If you're making the pullover version, you'll notice that part of that top piece hangs over the edge of the bottom piece - you'll need to remove that as it's a part of the placket pieces that overlap on the top. It should be about 5/8" for all sizes - go ahead and chop it off! If you're making the jacket, you can skip this.
Then you need to decide where your pocket placement will be. I recommend placing the edge of the pocket somewhere around 3-3.5" away from the center front edge, although it may depend on what size you're making and/or your own preferences. I used an already made felicity pullover to help me eye my placement.
The pocket opening will be 4.25" long as is indicated by the notches on the pocket flap and bag pattern pieces, so you'll want to mark your pocket opening space using notches on the bottom front pattern piece. These are the dimensions of the pocket opening:
Don't forget to remove the amount you removed from the top front pattern piece from the bottom of the placket piece (in my case that's 4") so that it matches up with the modified top front piece:
Now if you didn't decide to raise the front seam, you can pretty much go ahead and follow the instructions for the Felicity Fleece as they are, just making sure to follow the steps for how to sew in the new pocket mod before attaching the top and bottom front pieces together. However, if you did decide to raise the front seam and it now cuts into the sleeve edge, you will most likely have to construct things a wee bit differently - we'll get into that now...
Cut out all your pattern pieces in your desired fabrics, making sure to mark all your notches, and then go ahead and follow step 1 of the Felicity Fleece instructions (or follow through step 4 if you still want to include the breast zip pocket on the left side - the more pockets the merrier!)
Align your pocket bag notches with the notches on the bottom front (left or right side is up to your preference) and pin in place (*make sure you're working on the right side of the fleece*). Then, mark your pocket stitching line, and stitch in place like so:
Then cut out the excess fabric from the pocket opening as described on page 22 of the Felicity instructions, flip the pocket bag to the other side, and press the pocket opening.
You can choose to topstitch around the pocket opening if you'd like, I chose to skip it out of laziness. Then flip the other half of the pocket bag up and serge or zig zag stitch the raw side edges together to form the pocket bag.
If you haven't already, sew your pocket flap together, clip away excess seam allowance around the curved corners so that when you flip it right side out you get nice clean curves. Give it a good press with the iron after turning.
Side note: if you're using a slightly see through fabric, you may want to add a third piece sandwiched in between the two flap pieces to give it more opacity, or you can use a light/medium weight fusible, especially if you want to give it a little more structure. If you’re using fleece for the outside piece of the flap pocket you may still want to use an extra layer in between too.
Place the pocket flap evenly over the pocket opening and pin in place, then you're gonna baste it in place within the seam allowance (3/8") so that it stays perfectly in place when you sew the top and bottom front pieces together.
Then install your snap button using the circle marker on the flap pattern piece as your guide.
And now that pocket is done!
Next, you can go ahead and construct the side pockets according to the Felicity instructions. Just be careful not to sew over the flap pocket bag along the way! If you chose to lengthen the pocket lining piece so that the pockets would be enclosed in the top seam that we raised earlier, then you can keep moving along. Otherwise if you didn't, you may want to sew the pocket bags down along the edges to keep them from getting weighed down when you put things in them, like this:
Now once your pockets are all done, we can go ahead and sew the top and bottom front pieces together. Don't worry about overlapping the top pieces correctly right now because we're only going to sew the pieces together up until a couple of inches before the placket pieces on each side and then finish the edges and topstitch up until about the same points (see images below).
Because raising the front seam cut into the sleeve edge, we need to sew the top and bottom together to create the full sleeve edge in order to sew the sleeves on, and then we can sew the collar on, and then finally we can sew the binding around the collar and center front edges, and then finish sewing the middle of the top and bottom front pieces together.
Now go ahead and sew on your sleeves according to the Felicity instructions on page 24, continuing on to the steps on pages 25-27 to sew on the collar and neckline facing, and then finally, the binding! Now you can finish sewing that middle piece we put aside where the plackets meet, using page 28 as your guide.
I also chose to add in a lil hanger loop out of some twill tape I had just 'cuz.
Now you're pretty much all set to follow the rest of the Felicity instructions for sewing up the side seams, finishing the sleeve cuffs, attaching the hem binding, and installing your snap closures (you may have to adjust the placement/spacing of the snap closures if you had to chop off a bit of the placket like I did - I ended up placing the first bottom snap 2" up from the seam and then the next two snaps 2.5" apart from each other).
(The pocket shown above/in my tutorial pictures may look a little bigger than yours because it is! This was my first draft of the pocket hack, so I made edits to the pattern pieces afterwards to make it smaller so it would look a little less awkward and fit better.)
Don't forget to tag me in your makes on Instagram @luciabisaltidesign and use the hashtag #felicityfleece! Happy sewing!
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