The Pockets of the Houlihan (Part 2)

I wanted to post a couple pictures of the pockets and talk about putting the pattern together.

First up-- belt loops.  The easiest way to do this is to sandwich them in the waistband.  This won't be ideal if you are wearing a belt of any thickness over 1", but my belt loops are just for show.  If you do want to be able to wear a thicker belt with these, you'll want to place the bottom edge 3/4" or more below the lower waistband and topstitch.

  You'll notice the loops are plenty long--it's much easier to trim later.  These were interfaced, topstitched, and placed over seam lines and in between.  (When you measure for the front loops use the center front mark, not the edge of the band)

Next, the pockets

I used the pretty floral for all the pockets no one will ever see, and black lining for the flaps.  With these, you'll want to sew, turn, iron and topstitch the flaps first.  The pockets themselves you can place wrong sides together and sew 3 sides and turn and topstitch the last(top) side.  (right pocket)

First, turn under 3 edges 1/4" and press.  Pin.  

To make them into cargo pockets, make an inverted box pleat, taking up 1" of fabric.  (fold in half and measure in about half an inch on the bottom, open up, press flat, and baste).  With the top of the pocket do the same thing, but make sure your edges line up with the pocket flap.  You can see my pleat is much tighter on the bottom than the top side.  I like the upper edge looser because it is easier to get in and out of.

Place cargo pockets bottom 5/8" above bottom of outside leg edge and the front pocket side on the front seam line. 

I constructed my pants top down, topstitching  my seams as I went and I think I used 300 yards of thread--and of course none of it was used on mistakes that had to be ripped out.  Erm, yeah.

This is the order I recommend you put together these pants.  Of course, you may have your own method, and more power to you!

1.  Belt Loops
2. Waistband (as shown)
3. Pockets and pocket flaps
4. Connect front pockets to outside leg front piece
5. Upper legs (all 8 pieces), topstitch, leave inside legs unsewn 1 inch from bottom (makes it easier to line up and account for extra fabric and fit with knee pieces)
6. Front fly zipper (I didn't do this until after the waistband and had to use my cheater ribbon method)
7. Connect waistband catching belt loops, check fit, Button
8. Sew knee pieces to upper leg pieces, topstitch
9. Connect lower leg pieces leave inside leg unstitched, and stitch the upper 2 inches of outside edge only
10. Topstitch
11. Insert exposed zippers
12. Stitch up inside seam 
13. Put pocket flaps on back placed most strategically for your figure(the J Brand pants have the points over the seam and I used the pocket markings on the Ellen pattern to figure the placement on my pants)
14. Hem
15. Enjoy!

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!  Good luck making yours!

Pictures of the final product should be ready in a couple more days!