Yellow silk Tie

Oh boy.  I'm not sure if I have done it right, but I've just created my first pattern and put it onto Burdastyle as a free downloadable pattern!
So OK, it's just for a tie (baby steps, here), but it still took me ... er, hours.  Actually far far longer to draw and write up the darn pattern than to make up the tie...!  If you want, you can get my pattern here   (Later edit: you have to click on "print pattern at home" to get the instructions, which form part of the pdf...)

So, during the month of June we had Tim's birthday party, and he asked me if I could make him a tie to wear.  Tim has very firm ideas on his apparel, and always has to look sharp.  Hmmm, where did he get that one from, I wonder...

He had his heart set on a definite colour, and since I had mentioned oh-so casually once upon a time how a tie would be laughably easy to make, and a darn sight cheaper to make your own than the $60 odd you get charged for RTW, even polyester, he put in his request.

So, I have taken apart one or two ties in my time (the last time to make this), and they are pretty easy to make, but I took a few progress shots to show here, so if you haven't made one before you don't have to take apart your own tie natch, to find out... 

Firstly, a tie has four different fabric components, the outer fashion fabric, lining fabric, padding fabric, and a section of very lightweight underlining fabric.

I used:

For the fashion fabric the lovely rich egg-yolk yellow silk dupion Tim had chosen

scraps of lightweight turquoise cotton for the lining

A strip of corduroy for the padding

scrap of organza for the underlining

The underlining is pinned in place onto the wrong side of the tie, this is presumably to avoid stitching lines appearing on the outside of the tie.

To get the nice mitred top and bottom edges of the tie, which is a nice finish ensuring that the lining fabric will not peep out from around the edges of your finished tie; I sewed the triangular lining pieces on as follows...

Firstly, fold the tie lengthwise in half, and sew a short line of stitching, perpendicular to the centre fold of the tie... starting at the centre fold and finishing at about 5mm from the raw edges.   The pin is laid in place alongside the white stitching line.

Note: this is a demo scrap that I sewed up later to show up that stitching line properly, really your underlining fabric should be in place wrapped around on the outside of this fold.  I did take a photo with the underlining in place, but my white thread didn't show up very well against the white underlining fabric, so took these mock-up photos separately, without the underlining.

Lay the triangular lining piece over and stitch to the fashion fabric, each line of stitching ending right at the end of your short stitching line, that you did in the previous step.

Turn out, and you have a nice mitred corner.  Do both the top and bottom of the tie in the same way...

Now insert the padding into the points of the tie.  This requires some gentle stuffing and poking the padding point up cleanly and firmly into the corner; I know there are proper tools for this job that proper seamsters use but I usually use a slightly blunted pencil (hehe, oops!) I had cut my padding a tad long, just in case, and so there was some trimming required here to get it all sitting in nice and flat.

Then just fold one long edge in and press firmly in place the length of the tie.

The last open edge, fold in the seam allowance, then fold over the centre of the tie and press.

Slip stitch that long folded edge in place, and down those short slanted edges onto the lining.

Voila!

Army style jacket, with detachable (faux) fur-lined hood

I mentioned some time ago my new army/military style jacket; finished way back in March, well, here it is!
When we were in Tokyo I saw all ages and both sexes, everywhere, sporting big khaki army type jackets.  All with military details, lots of pockets, cinched in waist belts and sometimes with fur-lined hoods, and I just fell in love with them and decided I just had to have my own.  They just looked so big and comfy and cosy looking, and the girls (and boys) wearing them looked so warm not to mention so so so too-cooool-for-school; casually and bulkily stylish...  I'm sure a lot of the ones I saw were real army jackets, possibly from army disposal stores or secondhand stores, but naturally with my DIY aesthetic I was always going to try to make my own... :D
Of course what I wasn't taking into account was that it doesn't really get all that cold here and especially for the hoodie part of it!  I expect I will wear it without the hood for most of the time... but it was still fun to have a go at making a furry hood, and it just might come in handy for some mornings, and if we ever go down to the country.

