This morning as I was
browsing through some old magazines (Designs in Machine Embroidery, of course),
re-reading articles I’d written, an unusual thing happened to me. An article,
not written by me, caught my eye. The piece, a how-to on embroidering the
pockets of your blue-jeans, showed me the light. I’ve been guilty of breaking
fashion law. I was wearing jeans with naked pockets!
Yes, friends, the
pockets on my jeans are embarrassingly plain. That’s not to say that these
aren’t high end pants. They’re Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, sold at that oh, so
fashionable store, Le Costco. I buy them because they happen to fit me
amazingly well. And, while they sport a designer’s label on the inside, the
outside is shockingly bare.
I didn’t even know I was
moving, but I found myself in my sewing room chair, a pair of jeans in my lap,
unstitching the pockets. Next, I had to decide what to put on those oh so naked
pockets and how to do it.
I have just finished
productizing a new design set so I started with one of those designs. I
digitized a design the shape and size of the pocket and put that behind a
couple of the designs. Voila! The perfect way to embroider on a jeans pocket.
Before any embroidery on
good fabric (or in this case, good pockets) I test. It’s kind of a standard
joke for me, that “TEST” is a four letter word. Luckily for me, I have a
substantial box of jeans’ pants’ legs hanging around my basement, (doesn’t
everyone?) in which there was a piece with a color similar to my pocket. I was
ready to test. I hooped the pants leg and started stitching, changing colors
intermittently until I found the perfect combination.
The New System:
When I added the pocket
outline to the embroidery design I basically set up a no-fail pocket stitching
system. Whoo Hoo!
Step 1 - Hoop a
wash-away stabilizer and stitch color 1, the outline of the pocket.
Step 2 – Place your
pocket so it is perfectly centered over the stitching. The edges of your pocket
don’t have to match up with the pocket exactly. Just center your pocket over
the stitching.
Step 3 - Using pins or
spray adhere the pocket to the stabilizer.
Step 4 – Stitch the
design.
Here is the pocket on the pants. I would have shown both pockets but I didn't want to use a wide angle lens.
While I was on a roll, I pulled out another pair of pants and went embroidery crazy. This pocket showcases a little more bling.
Ahh.... naked pockets no more! I can now go out in public with pride!
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