Tips for sewing pockets with Jasmine

August 29, 2024

Hey sewing friends!

Have you ever been frustrated because of sagging pocket openings after washing your handmade clothes a few times? Or irritated with your patch pocket moving while you are trying to sew it in place?

I’m here to share with you TWO of my favorite methods to remedy those frustrations:

¼ inch Wonder Tape (water soluble) 

AND ¼ inch clear elastic

Before Wonder Tape, I used to use pins to keep my pockets in place. I kept having issues with the pins; they would warp the shape of the pocket which sometimes led to it looking misshapen after sewing it in place. With the Wonder Tape, because it is double sided, it sticks where you put it while also keeping the desired shape of the fabric and doesn’t warp or stretch. The best part of it all, is that it won’t gum up your needles AND it disappears once washed!!

Now, here’s I use it:

Step 1: Prepare your pocket (hem the top and press the sides). Pull a small amount of tape from the roll and stick it to itself (about 1 inch). The paper backing will now be on both sides.  (this is a tip to help you get the tape off the roll; it can be tricky sometimes)

Step 2: While leaving the “tab” we created in Step 1 as overhang, place the Wonder Tape on all the sides you need to stay put while you sew (you will need to cut the tape to size; no need to add anything to the top of the pocket)

TIP: Apply to one section at a time, removing the paper backing as you go. You can also overlap your wonder tape for easier application after you remove the paper backing. It will stick to itself at the overlapped sections making it easier to apply.

Step 3: Now that the prep work has been completed, all that’s left to do is to stick the pocket in place and sew it down! Wonder Tape sticks really well, so you don’t have to worry about it shifting. 

Voila! You’ve got an immaculately applied pocket!

Now let’s move on to how we can keep slant pocket openings from sagging over time using ¼ elastic!

This tip is pretty straight forward: you want to apply the elastic WITHIN the seam allowance of the pocket opening. But before we can do that, we need to pre-condition our elastic by “exercising” it prior to application. 

To do that, we need to pull it outward and let it bounce back (while still holding onto it) a few times. This helps to activate the elastic so that it won’t stretch out AFTER application.

As you can see in the photos above, exercising the elastic changed the width a smidge. If you could feel it, you would notice that the elastic  is no longer stiff. Now, we can add the elastic to the seam of the pocket opening on the WRONG side of the fabric using a 1:1 ratio (no-little tension is needed really). After applying the elastic, topstitch your pocket and BAM! No more sagging pockets. The elastic acts as a flexible stabilizer that will stretch with your fabric but also snap back to its original shape!

Here are some bonus photos of my daughter’s outfit where I used both of these methods. We don’t celebrate Halloween traditionally at our house but the kids still love spooky season attire and RCF always has great alternative prints for everyone!

Fabric links:

Let’s Go Ghouls Panel by Kim Henrie

Let’s Go Ghouls Coord Fabric by Kim Henrie

I hope these tips and tricks help you out! Until next time 😊

-Jas

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