Slit Pocket Tutorial

Well, I'm sorry that I have taken so long to write this tutorial, but the truth is, writing a sewing tutorial is not as fun and exciting as it sounds! But here it is, and let me know if it makes sense, it's hard to know how much information to include in these thing.

Alright, so to start you cut out the pocket piece with your fabric folded (for a skirt with two pockets do this twice). If your skirt did not come with a slit pocket it's simple to make. Just make this curved shape and on one side make it straight, and be sure to include the two dots where you would like the pocket to open (those two spots need to be on the seam line, so if your seam allowance is 1.5 cm, then make your two slit opening spots 1.5 cm from the straight edge of your pocket.

Now the easiest way to mark your pocket opening is to stick a pin into the marked spot on your pattern piece and flip the pocket over and make an x shape with pencil or chalk right under the pin. So in the picture to the right I have put a pin through the fabric on the underside and am now marking it with pencil. It's only necessary to do this on one side of the fabric, but I often put it on both just to mark it as the right side of the fabric (this is important if your not using a patterned fabric). After cutting and marking, if you have a serger then at this point you should serge all vertical edges (so the front and back of your skirt and the straight edge of your pockets).

Now place your front pocket with the wrong side of the fabric touching the right side of the front of your skirt at the side seam. If you don't have a notch for a pocket, I usually place it one inch bellow the waist, but that's really up to you. Sew into the first x, stop with the needle down, pivot, continue to sew to the next dot, pivot again with the needle down, and sew to the edge.

Now sew a piece of twill tape with the edge of it touching your seam.

Clip the corners. My sewing teacher always says "clip till there's only one hair of fabric before the stitch" but that's a bit too close I find. Just clip really close to the corner.

 

Now this part may be difficult to do, but probably more just difficult to explain. Your going flip the pocket and starting from the bottom push the seam allowance towards the skirt.  Edge stitch on the skirt (not the pocket) slowly until you get to the corner, stop with the needle down, pivot and edge stitch up to the top pocket opening all the while making sure that your seam allowance is pushed towards your skirt, and then stop at the last corner, pivot with the needle down, and sew to the edge.

Now you can flip the front pocket all the way under, and your skirt should make this rectangle shape. At this point its nice to iron the pocket opening, but as you can see I didn't bother.

Now sew your back pocket piece to the front pocket piece, right sides together. Usually I use a 1/2 inch seam allowance for pockets, but it doesn't really matter. And if you have a server, serge around the pocket edges.

 

If you're doing two pockets do the same on the other side, and then sew the back skirt piece to the front skirt piece right sides together on the side seam. But, you should have the front of your skirt on the bottom so that when you get to a corner of the pocket you can reach you hand in between the skirt and push away the pocket opening so you don't end up sewing your pocket shut. 

And there you are, a nice little skirt pocket to put anything you want in!

Ok good luck. And if you have any questions let me know right away, and I'll reply pretty quickly, since I'm completely obsessed with sewing and my blog.