How to sew an easy pocket

Don't be intimidated by the pocket!  I posted this pocket tutorial last week over at the Little Giggler and now I want to share it with all of you.  If I haven't said it yet, I'm still fairly new to sewing, so I like to keep things simple.  I found a tutorial from Made for the skirt in this tutorial, but I wanted an easier way to place pockets on the front of it...enter the easy pocket tutorial.

Materials

white broadcloth or cotton fabric

marker

scissors

paper brown lunch sack {something to trace on}

rick rack

buttons

I started by tracing the pattern for my pocket on a paper brown lunch bag.  The pocket for this skirt measure approximately 5 in. x 6 in.

Trace around the paper bag onto your fabric.

You will need to make four cutouts for two pockets.

Take one cutout and place the rick rack on top of it.

Now take your other cutout and place it directly on top {right sides facing}.  

Sew a straight stitch all the way across.

Flip it right side out and press.  Repeat for other pocket. It should look like this.  Don't worry if your marker peeks through a little.

Now you're going to sew a zig zag stitch around the outside of the pocket.  

Once you've sewn your zig zag stitch all the way around both pockets, you will need to press the sides inward like you see below.

Okay, you're almost done.  Now you're going to place your pockets on whatever...in this case, the skirt below.

Find the sweet spot for your pockets and pin into place.

Topstitch around the pocket.  I used a 3.5 setting on my machine {a slightly longer stitch}. 

Now add your favorite buttons.  These are two old vintage buttons that don't exactly match {one is more orange than the other} but I kinda like it that way.

Now you're done!!!  Sit back and enjoy your work...and let the little ones finds stuff to stick in those pockets.

xo,

Jen