Decorative stitching on the back pockets of jeans seems to be all the rage nowadays. It not only makes your jeans stand out, but since each manufacture tends to have a unique pocket design it often serves as a way for jean companies to advertise their jeans. Manufacturers often have different needlework on their back pockets depending on whether they are made for a man or woman, but there is often a common trend in the design.
It may seem fancy but decorative stitching isn't really that difficult to do with a standard sewing machine. The key part is designing the stitching to look how you want it to and finding a way to transfer that look onto both of you pockets so they match.
What I have found that works pretty well is to sketch the design out on a notepad on a template shaped like your pocket until you get the look you want. Afterwards you can sketch the pattern onto a piece of tissue paper shaped like you pocket. Then flip the paper over and trace the inverse of the pattern onto another piece of tissue paper.
Tape the tissue paper onto the pocket around the edges of the paper with masking tape (make sure it is flat). Then you simply stitch with your desired stitch right through the tissue paper. Little pieces of the paper will still be left in the stitches after you tear it off, but they will come out when you wash them.
Another easy way to make a pattern on pockets is to simply sketch it on with a fabric pencil (the kind that rubs off) and sew over your sketch. The tricky part here is to make sure that both pockets look the same, which isn't that hard to do with simple patterns. Here is a pocket I did with this method:
-Test your available stitches out on some scraps of fabric before you try them out on your pockets. Make sure the test fabric is the same type. The same stitch can look very different on different types of fabric.
-Always sew decorative stitching onto pockets before they are sewn onto the pants. It would be pretty tricky to do afterwards.
