adding pockets

Women’s clothes never have enough pockets! I don’t wear jeans and I don’t carry a purse if I can avoid it, so dresses and jackets with pockets are my friends. There are never enough pockets though, and they are rarely big and sturdy enough to hold what I need, as little as that is.

Most days all I carry with me is a phone, a house key and 2 smaller keys and an emergency whistle on a small key chain, a small wallet a bit bigger than a credit card (though obviously much thicker) and a tube of lip balm. When I go to work I bring a small bag with snacks or lunch and a book, but they stay in my locker while I work – I prefer to carry the other things on me all the time.

Today I was expecting some downtime during a trip to a baseball game and I was wearing my denim jacket and a dress with flimsy, but generous, pockets… so at the last minute I grabbed a piece of fabric and some basic sewing supplies and set to adding some inside pockets to my jacket. Things didn’t work out quite as expected (we didn’t make it to the game but we did watch it on TV, and I did need a diversion even though we didn’t have a 2 hour ferry round trip) but I do have some lovely new pockets inside my jacket.

Here’s the jacket:

and here are the pockets:

The fabric was a small piece left over from my quilting days. I still have a small collection of blue fat quarters that were my favorites. The pockets are roughly the same size, each made from a doubled-over piece of fabric. I eyeballed the size, holding my phone up to the fabric and adding some breathing room. The upright pocket on the left is actually two pockets – I left the top open so you can put a small wallet between the pocket and the denim, and put a phone in the pocket itself (does that make sense?). The sideways pocket also fits my phone or wallet, but I constructed it a little differently. I folded the fabric right-sides-together and sewed around the whole thing, leaving a gap to turn it inside out. That way all the fraying edges were quickly and easily encased. I attached both pockets with simple hand stitches. I might also sew a little ring to clip my key onto.

Now I just need to figure out how to add pockets to my dresses! I finally gave in to the call of the iPhone and now I want and need to carry it with me all the time. I’m sure some clever internet people will have some ideas… whether it’s a clever way to add pockets to dresses that don’t have pockets, or maybe a nice looking pouch or purse from etsy…

Jo:)

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