WEBVTT 00:00:00.429 --> 00:00:03.620 There is a box, in the corner of my sewing room. 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:07.419 It is a box whose contents have not seen the light of day for many a month. 00:00:07.419 --> 00:00:10.690 Many crafters will be familiar with this box, in all of its forms: 00:00:10.690 --> 00:00:14.590 There’s the ever-growing amorphous lump that lies underneath your desk… 00:00:14.590 --> 00:00:18.730 The monster underneath your bed… The stuff you vacuum-packed in a fit of organization 00:00:18.730 --> 00:00:22.150 and stuffed into your garage in the hopes that you’d never have to deal with it again… 00:00:22.150 --> 00:00:25.450 This, my friends, is the UNFINISHED SEWING PILE. 00:00:34.370 --> 00:00:38.190 The item that I pulled out of the box for today’s episode is this thrifted dress. 00:00:38.190 --> 00:00:42.420 Now it's a pretty nice simple floral dress with a gathered skirt… but it really annoys 00:00:42.420 --> 00:00:46.899 me that more of my clothes don’t have POCKETS. I've decided that I need more pockets in my 00:00:46.899 --> 00:00:50.460 life. So, I’m going to add some. Now, you can do this to any item of clothing 00:00:50.460 --> 00:00:54.760 that has side seams – dresses, skirts, pants, jackets – basically anything that has a 00:00:54.760 --> 00:00:56.360 seam that you can rip open. 00:00:56.360 --> 00:00:59.899 To make a pattern for my pocket, I grabbed a piece of paper with a straight edge, and 00:00:59.899 --> 00:01:04.269 then I put my hand flat on it, and then angled my hand slightly downwards like this. 00:01:04.269 --> 00:01:08.900 Then, I traced around the shape of my hand, with roughly 1 inch extra all the way around, 00:01:08.900 --> 00:01:13.610 turning it into a pocket shape that looks like this. And then I cut my pattern out. 00:01:13.610 --> 00:01:17.659 The fabric that I’m using for my pocket is this thrifted cotton pillow case. The pillow 00:01:17.659 --> 00:01:21.490 case fabric is already in two layers, but if you’re just using a regular piece of 00:01:21.490 --> 00:01:24.229 fabric then fold it over before this next step. 00:01:24.229 --> 00:01:29.369 I put my pocket pattern on top of the fabric, traced around it, repeated this, and then 00:01:29.369 --> 00:01:34.439 cut them out. Now if you remember, I was cutting through 2 layers of fabric here, so this gave 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:39.470 me 4 pocket pieces in total and I will use 2 symmetrical pieces for each pocket. 00:01:39.470 --> 00:01:43.310 Back to my dress, I tried it on and then I figured out roughly where I wanted the pockets 00:01:43.310 --> 00:01:47.979 to sit. Then, I turned the dress inside out, lined up the pocket pattern with the seam, 00:01:47.979 --> 00:01:52.439 and then I made 2 marks, using chalk, at the top and bottom of the pocket, on the dress material. 00:01:52.759 --> 00:01:57.229 Then, I ripped open the seam in-between the chalk lines. I used some small, sharp scissors 00:01:57.229 --> 00:02:01.189 and a seam ripper to help me out here, and I actually opened up the seam to one inch 00:02:01.189 --> 00:02:03.989 above and below the chalk lines. 00:02:07.260 --> 00:02:11.120 Then – and watch carefully because this is a little bit tricky – when I sew it on, 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:16.769 my pocket is going to end up facing in a downwards direction like this. So, I line up the straight 00:02:16.769 --> 00:02:21.419 edge of the pocket with the open seam, right side of the fabric facing down, and then, 00:02:21.419 --> 00:02:26.150 on the dress at the open seam, I fold back the top layer like this. Then I carefully 00:02:26.150 --> 00:02:31.340 place the pocket material on top, right-sides-together with this folded-back dress fabric - and then 00:02:31.340 --> 00:02:37.609 I insert pins to keep it in place. That was a little bit confusing, so this is 00:02:37.609 --> 00:02:40.629 what it looks like from the other side, once it's all pinned together. 00:02:40.629 --> 00:02:43.499 And then, I sew this piece of the pocket to the dress like this. 00:02:43.499 --> 00:02:48.329 I just use a basic straight stitch and I sew the pieces together about 1 quarter of an 00:02:48.329 --> 00:02:49.980 inch away from the edges. 00:02:49.980 --> 00:02:53.769 On the other side of the open seam, I’m going to do the exact same thing to attach 00:02:53.769 --> 00:02:58.589 the other half of the pocket. So, I line up the pocket, fold back the dress 00:02:58.589 --> 00:03:00.089 material at the seam, 00:03:06.040 --> 00:03:10.739 pin, and then sew the pocket to this side of the dress using a straight stitch. 00:03:10.739 --> 00:03:14.659 And once both the pocket flaps are sewn on, I place them right-sides together. With the 00:03:14.659 --> 00:03:19.409 dress still inside out, I sew the seam back together where it’s been opened above and 00:03:19.409 --> 00:03:23.519 below the pocket material, and also all the way around the pocket like this. 00:03:23.519 --> 00:03:27.959 It’s also a good idea to pin everything in place to hold it together while you sew! 00:03:27.959 --> 00:03:32.859 Again, I’m using a basic straight stitch. When I was done I turned my dress the right 00:03:32.859 --> 00:03:35.689 way around, and I admired this cute new little pocket! 00:03:35.689 --> 00:03:39.449 I then gave the pocket a good iron and then I repeated the exact same thing on the other 00:03:39.449 --> 00:03:42.549 side to end up with two pockets, and I’m done! 00:03:42.549 --> 00:03:46.209 And this is how it looks! The addition of pockets to this dress makes 00:03:46.209 --> 00:03:52.150 it about twice as interesting, and also infinitely more useful because this dress can hold things! 00:03:52.150 --> 00:03:56.219 I also like how the pockets are hidden - they're really subtle and you can’t really see them 00:03:56.219 --> 00:03:59.409 - but when you do, BAM, they’re super cute and polka-dotty! 00:03:59.409 --> 00:04:03.499 So, now that I know how easy it is to add pockets to an item of clothing, I’m going 00:04:03.499 --> 00:04:07.749 to go ahead and add pockets to every pocketless item that I own. Thanks for watching, and 00:04:07.749 --> 00:04:09.909 I’ll see you all later! Bye!