Details:

Jacket; Burdastyle 05-2010-127 with my own modifications, khaki ripstop cotton and grey marle fleece lining

Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive green corduroy, to see this little skirt styled in 6 different ways go here

Top and tights; Metalicus

Socks, handknit by me, details here

Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

Dressmaking details; if you want to know...
I used Burdastyle 05/2010, pattern 127 as a starting point, and as usual made a few modifications to get the army-style I envisioned, but as the bones of the jacket are essentially the same I think I can dare to write a review for this pattern??  I used ripstop cotton in khaki, a wonderful fabric both tough and hardwearing and so so so perfect for an army style jacket!  I have also made this and this from the exact same fabric, so I guess it is obvious I love it...!  I'd better not buy any more, hmmm?  The lining is a pale grey marle fleece, and the faux fur is... well, faux fur.  I think from memory, it was labelled silver fox.  All the materials are from Spotlight.
The modifications I made:
Lengthened the jacket by oooh, roughly 7cm? and also slightly enlarged (length-wise) and slightly lowered the lower front pockets.  I chose to enlarge these because I thought the original smaller ones would not have the right proportions on the lengthened jacket...
I drafted a completely different collar, a sorta slightly curved rectangle, because I wanted more of a wide standup collar than the little fold-down one in the pattern...

My sleeves are not vented or cuffed, and have a tab with snap closure, for more of a military-looking effect.
I did not incorporate buttons and buttonholes at the front as stipulated in the pattern, but instead inserted an open-ended zip, again inspired by the styling of army jackets I've seen around
My jacket is fully lined, with grey fleece (for warmth, and also to enhance that bulky look an army jacket is supposed to have)  as it turns out it is very warm!  I did not hem the lining, but enclosed the flat raw edges inside the sleeve and lower hems of the jacket.  The fleece was partly leftover from this project, I had to buy a bit more.

I added a tab at the lower edge, and another tab at the neck edge; both features I mentally noted from the army jackets I saw in Tokyo.  These both have snap closure.

I made a detachable, (faux) fur-edged hood.  For this, I used a modified version of the hood from KwikSew 3667, with the lower edge cut flatter and a bit narrower to fit in with the neckline of my jacket.  It is also lined with fleece, and has buttonholes sewn in the bottom edge, which correspond with the buttons that I sewed inside the collar edge.  I realise the fur-edged hood is probably kinda silly in this climate, but I think it looks kinda cool, and it just may come in useful one day?

My review of this pattern, if you're interested...


Pattern Description:
Unstructured long-sleeved jacket; with two piece sleeves with vents and buttoned cuffs, front buttons and buttonband, epaulettes, four flapped patch pockets at the front, belt loops at waist level for the self-fabric belt and a short, buttoned collar.
Pattern Sizing:
36-44.  I made a 38
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished sewing it?
In essence, yes.  I made a few modifications.
Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yes.  I did some steps differently and in a different order, to accommodate my modifications...
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I like everything about this pattern!  The basic bones of the pattern are great; being unstructured it is therefore very easy to fit, to put together and also easy to incorporate your own alterations.  The fun is in adding your own details.
Fabric Used:
Ripstop cotton, and fully lined with cotton/polyester fleece.  A strip of faux fur (silver fox) to edge the hood
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
Lengthened the jacket by about 7cm? and also slightly enlarged (length-wise) and slightly lowered the lower front pockets.  I chose to enlarge these not because I thought they were too small but because I thought the originals would not have the right proportions once I had lengthened the jacket...
Drafted a different, slightly curved rectangular collar, because I wanted a higher standup collar than the little fold down one in the pattern
Inserted tabs with snap closure in the top and bottom of the front edges
Instead of the front buttonband and buttons, extended the front opening edges slightly so I could insert an open-ended zip
Fully lined the jacket in a polyester cotton fleece
Added a hood, also fully lined with fleece, and edged in faux fur.  This has 4 buttonholes on the lower edge, and attaches to 4 buttons sewn around the neckline, inside of the collar
Left off the sleeve vent and cuffs, instead inserted tabs with snap closure inside the lower end of the sleeve seam, sewed the sleeves closed to the end and hemmed over the raw edges of the lining.  The lower hem of the jacket also encloses the raw edge of the jacket lining inside
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I would definitely recommend this to others!  I might sew it again, if I need another jacket like this.
Conclusion:
This pattern was one of the first to catch my eye in this magazine, and I always had a mind to make it.  After visiting Tokyo, and being totally inspired by the cool cool army/military style jackets I saw worn over there, I realised this was the perfect pattern I could adapt quite easily to get that style of jacket.  And I'm totally happy with how it turned out; even if the hood is not super appropriate for our climate I still love it, and am very pleased with the smart styling and warmth of the jacket even sans hood.  The waist belt is a nice finishing touch, although I am very glad I lengthened the jacket as I think the belt would have looked a bit funny on the shorter length.

