In preparation for making my sacque back gown (still in process), I realized should finally get a set of panniers (pocket or side hoops) done.  Included in the Rocking Horse Farm Sacque Back Gown & Jacket Pattern is a pattern for a set of pocket hoops, but since a bottom piece is not included in the pattern, I had always held off on attempting them.  Finally one weekend I decided to have a go at them.  The final product wasn't bad, but the pattern has it's flaws (including no bottom piece, being too narrow, and poor directions) so if you plan on making an pair I would suggest purchasing a pattern from another company or using the free pattern found here.   I had to pattern up my own bottom piece (since I didn't want them open at the bottom) which wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Since I couldn't afford the metal boning the pattern calls for at the time, I went with the plastic boning I had on hand, I just used 4 times as much (length wise) as was called for.  Each set of channels has 4 bones - 2 per single channel - which provides the strength of the metal boning without as much weight.  Since this set is a bit too narrow for my frame (in other words my rump sticks out past the back of them), I drew up another pattern for them using the free pattern listed above and I plan on making another pair.  Since I'm not sure I'm going to spend the money on metal boning for those either, I plan on looking for long zip ties on my next visit to Menards that might just do the trick (FYI, I found longer and thicker zip ties at Menards that look like the should work).