A Single Pocket

     I decided I needed at least one pocket for my Dicken's Fair dress this year. I was tired of having to shove everything in my silly little reticule. This was my first go at pockets and it was an interesting experience. I basically just fudged the whole thing. I'd seen 18th century pockets and then listened to my friend describing her pocket method. I just made it up from there. There's probably an easier way to do it/ more effective.

     The pocket shape. I had some fun red-polka-dotty printed cotton left over from another project. I freely cut this shape (2 of them) and sewed them together on the outside and cutting a slit about halfway down the middle of one of the two pocket panels. Then, I stitched the slits into the right side seam of my skirt, which I had hacked open for a couple of inches at pocket-height.
     The result was an almost-invisible pocket in the right side seam of my red Dickens skirt. It is fairly deep, so I've found I can store quite a bit in there comfortably, like pencils and cell phones. I found this out while sketching at PEERS Pre-Raphaelite Picnic in Alameda a couple weekends ago. I also got to model for the sketching!
     I was playing the part of Effie Ruskin (as asked by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who was running the sketching and is part of Dickens Fair) a muse of the PRB painter John Everett Millais. She was married to the Victorian art critic John Ruskin when she was 19 years old and he was far older. This was later annulled, because their marriage had never been consummated and she went on to marry Millais, after modelling for him for several years.

Effie Gray
painted by Thomas Richmond

     There actually will be a movie coming out about her, which I am quite excited for! Starring Dakota Fanning.

Screenshot from Effie. Scheduled for release in October of 2013.