I sat down with my swatch today and played around with the ultra suede welts and zipper. Here is a step-by-step photo shoot of the progress:
Step One--- Here is the swatch with the provisional stitches for the placement of the pocket:
Step Two---Here I have put the live stitches on the top and bottom on Size US 1 double points.
Step Three-- The center of the provisional stitches are cut the entire length of the pocket.
Step Four--All of the provisional stitches are removed.
Step Five---I did four rows of garter stitch on the top and bottom of the pocket opening using the same yarn as the swatch. This I will change. It is too thick, so I need to use a thinner yarn here and change to stockinette to reduce the bulk. You can see in the later photos how the bulk shows up around the edges of the pocket opening.
Step Six--I picked up four stitches on each side and k 2 rows of garter stitch, decreased two stitches on the next row, decreased one stitch on the last row and bound off. This gives a nice triangle shape to turn to the inside and sew to the turned welts. Here I will also change to stockinette to reduce the bulk.
Step Seven--I marked the placement of the welts.
Step Eight---Finished welt. I did not get photos of this step as I was so busy trying to figure it all out that I didn't even think about it. What I did was measure out a piece of my ultra suede the width and length of the desired welt. I folded it and used Stitch Witchery to fuse the two folded sides together. Then I stitched it right sides together. I turned the swatch over to the wrong side and pulled out all my marking yarn. I cut the ultra suede down the middle resulting in two separate welts, turned them to the inside and stitched down the little triangles on each side.
Step Nine--Here I just layed the finsihed welts on top of the zipper just to see what it would look like. What I will do to install the zipper is to place it where I want it to be (I'll have to shorten all the zippers to fit the pockets), lay down two strips of a double sided tape to the right side of the zipper, lay this face down to the wrong side of the welts to hold it in place. Then I will turn to the right side of the vest and "stitch in the ditch" which will attach the zipper to the vest.
Step Ten will be making the pocket linings. Because of the bulk, I have to decide if I want to use a finer guage yarn or maybe even a fabric lining for the pockets. I'm also debating about lining the entire vest (the one I'm using as a guide is lined). It would make a neater finish on the inside and cover up all the mechanics of the pockets. I'll have to think about this long and hard.
I worked on this all day, and I'm so glad that I made the swatch to practice on. There are things I will change as I mentioned above. Had I not made the swatch, I would have been ripping out until I got it right. I think it's going to look pretty good when I finish it. At least John likes it and that's what is important, isn't it.
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