by: tabubilgirlPosted on:

Three Pairs of 18th Century Pockets

In honor of a spring festival celebrated with small symbols of fertility and seasonal renewal and also with chocolates – here are three pairs of 18th Century Pockets (bright, colorful, vaguely egg-shaped, and designed to carry both chocolates and your small symbols of fertility!)

Easter Flamingo Pockets:

My sister and I have a thing about flamingos. She gives them to me, I give them to her – she’s currently way ahead on points with the greatest birthday present yet, a pink flamingo toilet brush! (it lives in my guest loo and likes it there.)

In honor of her latest flamingo coup, here’s a pair of neon-pink flamingo 18th century pockets!

A pair of 18th Century Pockets sewn from lime green cotton patterned with neon pink flamingoes and bound in neon pink cotton binding

These are Easter pockets, because I finished binding them on Easter Sunday during my stay in Rochester Minnesota in 2020. It was just me in a hotel room during the Panini, but it was beautiful outside, snowing thick and steady, like a blanket on the world.

An easter bunny made out of snow sits on a lawn. Most of the snow has been scraped up to make the bunny, so you can see the grass beneath the streaks of snow left on the ground.

The following day, I tried to take a few photos of my new flamingo pockets, and I decided it would be a good idea to pose like a 1950’s Dior mannequin, but it turns out those poses take training, and oh boy, first of all, I lack what it takes, and second, I probably should have reconsidered those pajamas.

A woman stands in front of a mirror, trying to post like a 1950s Dior Model, She actually looks like she is about to fall over backwards. The impression is not helped by her clothing - white PJ pants with red holly berries look like blood on snow, and she has a pair of 18th Century pockets tied around her waist. They are lime green and dotted with neon pink flamingos.

Hobbit Pockets:

what have you got in your pocketeses, my precioussss…..?

A pair of sunny yellow 18th Century pockets bound with navy blue bias binding.

I started this very hobbit-y pair of 18th Century pockets before i left Chile in 2020. I finally i whipped down the waist ties 18 months later, after I got home to Chile again!

I need to go full hobbitcore don’t I? Perhaps I don’t need an entire new costume. My Burnley & Trowbridge bedgown looks pretty well hobbit-y already!)

A woman stands in a mangrove tree, looking down at the viewer through the lens of a cell phone camera. She is wearing an 18th Century bedgown, petticoat and apron.

Watermelon Pockets:

I sewed up this pair of pockets in Brisbane, Queensland, where autumnal pumpkins in the southern spring sunshine did not feel at all appropriate for Halloween. Watermelons, on the other hand – summer melons made much more sense!

When this watermelon print looked up at me in Spotlight and waved and announced itself at only five dollars a meter, My Australian Halloween costume was pretty well sorted!

A woman strikes a pose wearing a witch hat with a pink band and a knee length dress sewn from pink and green watermelon print cotton. She would be elegant, except that her hat has fallen down over her eye.

(My Big Watermelon Earrings were hand-made by the incomparably colorful Earandthere who knew EXACTLY what to do!)

I had just enough fabric left over from the dress to make a pair of 18th Century Pockets. I cut them out back in Australia right before i flew home to Chile, where they promptly got lost. Just before leaving Santiago for Iquique, I found them, bound them and sewed them up!

A pair of 18th Century pockets sewn from pink and green watermelon fabric. The watermelon print is bound in a succulent green bias tape.

Easter Coda:

In a totally random happenstance, I was sorting through a batch of photos on my computer and i found THE Pink Flamingo toilet brush!
It’s a very well-travelled toilet brush. My sister found it on a Danish website and had it shipped to Australia, then my parents CARRIED a TOILET BRUSH all the way from Australia to Chile in their suitcase – just so I could make that face.

A woman in a denim sundress stands in a hallway. She is holding a toilet brush shaped like a neon pink plasti flamingo. Her mouth is open in howl of absolute delight

Happy Easter.

Ahem. There are an awful lot of people making pretty pairs of 18th Century pockets. While you’re here, take a Iook at these beauties!

The Sewing Goatherd

Confused Kitty Sewing

Red Shoes Red Wine

Pour la Victoire

Tea in a Teacup

The Quintessential Clothespen

2 thoughts on “Three Pairs of 18th Century Pockets”

  1. Thank you for the link! 🙂 Your pockets are pretty fabulous, too! I love the watermelon Halloween costume. And the toilet brush!! What a fun tradition AND a fun object! I’m so glad you had a picture of it to share!

    Best,
    Quinn

    Reply
  2. Pingback: 18th Century Bedgown up a Tree - Sew What Happens

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