On July 3rd, I decided I needed to put a zippered pocket into the Adventure Skort I was planning to wear for a 10k the following day. This was a little crazy since it was the night before the race and the skort was already made, but I wanted to be able to have my phone and my husband’s blood sugar monitor on me while we were running. 🙂 I took a few pictures of the process so, hopefully, I can help you put a zippered pocket into your next Adventure skort.
First, you’re going to have to decide the size of your pocket. I have a gigantic phone, the Samsung Note 4, which is roughly 6 inches long by 3 inches wide. I decided to make my pocket 5.5″x8.5″ (so the phone could lay on its side in the pocket). I added .25″ seam allowance to all four sides and cut 2 pieces that were 6 inches long (with the grain) and 9 inches wide (with the stretch of the fabric). I wanted a little zing to my pocket, so I chose a fun nylon-spandex print from The Fabric Fairy. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t recommend wearing workout clothes made from cotton. My skort was a poly/spandex athletic blend from Hancock’s. Typically, I find better quality fabrics when I buy online, but I’ve found a black poly/spandex at Hancock’s that is perfect for yoga pants and Adventure skorts. It comes in a heathered gray too, but the one at my local store had a very large flaw in it, so I haven’t tried that colorway yet.
Here’s the supplies you need for a zippered pocket:
- 2 pieces of fabric cut to your desired specifications (including seam allowance)-One piece may just barely show from the outside of the pocket, so you might want to match it to the outside of your skirt.
- zipper that is either just the right length or shortened for your pocket size (I used a 7″ zipper)
- 2 pieces of lightweight fusible interfacing cut in a rectangle a little bigger than your zipper.
- Wonder Tape (really, you won’t regret it–it makes the zipper installation SO easy)
- Invisible ink pen or chalk
- Pins, scissors, sewing machine, serger (optional)…your typical sewing accessories.
**A few caveats–the skort I was attempting this on was one of my test versions during the process of drafting and testing the Adventure skort pattern. There are a few sewing mistakes on it, but it is a perfect wearable muslin. 🙂
1. Cut your pieces. My pocket in this example is 6″ long x 9″ wide.
2. Add fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the front pocket piece (dashed rectangle). Be careful that your iron isn’t too hot and I suggest using a press cloth!
3. Add fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the skirt panel, where you want the zipper to be.
4. Place front pocket piece Right Side Down on the right side of the skirt piece where you’d like the pocket to be located. Pin in place.Center (width wise) a rectangle that is the width of your zipper (7″ in this case) by 3/8″ high and draw with invisible ink/chalk.
5. Sew around the rectangle. Cut down the middle of the rectangle, but stop about 1/4″ from either end. At the ends, you’re going to cut toward each corner to form a small triangle.
6. Turn the fabric into the pocket and press around the edges of the rectangle. (Again, check iron settings.) The second picture shows the pocket from the wrong side of the skirt panel.
7. Put Wonder Tape on either side of the zipper and carefully place into the open “window” on your skirt panel. Sew the rectangle around the zipper. Use a zipper foot to get as close to the edge of the rectangle window as possible. If you have the option of putting your needle down, it will help you turn the corners of your rectangle. If the zipper pull gets in the way, put the needle down and carefully unzip the pocket to move the pull out of the way. (If you’re going to pin the pocket in place, don’t be a bonehead like me. Pin from the right side of your fabric so it’s easy to adjust the pins if you need to move them!)
8. Turn skirt panel over to wrong side. Place other pocket piece Right Side Down on top of zipper and front pocket panel. Pin in place and sew/serge around the edges of the pocket pieces, securing them together.
9. Optional – Sew pocket in place on skirt panel. This can be a nice design feature or you can use the same color thread so it blends in with the skirt.
10. Rock that pocket when you ask total strangers to do the MC Hammer dance with you. (I laugh every time I watch that video.)
Here are a couple of things I learned…I like running in the shorter length of the Adventure Skort. Next time I put a zippered pocket in, I’m going to put it on the back panel of my skort, right above my tush. I’m going to put the top of the pocket in the seam for the waistband. I’ll probably move my zipper down about a quarter of an inch to give me ample fabric above the zipper for the seam allowance for the waistband. When I’m chasing kids, the front pocket doesn’t bother me and it’s easy to access. When I’m running for exercise and there is something as big as my phone in there, I don’t like it hitting my legs as I run. My zipper is opened with my left hand. The reason for this is that I wanted to be able to pull it open with one hand and the side seam on the right side helped make this possible (versus the open flap on the left side).
My next skort will be a short workout version with a bamboo blend skirt and a wicking poly mesh short. The bamboo is wicking and anti-microbial. It’s also incredibly soft. Can you tell I’m excited about it?
I think it would be fun to do a side seam zippered pocket too. What other pockets would you like to see? Make sure you take a look at Starly’s tutorial on adding a pocket to the shorts under your Adventure Skort.
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