I want to add a tail pocket to my tailcoat. I bought the General Grant one but it's just a real cheap piece of material and the instructions looked alot like caveman drawings...impossible to figure out. (Maybe I'm just not as smart as my mom says I am.)

Can anyone help me with this? I appreciate any input and I thank you in advance for your time and effort into helping me out.

Take care, Bry

Hi Bry, from what Ive been told at the point where your thumb touches the tail should be the height of the pocket. The pocket should follow the outline of the tail.
Darcy

According to my Howard Hale Pocket, the pocket should be sewn along the seam where the coat material meets the lining. You can place it on the left or right tail according to your use. Hope this helps.
By the way the lining material General Grant uses is not cheap. It is the most expensive lining satin matierial on the cloth market. You can only find in the high price Fabric Shops.

Darcy is right, do that and also have the pocket sewn into the actual tail like your pants pocket is sewn into your pants. You want the pocket to be like an internal "bag" in your tails and be able to turn it inside out like your pants pockets. This will also come in handy when the dove poops in your pocket so you can clean it out easier. Good luck with it!

sperris

Bry,

I can understand your frustration at both sewing and following meaningless directions. I fail at those tasks very quickly. Frankly, I have never seen General Grant’s instructions, but as an old marketing professor, I do recognize a dissatisfied customer. You know that General Grant is available on the Internet too. From my correspondence with him in the past, I believe he would gladly help you. Try it. (The smartest people in the world are always your customers.)

Tony Slydini was also a tailor. His instructions may be much more helpful to you. Currently I am away from my library, but I’m sure Bill or some of these other guys can send you to the right book title before I get back there. Tony frequently made the coats for his students.

Enjoy your dove magic.

Bob
DoveMagician@magicbysander.com

Hi,

Do you guys attached your tail pockets to the back of your trouser leg, say with a button? Personally I have never seen the need for this but have heard of other dove workers doing it and just wondered what peoples take on the button idea was.

Thanks in advance

Rich

I've never done it, I find it easier not to have it attached. I move around a lot in my act and it would look like the tails are attached to my leg because they wouldn't "flow" around. Some guys do it, but I found that its really just a personal preference. I put about a one inch wide piece of plastic running along the top seam of my tail pockets that helps to keep them open insdead of using like the button to the back of my leg.

sperris

Guys thanks for all of your help, and Bill, the tail pocket I got from General Grant was not even close to what you described. I got a black piece of thin cloth like a hankerchief.

Take care, Bry

Bry, I think you might be confusing a tail pocket with a pocket similar to a topit and used for the vanish of a bird or zombie. The General Grant pocket is used for the later. It's attached between the leg and the tail of the coat. A tail pocket for the production is similar to a regular pocket for the jacket but sewn vertically instead of horizontally.

The pocket or piece of cloth is to be layed on the inside tail. Once the edge is sewn around and the top left open, it forms a pocket.

I just looked at my Grant lecture notes. I looks like you have the Zombie pocket and not the Dove to Silk pocket.

It looks like the you must attach the tails together and then sew the pocket in a central location. These areas can only be found by trial and air.

The Dove pocket is a pocket with a 'stop' wall, this should be placed long the center of the tails, and the 'stop' wall should be attached to the leg as well as the bag.

For what it's worth, the pocket used by Gen Grant to vanish his Zombie is the same pocket used for the Dove to silk. If you have his video or lecture notes, this is clearly explained along with how it is to be attached.

Dave,

It is very hard to tell in some of the drawing which is which. If you are correct, then bry1513 does not have a Gen Grant pocket that he is trying to attach.

I wonder if we can take legal action against him wasting our time on the wrong equipment.

That's funny Bill, I hope Bry takes it that way. I agree that drawings can be misleading. Grant's pocket is more than just a piece of cloth. Like I mentioned, it's almost like a topit and zips onto the tail and the back of the leg.

Dave,

I thought so! I do remember now Grants pocket, not that you mention it. His stuff is very well made.

The Howard Hale item I mentioned is just a piece of cloth, and not the high quality material that Grant uses.

I am holding the original package in my hands as I am typing this. The packaging states, "General Grant's Vanishing Zombie ball & Dove To Silk". All it is is a thin piece of hankerchief type material. I don't know what else I can do to convice you all that what I am saying is true............

I suggest you email General Grant, I read on the Café he answers all emails and is very helpful.

I don't know his email address but it is many of the other post on doves. If you purchased it from a dealer, contact them. If you purchased 2nd hand contact Mr. Grant. If he changed his design, he is the person that knows his product the best.

Bry, I sent you a PM last week about this explaining what you should do. Bill is correct. Send an E-mail to gen grant and explain the situation. His address is GGmagic@aol.com. He'll answer you. He always does. There never was any doubt about what you were saying. We are all convinced that you have a defective product not that you don't now what you are talking about.