HSM Challenge 10: Sewing secrets - inspiration

I'm aiming to have a new costume for Stockholm Comic-Con at the end of October, that means that I can only make a small thing for the HSM challenge 10, especially since three of the weekends in October will be spent like this.

That's me at the K90-ski jumping hill in Örnsköldsvik where I spent Saturday as a distance measurer and Sunday as a jumping judge, next weekend I'm organizing the 90th anniversary for the ski jumping club in Falun, and the weekend after that I'm off to Stockholm to judge a ski jumping competition there.

But back to sewing, and finding a small project that fits the challenge. The challenge is "sewing secrets" - hide something in your sewing, whether it is an almost invisible mend, a secret pocket, a false fastening or front, or a concealed message (such as a political or moral allegiance).

My plan is to make an 18th century pocket. The one I have is a nice one that I've embroidered. When I use it I'm a bit worried that it won't hold up for a totally incorrect phone, or that the embroidery will fray.  I want a pocket that's a bit more plain, but also sturdier. Pockets were supposed to be worn under  your clothes, so in that way they are secret, but I'm hoping to add something more that won't be obvious even for the people that I might show the pocket to, a proper sewing secret.

With that in mind I dived into Digitalt Museum - which is a great database of digitzed collections from Swedish museums. Of course that means that you have to search in Swedish, and there is no really set terminology, it's just what happened to be written either by the person who collected the object into the collection, or the person putting it up in the database.

A lot of the pockets that have been saved are fancy with beautiful applications, but there are a couple of ones that I feel are closer to what I would like.

Foto: Eriksson, Elisabeth / Nordiska museet

This pocket (kjolväska is the search word in digitalt museum) is dated to the late 18th century and it's from Älvdalen in northern Dalarna, the region I'm living in. I like that it doesn't have too much trim, I've seen these kinds of pockets that are totally covered with applications, and I really like that it's made up of several different fabrics that have been pieced together. I would not be able to make the metal hanger though. The fact that it comes from Älvdalen has also given me an idea on what kind of secret I could hide in it.

Eriksson, Elisabeth / Nordiska museet

This is another pocket of fabric that's been pieced together. The shape looks more like the shape of pocket in Costume close-up. I guess that shows that this kind of pocket was simply quite a universal thing in the western world. This one is from Småland, so not from Dalarna.

The third pocket is from Värmland, and as you can see it's rectangular and not rounded like the other two. This pocket is made out of leather, but what I like about it is the letters, they are probably the initials of the owner, and date.

With that in mind my general idea is to make a pocket out of some scraps that I have. There is a craft café next Monday, and since my other major projects is all about machine sewing this could be a nice thing to work with.