Tim's shirt/jacket

Here is the shirt/jacket thingy that I made for Tim for a birthday gift... it is very similar to Sam's here, but using a grey/beige, thin but warm, corduroy and a (leftover) contrasting dark blue/grey cotton linen for the lining of each of the collar stand, yoke, welt pockets and pocket flaps. 
I used the same ol' Burda 7767 that is now my standby go-to men's button-up shirt pattern, almost lost count of the number of times I've used it now  (just went back and checked... 14 times!)  Hehe, Myrna suggested I do an overview of different ways in which I've used the same pattern to get different garments, and I think this pattern might be a prime candidate, along with my all-time favourite Vogue 7303... but not until I've given this shirt/jacket thing its very own post here...
Variations to the pattern; 
well, apart from the obvious customised fitting to Tim's measurements modifications I implemented the following:
1.  lengthened the fronts and back by about 6-7cm, to get a more coat or jacket like effect and curved the hemline up to each of the side seams to get that shirt-tail effect both front and back...
2. added two breast pockets with curved flaps
3. added two of those double pockets at hip height... pockets that are separately a welt pocket and are also a patch pocket (you can tell, I was pretty thrilled with how these turned out on Sam's jacket and Tim thought they were tres cool as well, so I just had to put them on his too!)  my tutorial for doing these double pockets is here.
4. used snaps throughout in lieu of buttons.  
Little anecdote; I had nearly finished this jacket - bar putting the snaps in, and by this time Tim knew very well that I was making this for him (well, I do make them something for each of their birthdays.... he was expecting it) and he wanted to wear it out to a friend's place that night.  Of course the snaps seems like the easy quick bit and I'm like, oh hang on, shouldn't take more than twenty minutes.  Like, well over an hour later....  hehe, SO putting in snaps does take a fair bit of time, if you are trying to be careful about placement that is and not just flying along recklessly... but he did get to wear it out, even if he was (fashionably) late!
In an unthinking moment, I selected contrasting thread to topstitch, that matched the tobacco brown snaps exactly.  Bad idea!  I adore corduroy and have used it countless times, but looking back I have always selected matching topstitching thread.  In hindsight I can see the wisdom of that (even though it was ignorant wisdom...); corduroy by its very nature does not take super well to military-precisioned topstitching, all those furry velvety little ridges, bless them, are an enemy to the topstitching perfectionist.  Moral of the story; always, but always go with matching topstitching thread on corduroy, unless uneven lines are not going to send you spare.  The good news is that Tim, being an easy-going bloke, is OK with it.  It is just something to bother me whenever I have occasion to, say, hang it up on the line and get to see those slightly-darker-therefore-blindingly-obvious wonky lines all over again (grrr...)

At left; contrasting lining: at right; the double welt/patch pockets at hip level, complete with hideous topstitching

Because of the intensity that was me-made June, it may appear I haven't done much sewing in the last month... actually I have still been sewing and have produced some new things.  For some reason I felt I didn't want to do postings of any new stuff during that month, so I have kept some things back.  Well, OK I did reveal some new things, a little grey top, and the new scarf... oh, OK then.  There was a smattering of minor-league new stuff, hehe.  And some old stuff that was discovered in my winter sort-out.  But, back to the subject, I do have some new creations to reveal.  Just have to muster some enthusiasm to get back in front of the camera again... you understand.

