Pocket Week - L Shaped Pockets - Always Expect Moore

These are the pants that inspired Pocket Week. Well, not these pants exactly, but pants with the exact same pattern, just different fabric. So, pants very similar to them. I tried out Dana’s pants over at Made, and although the fabric I used made them look very much like 70’s Boy Scout Shorts, LM loved them! The pockets are beautifully deep, and each can fit an entire matchbox car.

That first day, he kept putting cars in the pockets, and saying (with complete sincerity) “Wher’d Go?” (Which is LMeese for “Where did it go?”) Then he’d “find” the cars in his pockets, and say, “Deer it is!” (“There it is!”) It was hysterical, and I decided that I needed to make him as many things with pockets as possible, just so that he could keep “hiding” things from himself!

Here are the steps I took to create the pants (which are the other “half” of the Matchy-Matchy outfits).

I started by cutting out all of my pieces. You can trace around an existing pair of shorts to make your pattern pieces, and then cut your pocket shapes according to the size of your pattern. You probably won’t need those extra strips down at the bottom… we’ll get into that later.

Pin the edges of your pockets. Sew a 1/4 inch seam all around, leaving the short edge completely open for turning.

Once you’ve stitched all around, clip your corners, and make little clips in the seam allowance along the curve to make the curve smooth when you turn the pocket.

Turn the pockets right side out, using a chopstick to poke out the corners. Top stitch along the curve only. This makes the edge look nice, and the other sides will get matching top stitching when we sew them in place. Pin them in place on the pants. Make sure you pin down far enough from the top edge that you’ll be folding down for your elastic. I already sewed the mid-crotch seam here, to help me with placement. The short side of the pocket will be all the way up against the side, and will get tucked into the seam when we sew the side seams.

Stitch the pockets onto the pants, about 1/8 inch from the edge of the pocket. Don’t stitch the short side yet.

Pin front and back crotch seams and sew, if you haven’t already. Then pin the sides and middle seam, and stitch those up.

Now sew down the short sides of the pockets, topstitching near the seam. If you did this earlier, and your seams are not exactly straight, some or all of the stitching could have gotten “lost” in the seam.

Here is what those extra strips are for – after cutting, I noticed that I’d made a mistake in lining up my pattern, and one leg had more of the light green pattern than the other. I could have re-cut, but it would have been a waste! Instead, I cut these strips, trimmed off the bottom of the pants, and added them as cute little cuffs on the bottom!