The Boy Raven: Sew on a Cargo Pocket

Today’s post marks the last day of our Winter Wolle blog series!  It is also our 100th blog post!  Never thought we’d get this far!

I had wanted to complete this post yesterday–it seemed very fitting to end the wool series on the last day of February.  In my mind, March marks the transition to spring, and I’ve already started to shift my thinking in that direction.  But more on that later…

This final wool project is also the second installment of The Boy Raven Pants.  Today we’ve styled another boy look featuring our Raven Pants (here’s the first pair)–this time with cargo pockets and using a heathered brown wool suiting.  I loved working with this wool–it is soft and drapey and yet you can steam a very crisp seam.  The pintuck on the front of these pants looks so polished, doesn’t it? Ladies, your husbands will be asking for a pair of these to wear to work (without the elastic waist, of course!)…

Though sewing on a cargo pocket is not hard to do, I thought we’d  show you a quick trick for assembling the pants to make it all the easier.  You can also use the same trick for any type of side seam embellishment (like a satin tuxedo stripe).

Ordinarily, most pants patterns, including our Raven Pants, call for sewing up the inseam of the front/back panels together first (see left, below) and the side seams last.  The reason for this is to make sewing the crotch seam much easier.  However, in this case, sewing the side seams last means you can’t sew on the cargo pocket since you’d sew the other side of your pant leg underneath.  

So, to begin, sew the outside seams first (see right, below).

Now sew on your cargo pocket*:

Sew the inseam of each pant leg next.  This results in two, stand alone pant legs.  To join the two pant legs at the crotch seam, turn one leg right side out:

Insert the right-side-out-leg into the wrong-side-out-leg (so that the rights sides of both are facing one another), matching the inseams and side seams. The crotch seams should line up perfectly.  

Sew the crotch seams from front to back.  For added reinforcement, you may want to sew a second stitch line a few inches along the bottom of the crotch by sewing a 1/4″ away from the first stitch line inside the seam allowance.  

Clip the curves and finish the seam as you normally would (I pinked all my edges).  Pull the inside leg out and voila!  You’re ready to finish the waistband and hemming, as instructed.  

Though this wool is pretty soft, I thought I’d be safe by using an even softer material for the inner waistband. Here’s a shot of the plaid cotton flannel that I used for the inside waistband. So cozy!

* I haven’t shown you the step by step for sewing the pocket itself–but briefly for those of you who care:  The main part of the pocket has a narrow (1″ total) inverted pleat in the center front.  I turned under and pressed 1/2″ around all sides of the pocket, then basted those seam allowances in place (hence all of the extra, wonky stitch lines you see in the photo below!).  For the pocket flap, I doubled the height of the finished flap, folded it in half lengthwise with wrong sides together, sewed the short ends, then turned it to the right side.  I turned the remaining raw edges to the inside of the flap and pressed everything flat.    

I aligned the center pleat with the pants’ side seams then sewed both parts of the pocket in place using a 1/8″ edgestitch. When sewing the flap to the pants, I placed the long, open edge toward the top and topstitched it in place, thus closing the opening at the same time.

We hope you have enjoyed all of the different wool projects we’ve featured these past few weeks.  Look for some bright spring colors from us in the next few weeks!

Happy Sewing!

~Erin