We made a tutorial on sewing a french-seamed, waist-anchored pocket before, but this time let's do a regular in-seam pocket with a standard serged/zigzag finish. In home sewing, this is the #1 common way to insert an in-seam pocket!
If you're a visual learner, this post is also available as a video tutorial --
The Pattern
Let's use our pocket pattern for the Aether dress as an example. (If you don't have a pocket pattern, it doesn't take long to draft your own.) A couple of things to notice about this particular pocket pattern:
- The Aether's side seam flares out, so the pocket also follows that flare. Otherwise, the side edge would be at a straight 90°, like on our waist-anchored pocket.
- Seam allowance here is ⅜"(1 cm).
- Notice the two notches marking the pocket opening. Some patterns place them right at the seam allowance, but we prefer to set them farther in for extra hand room.
- There’s also a notch on the rounded edge to help align the pocket bags.
Sewing Steps
1) Reinforce the pocket opening
Fuse a 1" (2.5 cm) strip of interfacing behind each opening — on Garment Front, Garment Back, and Pocket. Feel free to skip if your pocket is not on the bias.
2) Finish some edges
- With a serger or zigzag stitch, finish the straight edges of the Pocket and the side seams of the Garment Front and Back. Once these are sewn together, you won’t be able to reach and neaten the end of these edges.
- Optionally, finish the Pocket’s curved edges now, or wait and finish them together later. Doing it separately now is easier since we don’t need to include the garment seam allowance, but here we’ll show how to finish them together — so leave them raw for now.
3) Attach Pockets
- With right sides together, sew each Pocket to its corresponding Garment Front/Back along the straight edge. There’s usually a notch on the garment showing placement.
- Use slightly less than the pattern’s seam allowance — about 6 mm for a ⅜" (1 cm) seam allowance, or ⅜" (1 cm) for a ⅝" (1.5 cm) seam allowance.
- If finishing Pockets together, leave a ⅜"(1 cm) margin unsewn at the start and end of this seam.
4) Understitch the Front Pocket
- On the Garment Front, understitch the Pocket to keep it facing forward. Again leave a ⅜"(1 cm) margin for neatening.
- Skip this step on the Back, since the pocket bag naturally falls away.
5) Pockets together
- Press each Pocket away from the garment, then place Garment Front and Back right sides together.
- If you haven’t finished/neatened the Pocket's curved edge yet, do so now. To reach the very end of the edges, push the garment fabric away to expose the pocket like this:
6) Sew the side seam and pocket bag
- Still with right sides together, sew the side seam at ⅜"(1 cm).
- At the pocket opening, dip the stitch line into the pocket until the notch, then backstitch to come back out, and then sew around the pocket curve. Same for the other opening.
7) Press seam allowances
- For lightweight fabrics: press allowances toward Garment Front.
- For medium weights: press open starting an inch or two under the pocket bottom to reduce bulk.
- For heavy/bulky fabrics: carefully clip into the back seam allowance an inch or two under the pocket bottom to help with a clean open press.
And that’s it -- now we’re ready to add in-seam pockets to just about everything we sew!
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