How to Sew a Pocket Full Guide of 2023

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One of the questions we get a lot is how to sew a bag.

And it’s easy to see why…

What is the worst part about shopping for clothes?

For women, finding the perfect pants may be lie finding that there are no pocets. Where should I leave my wallet? My phone? Coat rac? Is there something if I don’t want to eep my hands full?

Not everyone wants to carry a bag everywhere, so what should a girl do?

Do it yourself!

If you mae your own clothes, it is easy to add a pocet. If you’re customizing something ready-made, be sure to buy a seam ripper.

Sewing pocets can with or without a sewing machine, but we’ll explain the easiest way – with a machine.

Er are several different pocets that you can mae, and here we will tal about the side-seam pocet.

Let’s get started right away.

How to sew a Pocet

What do you need for sewing pocets?

First you need to get a few tools together. Besides the garment you want to add the pocet to, you will need:

• Some scraps of fabric to mae the pocet
• Sharp scissors
• Pins
• A ruler or tape measure
• A piece of paper and a pencil to mae the pattern
• A sewing machine
• Needle and thread

6 easy steps

Create your pattern

Mae a pattern for your pocet with your paper.

You can cheat and pull around a pocet in an existing garment, which is the easiest and fastest method.

If you don’t have a good one on hand, remember that the shape of a bag is almost a teardrop with a straight side or half a heart – deeper at the bottom to hold your stuff, then down and out of the way at the top.

Mae sure your pocet pattern is deep enough is for your taste by seeing g if your hand fits comfortably in the drawing, add an extra ¼ inch all the way around. This is your seam allowance.

If your measurements all loo good, cut out your pattern.

If you thin you will mae a lot of bags in the future and you find that the format you have made wors well it might be worth duplicating the pattern onto something sturdier than paper either card stoc or cardstoc so it can many times can without falling apart.

Pin and cut the fabric

Once you have finished your pattern, fold the fabric in half, pin it to the pattern and cut it out.

It’s important to pin it down. and not just freehand, as it prevents the fabric from slipping and giving you an irregular cut. Repeat this and you should have four pocet pieces, enough to mae two pocets for your garment.

Prepare the garment

Now it’s time to mae room in your garment for the pocets.

This will be the worst part: using your seam ripper to remove the seam.

Although it’s tempting to just use the scissors to cut it open, you’ll need the extra fabric in the seam to secure the bag, so tae the time to do it correctly.

Mar about an inch from the waistband of your garment with a pin and then measure the opening length of the pocet pattern. This is the distance you want to tear the seams, so mar the bottom with another pin.

To tear the seam, pull the two edges of the fabric slightly apart. until you can see the thread holding them together. You should be able to insert the edge of the seam ripper and pull it bac to cut the thread.

Some garments may have multiple seems to fit the seam. to mae it extra strong. You will have bits of thread everywhere when you , but cut all the thread between your two marers being careful not to tear the fabric as you wor.

Place in the pocet

Once you have your pocet openings on both sides of your garment, it’s time to mae the pocet!

Lay your garment right side out so that the seam you just opened is facing you.

Tae two of your pocet pieces and place them on top with the right sides of the fabric are touching (so the wrong side of the fabric will face you.) The pocet pieces will sit in the steam hole, with the opening sides aligned to where you tore the seam.

Put these together – your pocet piece on one layer of the garment. Turn your garment over and repeat!

Sew away

Now it’s time to sew.

You will sew a straight seam, attaching each opening of the pocet to the side seam.

Mae sure that when you start and finish a seam, you sew a stitch or two forwards, bacwards and then forwards again. This will help seal the seam and prevent fraying and tearing. Trim any extra threads.

If you have a fabric that tears or fray, or if you are going to put a lot of weight and tension on your pocets, it’s worth going over the seam again with a zigzag stitch to reinforce it.

Seal the Pocets

Now, to seal the bags. It’s not much use if they’re still open, right?

Turn your garment and the pocets inside out and pull the pocet pieces out so they loo lie little ears that hang out. You should loo at the wrong side of the fabric. Pin the pocet pieces together and align the entire round edge of the deep pocet side.

Pull out your pocet pattern again and mar the small pocet notch on the opening side with another pin.

With a nit stitch, start at the side seam just above the top of the pocet. Go down the side seam and mae a hard twist at the top of the bag. you come bac to the seam, turn the side seam down and sew until you come together with an unrippled seam. Go bac along the side seam, past the bottom of the pocet, until you hit the notch of the pocet.

Sew about an inch into the pocet and go forward and bac to seal the seam. You can seal it with a zigzag stitch just lie you did the other seam. Repeat for the other bag.

Here’s a superb video on the whole process:

Hoe a Bag without a sewing machine

What if you don’t have a sewing machine?

Lucily the steps remain the same, the only thing difference is that it [ is needed]0

considerably more time.

A zigzag stitch is difficult to duplicate by hand, but a simple straight stitch is easy if not time consuming to eep it straight and even.

Fortunately, most of your stitches hide in the pocet itself, so it doesn’t have to be too fancy.

The most important thing to remember is to still add extra stitches to finish your seam, traveling bac and forth on the edge to seal it. Without it, you’ll probably see fraying and tearing.

Sag! Pocets everywhere!

Turn your garment right side out, adjust it and viola!

Drop!

If you get to this point, and something doesn’t seem right, don’t despair.

You can always tae your trusty seam ripper and remove the threads and start over. This happens with many sewing projects, but the more you practice, the more comfortable it will be.

From here you can add your pocets everywhere!

Sirts, dresses, pants – you will no longer to put your money in your bra, hold your eys between your teeth and juggle your cell phone between two already full hands.

Bas in your newly bagged glory.

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Now you now all about how to sew pocets — more questions?