Sam's shirt/jacket

So I finished off the pockets on Sam's birthday shirt/jacket last night, and did take those few snaps of the pockets to show here because I was so happy at how they turned out, but the light was not great for taking a photo of Sam modelling the whole thing.  So now it is, and I have.
It is made out of thin navy blue non-stretchy corduroy, using the old favourite Burda 7767 with a few modifications... the addition of two breast pockets with arrow head flaps, and the double welt/patch pockets I showed you yesterday.  And a curved hemline.  And I used brown snaps instead of buttons.  The collar facing, yoke facing, flap facings and welt pocket lining are all in a contrasting cotton, woven in a tiny plaid design of beige and black.
So here's the thing...  I don't know if it qualifies as a shirt or a jacket, or both.
It is made using a shirt pattern, and can be happily worn buttoned (snapped?) up and on its own... thus earning itself a "shirt" label.  
But also; being made of sturdy corduroy fabric, and also wearable unbuttoned and open over other shirts with his hands shoved in the pockets, it comes off as kinda jacket-style... thus attaining "jacket" status.
A hybrid.  
There must be a name to properly describe garments like this without having to resort to the hyphenated.

my tutorial for doing those combination welt/patch pockets just below

Red Emperor, or Catch of the Day

The theme for this year's Amanda Young Foundation Ball was "Nautical, but Nice"  
(If you have time, click on the link and view the information video on meningococcal disease.  Having this knowledge could save a life...)
As usual I had about a zillion ideas for a dress.  Was so so sorely tempted to make a completely brand new gown.  In fact originally I had every intention of making a whole new ballgown for this event.  This was a very enticing thought, there's nothing I like more than delving into the glamour of the eveningwear section of the fabric store...  but I confess not an very eco friendly option really (sigh)  After much enjoyable fantasising about such nautical fabulousness as mermaid-like dresses or dresses looking like a breaking ocean wave (I had visions of a turquoise sheath, with a frothy white lower skirt section to represent the surf), eventually I directed my thoughts to my collection of evening gowns already sitting in my wardrobe, and working with something I already had.  Last year's gown had possibilities; this is what it looked like last year...
I decided to re-work this gown and be a Red Emperor, as in, the fish...hehe.  In the end, of course, the gown was almost completely re-constructed and is pretty much a new dress.  
I removed the red velvet bodice and silk midriff section, and made a new red silk skirt to go over the old lining/petticoat with its attached grand silk flounce around the bottom.  Then re-attached the midriff and bodice.  I thought this would be OK, but unfortunately the red velvet just looked wrong on top of the dress, otherwise composed entirely of red silk. So I unpicked that off of the midriff section and away from the zip, un-picked and kept the red velvet ribbon shoulder straps to re-use, and made a new bodice, out of the pieces of red silk left over from cutting out the new skirt.  
All the un-picking and re-sewing together of seams took ages, about five days.  All the skirt sections are hand-hemmed, and I estimated there is between five and six metres of hem altogether in this dress.  (Later edit; I just measured, 8.5m!)  Luckily, I already done the lower skirt and petticoat last year....!
The new parts are: the wrap-over upper skirt and the bodice.  The old, re-used parts of the dress are: the lining/petticoat with the lower silk flounce, the midriff section, the velvet ribbon shoulder straps, and the invisible zip.  Yes, I re-used the ZIP!  I think I'm most proud of that part of the whole she-bang, silly as it sounds. 
If you look really closely enough, under a strong light, you can see that the lower flounce and the midriff section are a different shade of red than the upper skirt and the bodice...  from floor up the fabrics sections are old, new, old, new but meh.  I think they are close enough to be good enough.  Also the different shades are divided up over the dress, so it still looks OK.
So when I had finally finished, I had a kinda new red dress that I am completely thrilled with, even more than last year's version I think!
But even though it was "red" and sort of "royal", fitting in with my plan to be a Red Emperor, it didn't scream "nautical" by any stretch of the imagination.  So I gathered a few fishy accessories; the fishing net to be my stole, and I also bought a few lures and a bit of fishing cord from the fishing store to make some jewellery.
So sufficiently nautical, yes?
And when I came out to show the children my costume and asked them what they thought I was, Sam immediately said, "the catch of the day?"  
And I wondered if that was a better title than my Red Emperor idea...


Details:
Dress; based on Butterick 4657, petticoat and lower skirt of my own design.  Originally looked like this, and my other dress using this same pattern here
Gloves; Vogue 7949, red jersey knit, my review of this pattern here
Stole; fishing net
Jewellery; made by me from fishing lures...
Shoes; Raymond Castle.  These are my oldest shoes, I've had them since I was about 19...! :D


a side view...

a back view...

Introducing Mum...

