The Sewaholic Cordova jacket has side peplums with a curved seam. A straight pocket would interfere with the styling. So, I made curved welt pockets for my Cordova jacket and would like to share how I made mine.

I used several different methods (luckily, I had a lot of extra fabric) and found one that worked well. The steps are after the jump.

right side

Cut a piece of your fabric about 2" larger than the pocket on each side. Cut it on the bias, so that it is will be easier to shape. Place this piece of fabric on top of your garment with right sides touching.

wrong side

On the back side of your garment, add interfacing around the pocket opening. Draw your pocket opening and then stitch along the line to attach your  piece of welt fabric.

wrong side

Cut the pocket opening through the 2 layers, while being careful not to cut your stitching. Pull the welt fabric piece through the opening. It should look like the picture above on the inside of your garment.

wrong side

Press to make a nice opening. Then, fold up and down the welt fabric on the bottom and top of the pocket opening so that they meet in the center. Press them into place. This is where you will play with the fabric until your welts follow the curve.

right side

On the right side you your garment, you should have nice looking welts. Once you are happy with them, pin them in place.

right side

Then, stitch in the ditch or top-stitch the welts into place. If your fabric is very stretchy like mine, you can also baste them into place first. The sewing maching feed dogs tend to move the welts around. I didn't baste, so my welts weren't 100% perfect in the end.


I made a small button loop out of bias tape in my main fabric. I basted it into place before finishing the pocket. You could also make a button hole under the pocket that goes through the outside of the jacket and the smaller pocket piece (the button would be sewn inside the pocket on the larger pocket piece).

wrong side

Cut the excess welt fabric around the pocket opening to about 1". Attach a small pocket lining piece to the bottom welt seam allowance. Create a larger pocket piece that has the main fabric where the pocket opening is and lining for the bottom (like in the picture above). Attach this larger pocket piece to the top welt seam allowance. Then, sew the sides and bottom of the two pocket pieces together.

right side

Above, is what the final pocket should look like on the inside.


All that's left is to sew on the button. This method worked best for me, since I had stretchy fabric that also like to fray a lot. The method that sews on welts a separate pieces didn't work very well, since it was hard to make them follow a curve and the final welt seam allowances were small (there was hardly anything to sew my pocket pieces on, because of all the fraying).


That's it! I hope that this helps someone else out. I think they look great and with my Cordova peplums.