How to Sew: A Slant Pocket

Introduction

The slant pocket is my favorite type of pocket to sew, because it balances three things at the same time:

Look: Since the pocket opening is visible, the designer (that can be you!) has the freedom to shape the opening—ranging from a classic slant or curve to creative ovals and "egg" shapes.
Ergonomics: Because the outer layer of fabric (the garment front) keeps the pocket bag tucked against the wearer's body, the contents stay secure. This prevents the pocket from dangling or drooping.
Easy assembly: Construction is more intuitive than in-seam pockets, with fewer seams to finish and no fiddly turning. (We have tutorials for both French seam finish and zigzag/serged finish!)

Today we’ll take a closer look at the slant pocket pattern, and show you how to sew a durable pocket while minimizing bulk.

And for all of us visual learners, this tutorial is also available as a youtube video:

The Pattern

You're welcome to grab this free slant pocket template to add them to your own garment -- read on to see how to adapt this template into pattern pieces!

Before diving into the sewing steps, let's break down how slant pockets actually work. When fully constructed, a standard slant pocket has three layers of fabric (from top to bottom):

These layers are connected by two primary seams:

Adapting the Template

Now that we know how these pieces work together, here’s how to use our free template to create these three pieces.

The Pocket Facing: This is identical to the template.

The Garment Front: Slice a triangle off the original pattern piece to create the slanted opening.

The Pocket Back: Add that triangle onto the template to create the full Pocket Back piece.

Special Construction: The Terra Pocket

In this tutorial, our example (The Terra) is shaped slightly differently in two ways:

Panel Construction: Terra's pocket spans both the Side Front and Middle Front, so these two pieces need to be sewn together before sewing the pocket.
Anchored Support: The pocket is anchored to the Middle Front in addition to the side seam. This stabilizes the pocket and minimizes dangling. From a sewing perspective, it’s just one extra basted seam, but your garment will thank you when you put something heavy in your pocket!

A note on Seam Allowance: For both the free template and The Terra, the default seam allowance is ⅝"(1.5cm). However, we’ve set the allowance to ¼"(6mm) along the slant -- this is more precise to sew, and saves us a trim down the road.

Steps To Sew

Step 1: Reinforce the slant to prevent stretching.

For this example, we cut a ¼″ (6mm) wide tape from a woven fabric selvage, centered it on the garment’s seam line, and basted it just outside the seam line. A ¼″ (6mm) or ⅜″ (1cm) twill tape works just as well. Alternatively, a ~2cm wide strip of interfacing fused to the wrong side also does the trick.

(Optional) Step 2: Patch the Pocket Back with fashion fabric.

Feel free to skip this if your Pocket Back is already cut from your fashion fabric. However, if your fashion fabric is too heavyweight for the entire Pocket Back, you can "patch" it: cut a triangle of fashion fabric that extends about 1″(2.5cm) deeper into the pocket opening. Topstitch this triangle onto the Pocket Back—the slant edge can be serged/zigzagged, or folded under a scant ¼″ (6mm). Baste the outer edges together to secure.

Step 3: Connect Garment Front with Pocket Facing.

[Align] Put Garment Front and Pocket Facing right sides together, aligning the slant edge.

[Sew] Sew the slant with a scant ¼" (6mm) seam allowance -- this should catch our reinforcement tape or interfacing. Just sew the slant, no need to pivot or do any hard turns.

[Finish] Press the Pocket Facing away from Garment Front, pushing the seam allowances toward the facing. Understitch the allowance to the facing.

[Finish] Press the Pocket Facing and Garment Front wrong sides together. Optionally, topstitch about ⅛"(2mm) along the slant for a crisper/defined look.

Step 4: Sew the Pocket Bag.

[Align] With the Garment Front wrong side up on the table, lay the Pocket Back wrong side up, so that the pocket bag layers are right side together with all raw edges matching. If you pin to secure and flip the entire piece over, you'll notice the notches align at the seam/stitch line (illustrated below).

[Sew] Sew the curve of the pocket bag, and finish the raw edges. Serging/zigzagging, French seams, or bias binding are all great options (with varying degrees of fanciness!).

[Finish] Press the pocket area, and baste the remaining raw edges to the garment. You can now treat this entire assembly as a single piece and move on to sewing the rest of your garment!

The pockets in this post are featured in our Terra Jumper Shorts & Skirt!

That’s all there is to it! I just love how intuitive and easy the slant pocket is to construct. If you haven’t already, grab our free template and add a pair to your own garments! And don’t forget to check out the full video tutorial if you hit a snag.