I will say straight out this amazingly beautiful ensemble is not made by me but by my Mum here.  I had to put a picture of it here, because I couldn't resist; Mum will never ever get herself a blog and this outfit is too creative, clever, immaculately made and finished, and lovely in itself not to share.
My parents have been staying with us recently, and when Mum came downstairs one morning in this ensemble on her way to attend Grandparent's Day with my Dad and Sam, I literally stopped in my tracks.  Then raced to get my camera, simultaneously begging Mum to let me post her outfit on the blog.  She graciously agreed.
(Of course I would not be human if a little bit of me thought it might not be a good idea, posting Mum's creations here on the blog.  After all, they will just serve to highlight how my skills are but 1% of Mum's.  But let's not be petty now...)
The jacket:  Mum bought these tweed fabrics, sold as small patches or "salesman's samples" from a shop called Peppertree in NSW which she visited as part of the Australian Sewing Guild convention last year.  She pieced the different sized pieces together in an attractive random patchwork pattern... and anyone who has attempted patchworking will know that randomly shaped rectangular and square patches are not easily put together.  There are also one or two patches harvested from my Dad's old tweed sports coat that has finally bitten the dust after many years of good service (a Re-fashion!).  The pattern for the jacket is a Vogue pattern by Donna Karan, (pattern number to be provided when Mum looks it up and tells me)  Please note the perfectly constructed welt buttonhole, made from tweed too.  And I have to especially point out, see the piece of mustard/dark green houndstooth-y looking fabric, on the right, or buttonhole opening side of the front, just under and by the lapel?  Mum knitted that bit in fair isle, to tone in with the other tweeds.  On a seamstress' note, she wanted it mentioned that the knitted section required extra underlining and stabilising, as of course knitted fabric is not as sturdy as woven tweed.  
The jacket is fully lined in dark grey acetate lining.
Mum made the skirt too, from charcoal jersey knit.  I think she might have made the pattern for that herself.
Thank you Mum, for this bar-setting self-sewn moment!
Later edit: Jacket: Vogue 8605, shortened; Skirt: Vogue 2911

Red leggings

Something new, a quick fix project and nothing very exciting, but practical.... the evenings are getting that little bit cooler and when the sun dips below the yard-arm (whatever that means, really) my legs need some coverage.  Hehe, since two days ago I posted our current temperatures no doubt hardier Canadian and New Zealand people are going to get a laugh out of that one, but I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to the cold.  I really feel the cold.  Even our mild Perth winters are often too cold for me.  Yah, I know, pathetic, right?
So I made some leggings, using the pattern I made custom fit to myself, here.  It's pretty easy to make your own leggings, the only challenge being to get decent fabric.  The usual challenge.  The fabric I used is the last bit of red jersey I had left, after I made my gloves, here.  It isn't very good for leggings, having not very much stretch ... but they will do for as long as they last.  Hopefully the colour will go some way to cheering me up on a cold grey winter's day, although one of those seems ridiculously unlikely right now I expect we will get some. 
So, honest disclosure time coming up now, when I looked at this photo I thought ooer, bit daggy, and considered not even putting it here on the old blog.  But pictorial evidence is a good thing one can but learn from, so I took off that little brown cardigan and put on a nicer smarter khaki one for the rest of the day, and a lovely silk red/blue/pink striped scarf for when I went to run a few errands later.  And took off the leggings, yeah.  Well it is a little too warm for them.  And I'm wondering whether it's high time to retire that skirt....  But no photo of my more presentable daily self, sorry.  I'll take one some other day.
And the backpack is not my daily handbag either... I have let this backpack appear in a few other photos before; I use it to carry my camera, tripod and shoes along in if I want to take a photo when I take my dog walkies in the morning.  It really belongs to Sam, but I borrow it sort-of temporarily on a permanently on-going basis for a few mornings a week, if that makes any sense.  It's the perfect size to fit in the aforementioned goodies.  Compare this compact light little thing to the backpacks we carried on our hike last week, below!


