Lining Pre-Pocketed Pockets

For this Tutorial Tuesday!!! we will be looking at that beach bag I embroidered a couple months (or so) back. Unfortunately it's no longer beach-worthy weather, but I can still enjoy the thought of lounging on some tropical sand somewhere while I'm stuck trudging through the snow this winter....right? right?! (good thing I have a VERY active imagination)

Anyway once the embroidery was done I was worried that slipping things into the pocket would catch the threads on the back, loosen stitches, rip beads off, wear down knots and generally wreak havoc over time. Thus, the decision to line it....but how? I thought about it for days luckily for you, so now you don't have to! Just follow these easy(ish) steps:

1. First you'll need a pocket to line. One that would be too much of a pain to rip off and that needs a little more love on the inside. You'll also need some fabric to line it with--something peppy and fun (Especially if you're putting the lining somewhere unexpected like the butt pockets on your favorite pair of jeans that now is starting to wear through where your wallet lives).

2. I think the next step is a little too obvious but, you're gonna measure the opening of your pocket. If you can't figure out this step, you might want to stop now. Jean pockets (unless they are square) would be most easy to trace and mark where the seams are. You'd use this as a template for cutting.
3. Now the figuring. I love math don't you? (when it comes to this yes, cause it's easy, but ask me to do a logarithmic anything and I'll laugh at you till I pass out) Anyway, I think this is pretty self explanatory (H obviously stands for height and W for width).

4. Now fold your fabric in half hamburger style and iron that fold. Then take some sort of marking utensil like a pencil (hehe) and some sort of measuring tool like a rule(r) and draw a line across the top 1/2" down from the edge. (this is why I don't write poetry by the way)

5. Sew from your marking down each side to the fold with a 1/4" seam. Easy Peasy!
6. Clip the corners. (You don't HAVE to do this if you have a specially unravelly fabric but it helps later)
7. (Later.) Press those seams open and back in on the pocket body (See how that clipping would help now?) If you didn't clip your corners it'll be a bit wonky to fold them back but you can do it!
8. Fold just one top edge down and press it, pinning helps insure that it doesn't get caught in the next seam you're about to sew, but it can be a bit of a pain to work around (especially if you have fat heads like me). I didn't pin mine back and it turned out just fine.
9. This part is a little bit tricky. Place the pocket lining un-folded top end down, so the side you just did in the last step is on the bottom. The top side of the pocket lining is facing the inside of the pocket. The easiest way I found to do this was to match up the corners and pin them, then pull it taut so that you can see where the line should be in relation to the existing pocket. pin that in place. Next sew across the line being careful not to catch the pocket lining fold underneath.
10. Take the butt of your pocket lining and fold it back into the pocket. (remove pins first if you haven't already)
11. now iron the seam you just made flat into the pocket area. It should be really snug in there and pretty hidden by the pocket itself.
12. Now there are two finishing options here, the first one just uses the ironed fold you already did. Just slip it snug under there and whip stitch, across the top for that diagonal look, running stitch across the top for that running stitch look, blanket stitch for that appliquéd look, or ladder stitch for that invisible look. Really you could do whatever you want.

If your pocket is big enough you could probably even use your machine. If it's not quite big enough I discovered this cool trick: Give yourself REEEEAAAAALLLLY long tails at both the beginning and the end. don't backstitch or anything just let them hang free. Then thread those ends into a needle and complete that last little bit by hand. No one will know and it's faster than doing the whole thing by hand. (I however, like that quirky look)

The second option alters the design a bit, you can pull the flap to the front and press (or pin) the raw edge under then stitch across it. this will give your pocket a nice decorative edge. (although on a pair of jeans this would probably look pretty stupid)

Now you may notice I didn't do either of these things with my project. That's because I wanted my pocket to match the binding I put around the top edge of the bag. To do this, you trim off the extra edge on the front part of the pocket lining. Then you cover the raw edge with a double fold bias tape. (raw edges on folded in on the ends) I hand stitched it to make sure I caught both the back and the front. I also stitched the bias tape sides to the straps of the bag to integrate the look more.

Really any of these finishing options would look good depending on the project you're working on.

Well that should do it I suppose. Hope it's helpful. let me know if you need any further instruction or have some totally awesome finished projects for me to see!