is a pictorial tutorial. Less instructions. I hope the pictures will guide you through the process, and click at the picture to enlarge it if you can't see clearly.

My tutorial showed here is how to make 2 pockets on 23cm wide bag body (add 1cm for seams allowance to all 4 corners).

* I use 1 cm for seams.

-For a 23cm (without seams allowance measurement) bag wide, you have to minus 1cm to create the pocket (23cm - 1cm = 22cm -pocket measurement, without seams.)

-From 22cm, divide it to 2 (since we're going to make 2 pockets) and you'll get 11cm measurement for each pocket.

-Now, look at the picture carefully. I'm drawing my pattern on an interfacing because I'm using soft English cotton. If you are using thick cotton/linen, there is no need to use interfacing, okay.

PICTURE 1
First, measure about 3cm-3.5cm. Notice that there is another line crossing those two lines?
That will be a seam line to sew the 2 pieces together. (in pic no. 9)

PICTURE 2
Now, measure 1.5cm, this will create the pocket depth



PICTURE 3
Measure 11cm here for the pocket

PICTURE 4
There are 4 columns here. Each column are measures at 1.5cm.
Oh, I've lost one pic here, after you create that 4 columns, measure another 11cm for pocket.
Remember, we are making 2 pockets here!



PICTURE 5
Another 1.5cm column

PICTURE 6
And another 3cm-3.5cm column

PICTURE 7
Cut 2 pieces for pockets. Same size. But, I usually cut another piece bigger because I don't want to waste my time measure the same thing all over again which I can do it easier later.
 Will go to that later.
Notice here that the another piece was not interfaced.



PICTURE 8
Right side facing each other.

PICTURE 9
Sew on the seam.



PICTURE 10
Now, iron it flat.
I'm using a silk setting on my iron to prevent the interfacing from shrinking if the setting is too hot.



PICTURE 11
Fold at the joins and iron again.

PICTURE 12
Sew at the joining, I use the inner line of the footer to guide my sewing therefore,
 I don't need to use zipper footer or smaller footer scale seam footer to sew near the edge.

PICTURE 13
This is how I guide the stitching using normal foot when sewing near the edge.

PICTURE 14
The stitching.

PICTURE 15
Again, using the footer as my guide, I stitch another line.
A lazy way of sewing, so you don't need to draw a line to sew this...haha!

PICTURE 16
This is how it will look like.

PICTURE 17
See the extra fabric there? The one that I've talking about in pic no. 7?
You can now trim off the extra fabric.

PICTURE 18
Now, we will start sewing the first and last line  of that 4 columns as shown.

 

PICTURE 19
And it will look like this.

PICTURE 20
Take both lines that you have sewn just now and bring it to the center...

PICTURE 21
...like so, and you can iron it to let it sit still.

PICTURE 22
Now stitch both end.
 This is how it will look like from back view (inside pocket view).

PICTURE 23
Now fold the line that I showed here on both sides and stitch.

PICTURE 24
This is how it will look like. Alone.

 

PICTURE 25
You can now place the pocket onto the bag body.
Center the pocket and adjust accordingly.



PICTURE 26
Don't forget to stitch at the center of the pocket to create a divider.

PICTURE 27
Secure pocket pieces to the bag body piece with a stitch using sewing machine.

PICTURE 28
This is how it will look like on the bag body.

PICTURE 29
And this is how it will look like on a finish bag, of course, mine here is not lined yet.
There you have it, a neat bellow pockets...!

Please read it again and again to get the picture as if you are using Japanese book, okay ;)

Hope I've help you here and if have comments or something that you don't understand, do not hesitate to let me know ya!

Have a nice day and happy holidays to Wilayah Persekutuan residents!