Details:
Top and cardigan; Metalicus
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive green corduroy, styled in 6 different ways here
Leggings; own design, red cotton jersey, tutorial on how to make your own here
Backpack; souvenir from Santa Fe
Shoes; Perrini, had forever

Cargo pockets, and a lovely surprise

When I went to my letterbox yesterday inside was a most delightful surprise, this wonderful pattern from Gail of My Fabrication.  Pure class and elegance, no?  Thank you so much Gail!!  I already know exactly what I am going to make out of this one, and am pretty excited to give it a try.  But first...
Thank you so much everybody who commented yesterday, with such kind words expressing touching faith in my ability to not make a complete and utter hash of my Japanese fabric; I will endeavour to sew up to those expectations.  Not that there is any more or less pressure or anything, hehe.  The lighter caramel side has a landslide of admirers, and it is therefore fortuitous that my own preferences have been swaying more and more in that direction too.  But before hacking merrily away into that wool and silk gorgeousness that I carted for thousands of kilometres over land, rail and sea all the way home from the land of the rising sun (see, no pressure...) I am going to take a short sartorial breather...
A few quick and satisfying projects are now just what the doctor ordered, after a week of couture stuff.  I have an immediate need for a pair of hiking pants.  The cargoes I was wearing last year have gone into my refashioning-possibly-charity-bin pile. The few photos I have of myself in those things were pretty eye-openingly awful, and incidentally I am now horrified that I actually put some photos on the blog here, yikes!  Now I look back on some of those earlier photos and shudder, toy with vague ideas of deleting some of the more unflattering shots.  But the blog is a journey, and the progression has been an honest one.  Keeping a sometime personal style diary has done wonders for my natural tendency towards dag-dom.  I am a lot more careful how I look now before I sally forth on my daily adventures.  We all heartily agree that appearances aren't everything, right?, only because we don't want to appear shallow, but secretly we all want to put our best foot forward nonetheless... because we are human after all.
Anyhoo, I am making my new, hopefully cute, hiking pants using a pattern that doesn't have enough pockets, so I am adding some cargo pockets and took a few progress shots to illustrate...
Cargo pockets are not just squares/rectangles, but must form a little "bag", so start with a piece that has box sides to three of its edges like so (don't worry that those sides of those sticky-outy box edges are wider than the bottom box edge... minor detail)

Hem the top edge of the pocket like normal...

Sew up the two short edges of the boxy sides at the bottom of the pocket piece (yes, my side pieces are still longer and do stick out a bit, don't worry about this for now)

Right sides together, and upside down on the finished outside leg seam of your pants, sew the bottom edge of the pocket in place.  Because I want these pockets to be extra sturdy, strong enough to hold things like guide books, cameras, hats and sunnies, etc, anything that will be needed regularly, I sewed this seam in triplicate, for triple the strength.  Strength is more important than beauty here, remember these are hiking pants...

Now flip the pocket piece up and turn in those side edge seam allowances.   Now I folded in that extra width of the side edges at the bottom to be part of the seam allowance and tapered this down at the top so the box sides of the bag are wider at the top than they are at the bottom...  If this doesn't make a lot of sense don't worry too much about this bit.  Dimensions are not really drastically important.  These are hiking pants, remember...   Topstitch down close to the fold.  Again with the triple lot of stitching. The width at the top edge of the pocket between the two side seams you've just sewn should be the same width as the bottom seam.

Now, flatten the pocket down at the top and sew the top down vertically through all layers directly over the side seams you have just sewn, but just for a few cm.  Do this at least in triplicate again.  I just did a mad burst of forward and reverse stitching and lost count of the number of seams here, this just needs to be real sturdy.  This will just hold the top edge down securely and stop it from flapping about and letting your treasures spill out while you are walking...

Flaps; just sewn as normal, two pieces, right sides together, sewn around three edges, turned out and topstitched, finished width about 1.5cm wider than the top edge of your pocket...  Note the violation of couture tailoring here, no tamed seam allowances but the corners have been trimmed, (horrified gasp!)  Meh... hiking pants...!

And sewn to the pants just above the top of the pocket.... right sides together, again as normal...

Aaaand folded down and topstitched in place... I don't know why I took so many photos actually.  This is hardly rocket science.  Probably would have been more exciting if I had tamed those seam allowances, hmmm?

And there it is, a useful and cute little bag stuck on the side of the hiking pants.  If you want you could put a snap or a button on for extra safe-keeping, but in my experience these don't ever get closed up anyway and the flap is enough to keep things safely inside.  I'm sure I will be really grateful for these extra pockets out on the trail.