Panniers! Pocket Hoops!

They say you are not sewing, unless you’re working on more than one project at a time.

So of course I started working on my pocket hoops before I finished my stays.

Pocket Hoops are a kind of skirt support- that is to say, they support the skirts/petticoats into the desired shape. In this case the mid(ish)-18th century shape of being wider side to side than they are front to back.
Pannier (which means basket in French) is the usual name for them, and they don't necessarily have pockets. However, when they do have pockets, and are hoops, they can be called in English, Pocket Hoops.

I’m making them out of the same stiff unknown stuff that I make my stays out of, though only one layer. The heavy-duty cable ties I had for the stays will not be long enough to go all the way around the pocket hoops, so I went to buy longer ones, which I found, thankfully, at the first hardware store I tried. They’re black, but I doubt that’ll be visible through the thick fabric. I might double or triple them up, since they don’t seem to be as thick as I’d like.

I’m following the Dreamstress’s glorious, online, free, easy to use, “Pannier Along” tutorial.

I considered using the explanation from American Duchess’s book (that I recently bought), but their side hoops… are not pockets. And lord knows how much stuff I carry around on a daily basis (I am under no delusions that I will manage to walk around without a pack of some kind, even with huge pockets, but I will of course try nonetheless.)

Following the tutorial, I drafted the bottom pattern piece, employing the help of a big dinner plate. I ran around the kitchen trying to find one that was exactly the right size. I had to adjust the final pattern piece a little bit in the end, since the circumference was not 25” like it was supposed to be, so I had to shorten it a little bit.

I cut out the pieces.

And of course- the off-the-grain-ness strikes again, because I can’t seem to actually cut anything on the grain. I tried. I cut the big rectangles along the selvage. But apparently that’s not good enough, and it’s all slightly off. But only ever so slightly. So I will just have to ignore my perfectionism, and proceed.

I marked the pocket slits and the boning channels, and then cut the slits. (the tutorial says to mark and sew the slits and only then to mark the channels, but I figured I might as well do all the marking together while I’m already crawling all over the floor, and save myself the additional lower back pain) 

And now I need to fold the slits over and sew. I’m doing these seams by hand only because I didn’t have access to a machine when I started. I am not going to agonize over doing the whole project by hand, since I figure no one will ever see them, and the stays took way too long to finish because of all the hand sewing (and the fitting, but that’s another story).

Fold the sides of the pocket slit over twice, tapered to nothing at the end. Sew down, using running stitch down the sides, and whip stitch at the end, where it tapers down to nothing.

And now I cut 1 ¼” squares, fold them into triangles, and sew them under the pocket slits, so that the pocket slits do not rip, stretch, or otherwise get bent out of shape.

I sewed with running stitch on the fold, and whip stitch on the open sides. I tried to fold them over, but the fabric was too stiff to do that with such a small fold. So I whip stitched them down. 

I was going to make channels out of strips of fabric (so as to de-stash the stash), and I got the fabric out and even ironed it, but then couldn’t really be bothered to mark and cut out long thin strips of fabric. So I went out and bought 4 meters of 2cm twill tape.

I sewed the tape along the lines I marked. Didn’t even pin it in place, such was my laziness. I just held it over the line under the needle in the sewing machine. (Yes! The first machine sewing in this project! I knew it would get here eventually… long straight boring seams will do that to you)

 Here you can see the triangle with the machine stitch running through it:

And from the other side:

And now the pannier bottoms:

Mark the centers of the bottom piece (the curved one) and the centers of the big channeled pieces, pin along the whole side, and sew.

The long piece ended up being a bit longer than the curve, but it was short enough that I could just ease it into place, and it was all good.

And now the back piece:

 And sew up the sides!

Aaaand…. It’s a pocket!

I now put the boning in. I used long zip ties, and tripled them up- I put 3 in each channel, then trimmed them down to size with kitchen scissors (NOT! of course, fabric scissors!).

And then I turned them right side out

I now need to hem the sides of the small waistband pieces. I did it by hand, because it was to too small and stiff and fiddly to do by machine.

 And now we need to make all that fabric in the pocket fit into the itty bitty waistband.

I pleated the inside and outside pieces onto the small waistband piece as per the instructions

 A forest of pins!

Look how fat that is! How many layers!

Here you can see that it’s pinned to the small waistband piece. The instructions say to do it in two stages, but I’m lazy, so I did it all together.

One broken needle and several ripped threads later, that seam is sewn! 

Then I sewed ½ an inch down

And then folded the whole waistband over, and sewed down. I tried to do it by machine, but the machine was just not having it. It couldn’t get through all those layers at once. So hand sewing it is! I slip-stitched that seam into submission.

And now I only need to thread the waist tape through the pockets!

I bought off-white 1 ½ cm twill tape at the same time as I bought the tape for the channels.

I threaded it through the waistbands with my trusty threader-thingy (it’s usually used for threading elastic through waistbands.

And the finished panniers!

I hope they’re strong enough to hold things in them, and I’ll actually be able to use them as pockets. But if not, I guess I could always lay a piece of cardboard on the bottom to strengthen them.

And now, on to the many petticoats!