Earlier this week, I showed you the animal print pants I modified slightly, and I’m recording the changes I made here so I won’t forget. I used pattern c for the pants, but didn’t like the front patch pockets. Switching up the pockets for the “slim pants” was super easy because I simply frankensteined the skirt pockets from pattern w of the same book. Seamless! I also slimmed down the legs by my usual hyper accurate method of eyeballing, and added an extra 1cm to the length, but for this post, I’ll focus on the pockets.
Here’s what I did (I’m showing the process for only one pant leg, but you would obviously repeat the process for the other pant leg):
1. All I needed from pattern w were the pocket facing and the pocket bag. In the image below, the top piece is the pocket bag, and the bottom piece is the pocket facing.
2. For the pocket opening, I simply traced the curve of the pocket facing onto the front pant pattern piece and cut out the corner.
3. With right sides facing, I sewed the facing to the corresponding front pant leg.
4. Make sure to clip the curves so the fabric will flatten nicely. I usually trim the seam allowance down to about 1/2cm but I didn’t bother in this case.
5. Flip the facing to the other side and press.
6. Topstitch along the curve of the pocket opening.
7. Align pocket bag so that the right side of the pocket bag is facing the wrong side of the front pant leg. You want to make sure the pocket bag matches up with the pocket facing. Pin and baste in place at the top of the pant leg (where the waistband will be attached) and the at the side of the pant leg.
8. Sew the pocket bag to the pocket facing, following the curve (indicated by the aqua line below). Zig zag stitch or overlock raw edges together.
And that’s it! Easy peasy. I followed the instructions from the book to construct the rest of the pants and now K can enjoy her rockstar pants for at least a year!
You made it look so easy!
Oh, thanks Greta! If I had to draft the pockets myself that would have been pretty iffy, but being able to swap out the pockets with existing pattern pieces made life a million times easier :-).