Matching Pockets

The scrub top I'm making was the third project in the four-week sewing class I recently took. (We also made a pillow and a bag which I'll show in another post.) A week after that class I am still working on the top. I blame this on the pockets. There are three of them. I have made at least four pockets so far. I have installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled one of those pockets at least three times.


I cut the the pieces for this project in a hurry at about 1:00 a.m. the night before class. I pattern-matched the top pocket, but for some reason I wasn't even thinking about trying to match the print on the bottom pocket with the print on the shirt front. I wasn't even thinking that I needed two bottom pockets so I showed up to class short one pocket piece. I cut the second bottom pocket in class, and since I was reasonably awake by then I cut it so the prints matched. I got the top pocket sewn on very nicely with the print matched almost perfectly to the shirt front. I even stitched in the optional pen holder and was quite pleased with myself. Then things went sideways for about two weeks.

The left-hand lower pocket was going to stick out like a sore thumb because the print on the pocket didn't line up with the print on the shirt front. I didn't want to waste that pocket piece, so I came up with a clever scheme to distract from the un-matched print: I got a piece of white muslin and made some un-piped piping to trim around the pocket. I don't think this is technically what you'd call binding, but it's sort of similar. I think they do the same thing on pillow cases sometimes. Basically, I cut a strip of fabric about an inch wide, folded it in half with the fold to the outside and sewed this folded strip, with no filler cord, between the pocket and the shirt front so the white bit stuck out a little. This formed a white frame around the pocket and kind of distracted from the unmatched pattern. That's as far as I got before class ended for the week. I'd have to do the remaining pocket at home.

Since I was on a roll with design changes, I got the bright idea to put a piece of piping cord inside the hem of the right-hand bottom pocket so that pens would have something to clip to. That took three tries to get right. The first time, I set the first stitchline too close to the end of the hem and didn't have enough fabric left to close up the piping. The second try I had too much room and got sloppy with my stitching. The third try was just right. I had both bottom pockets on, and the one on the right looked pretty darn good.

Of course, I couldn't just put self-piping on the right-hand pocket. . . And, frankly, I thought the white trim around the left-hand pocket was a bit wide. See where this is going? Off came the left-hand pocket. And, since I was taking it off anyway, I figured I might as well cut a whole new pocket so the pattern would match.

Remember, the whole reason I did the little pin striping trick in the first place was because the print on this pocket didn't line up with the print on the shirt front. Which it would now. Never mind. I was committed, and the little white pin stripe thing actually helped break up the monotony of the busy flamingo print, so it was all working out. I cut a new pocket so the print matched and I sewed the new left-hand pocket on, complete with self-piping in the hem and a nice, tastefully thin white trim piece.

That's when I realized that somehow, despite careful attention to getting the print lined up, one bottom pocket was higher than the other. That's also when I learned that the size of the repeating print on your fabric makes a big difference in how you line up pieces so the print matches. I'm not sure where I went wrong, but I had definitely messed this up. Again.

I was amazingly calm about all of this and simply decided that it was time to move on to something that was not a pocket. I un-threaded my machine, threaded up a fresh spool of white thread, wound a new bobbin, and got to work on the neckline. Since I already had the little white pieces of trim around the pockets, I tossed my original neckline piece and made a new one using the same bleached muslin as I used around the pockets. I had already figured out how to attach the piece a couple of nights ago but I had to remove some black basting and resew the piece with white thread before I could move on. So, I did that and got the neckline sewn on.

I admit, I did not "grade" the seam allowances as required by the instructions. In fact, one of the stitch lines missed about 2" of hem on the shirt front and I just said, "Screw it" and put a second line of stitches in. Nobody will ever notice and if they do they won't know there was only supposed to be one. Plus, now the neckline is stronger. I also added a little extra stitching where the "V" in the neckline piece folded over. That just seemed a little floppy to me. So, I stitched that sucker up. I was out of control - forging ahead with reckless disregard for the sewing instructions that came with this pattern. But, you know what? The neckline looked pretty good!

Getting away from the pockets for a while gave me a much-needed boost and I decided to go ahead and stitch the front half of the top to the back half - a huge step. Now it was starting to look something that could actually be worn and not just a shirt-shaped piece of cloth with a few pockets sewn to it.

I've put a lot of effort into making a scrub top that my wife can't even wear to work (because she has to wear solid blue scrubs). This is my own fault. If I had stuck with a plain fabric I would probably be done by now. But, it's OK - this is a learning experience, right? And, boy, have I learned a lot.

I've learned that I don't like headless flamingos on shirts. If I have to cut off a flamingo's head to make a pocket, I want to match his body up to another head. My class instructor calls this "fussy cutting." I just call it pattern-matching. I don't consider it being "fussy." I consider it good workmanship. And a fair excuse to keep a glass of bourbon close by when I sew.

I've learned that the bigger the repeat of a print pattern the more cloth it takes to match the print. When the "repeat" is four flamingos tall and seven flamingos wide, you can't just shift the pocket an inch or two to the left to line it up. Your pocket piece has to shift about 7" to line up with the next upside-down, one-legged, left-facing flamingo.

And, finally, I've learned to use plain fabrics whenever I take on a new type of project for the first time. I had played around with pattern matching on my second pillow project, so I should have known better than to pick a busy pattern for my first garment project. But, I was in the fabric store the night before class, fifteen minutes before closing time, and I wasn't thinking clearly. They said to make my final selections and get to the cash register to check out. So, I panicked and grabbed the first fabric I saw that I liked, which happened to be a fairly busy flamingo motif with a 7" x 10" repeat. I won't make that mistake again!

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