Slip Stitch Patch Pockets

         

I have been poking at this post since November 2025; work and life have been in waves of upheaval.

And the illustration disappeared and I had to redo it.

Sandra Betzina is a guiding light in construction techniques, in addition to the other talents she possesses. 

https://youtu.be/Zzu6uW8RkYw?si=zdPuOveVkToSOv0-

The subscription website no longer exists, 

There is a DVD with this technique out there in some library systems, but it is out of print. 

The preview is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-QDfg6J9AU&t=135s

I have watched it, and this tutorial is based on that video. I would link you to the video if I could. I am being a little vague here on purpose.

The key is making a cardboard template. To trace around, to iron the edges over onto. Cardstock, cereal boxes, corrugated is too thick.

Click on this image to make it too damn big and legible.

I cut out my pieces the same size and trimmed and eyeballed them to a pleasing proportion of 'how much fold over of the outside fabric I could spare'. 

I didn't have much to spare. These pockets are a little small for my purposes, but they will hold a cell phone until I am forced into a larger phone.

(pocket sizing is another post for another day)

I  am tracing the sewing lines onto the lining fabric.

I have machine stitched the lining part to the garment and am ironing the seam allowance in to the inside.

Using the cardboard template

I held the slipstitching edge like a sandwich in my left hand and slipstitched with my right.

Yes, there were hand cramps and I took breaks. 

What the stitching looks like on the inside of the garment

What it looks like on the outside. I do not have enough of this fabric to match the print, but you could.

All hail the genius of Sandra Betzina. I claim no invention, I am just executing her well considered instructions. 

My best writing is in the comments now (the Die Hard reboot).

Okay, I am a crank in the comments, but I am annoyed with the 'you would be a real sewist if you used This Special Item'. I have fallen for that, how many of us have at least one overpriced object that taunts us from the workspace?

https://www.dmc.com/US/en/products/11-cm-mini-weaving-loom

Don't ask me how much I paid for one ten years ago.

You don't need to get in that race; you can probably make do with what you have for the task at hand right now.

Sure, I love my expensive seam rippers, but I love shiny things and I love picking them up. Which is good, because most of my sewing involves picking up and using a seam ripper for hours. 

And I enjoy that.

And while it's still early enough: my Die Hard theory. It is a Christmas movie because it's a corporate Christmas party held at the company headquarters because they are too house proud and too strapped to rent a hotel, thus inviting in a hoard of caterers and event workers, none of whom have been vetted or carry id besides wearing house blacks and toques, pushing portable warming ovens on wheels and laundry hampers. Baby, I can write a better one just from the front of house notes from the corporate holiday party we just hosted at our venue. 

Notes for the remake: 

There's no money, it's a lie, they are about to go into receivership on January 1st. The safe is empty.

Terrorists pop out of laundry hampers; the rolling warming ovens they bring in are thermonuclear devices.

The HVAC vents are too small, you move through the dropped ceiling.

Waymos need to be a part of the ending.

It writes itself. Sadly I dumped this on my unsuspecting boss, right after he told me that Macauley Culkin said Die Hard couldn't be a Xmas film because the plot could have happened at any time of year. Mac has never been to a corporate Xmas party, and my boss is just really sad right now, and I am sorry I harshed his mellow.

I will try to be a better person in the new year. Meanwhile, my dislike for the James Cameron Avatar movies continues:

If anyone of you went to the last Microsoft Christmas party, please leave your memories in the comments. Oh boy. It was a whole lotta something.