Hello lovelies,

hanging pockets were the handbags of the 18th century. They went underneath the skirt, which had small slits so you could actually put things in there, and was often colourfully embroidered.
I made my own with the help of Janet Arnold's book and they were a fairly easy project.

 

 

This is the pattern I worked with. Right above is the drawing from Janet Arnold's book.
The material I used for this was a medium weighed cotton fabric in white. One side has the slit (front) the other doesn't (back).
I felt that a pure white hanging pocket seemed a bit too plain for what I had in mind (wealthy commoner) and therefore I decided to embroider the pockets, but only on the front side.

Magic marker is the best for drawing on your piece of work because it vanishes with a good dose of water. The flower I drew was actually a pattern on a dress also shown in Janet Arnold's book.




All in all I worked with four different shades of green and pink. I was not sure about that at first but it really worked so well.



I really had fun doing the embroidery so I added a few more flowers and dots.


 Here is the front and the back side. Before sewing them together I cut a slit into the front pocket.


The pockets are almost done now.

My next step was to sew the slits.

I am not sure it is really visible but I handstitched the slits.

The last part was to close the pocket and add the ties. 



And here are the finished pockets:




Time needed: I made it over the span of 5 days. The embroidery was of course the most time consuming part.
Cost: only a few cents because I had to buy the linen waist ties. I had the rest from other projects.
Satisfaction: 5/5
Historically accurate: eh...I really don't know. Maybe 3/5 because I used my sewing machine for one part. 

All the best,

Auris Lothol