Why do they sew up the pockets on suit jackets and blazers?

To prevent pickpocketing? :0)

What? Really? I thought that was just my wife trying to drive me crazy… :-)

I believe so they will stay nice and flat….and not distort the shape/hang of the item from previous people who have stuffed their big giant hands in them…..trying it on before you….

you do, um, know to snip the thread so that you can use the pocket, right?

yah, but my big ham-fisted hands are equally likely to cut fabric as they are to cut thread.

To stay flat, so you can put your hands in and ruin the line of the pants and jacket. It is usually only stitched in a few places, and if desired, those stitches are very easy to remove. However, you will never look as sharp as you did before anything had been in there.

Buy one of these, rob. It’ll help you get rid of the stitches even with “big ham-fisted hands”. About $2 at walmart. seam ripper

Another of those enigmatic style things…

I had a jacket that had the pockets sewn shut and thought it was a mistake, Now you are saying they do that intentionally?

I guess you can learn something new everyday… :)

Well, there ARE some blazers that have fake pockets, those might go down only for an inch, but those tend to be very heavily stitched together. I’m not really a blazer kind of gal so I’ve never seen actual stitched pockets which are meant to be unstitched. Apparently they also do it to prevent people from putting garbage in the pockets.

I’ve always thought it was just to preserve the ‘line’ of the garment. On a more formal suit, it’s probably better to leave them sewn shut, but for a sports jacket I’d rip those stitches right out.

@snoopy has it. That and when you sew the pocket in it’s much easier to baste it shut and then sew in the pocket. That way it goes in correctly, not cock-eyed. Trust me on that one. Been there done that!

maybe it’s something to do with this
hahahha [;

heh, @tiffy… that’s funny. I nominate it for best of 2008.

I believe that some are fake, whilst some are sewn up to make the suit give clean lines. if you want to open them you can, quite often for the top pocket etc. to put a hankie or silk square in.