There are those who love to make bound buttonholes, single- and double-welt pockets and other couture (and fiddly) details, and there are those who put the pattern back in the drawer when they see such things. Hopefully, the information that follows will keep those patterns on top of the pile from now on, especially when it comes to single-welt pockets.

In my lifetime of sewing, I have made many welt pockets and I find them to be doable. I have to be in the mood, though, and I have to set aside time to do things slowly and right from the beginning. One misstep and there is no correcting things in the middle of the process. Most classic welt pocket techniques are based on forming a welt inside an opening using the pocket bag, or there may be separate pieces for a welt, a welt facing, a couple of pocket bags and perhaps a flap. I have five different techniques in my repertoire that end up looking the same, all of them fussy to make.

So when I saw a ready-to-wear, oversized chore-style jacket with three welt pockets that looked interesting, I had to inspect it. I realized the pockets were made in a unique way that I had never seen, so I set out to duplicate it. 

This simple technique has just two pieces: a welt and one pocket bag layer. Essentially, the concept is that the finished welt gets inserted into a semifinished opening and all is covered and finished within the garment with a single-layer pocket bag. That means that there’s just one extra fabric layer added to the garment in the area of the pocket bag, and its edges are securely stitched to the garment—no flapping pockets. For an unlined or lightweight garment, this is an…