How To Add Pockets To Anything! | The Style Pile Episode #3

There is a box, in the corner of my sewing
room.

It is a box whose contents have not seen the
light of day for many a month.

Many crafters will be familiar with this box,
in all of its forms:

There’s the ever-growing amorphous lump
that lies underneath your desk…

The monster underneath your bed…
The stuff you vacuum-packed in a fit of organization

and stuffed into your garage in the hopes
that you’d never have to deal with it again…

This, my friends, is the UNFINISHED SEWING
PILE.

The item that I pulled out of the box for
today’s episode is this thrifted dress.

Now it's a pretty nice simple floral dress
with a gathered skirt… but it really annoys

me that more of my clothes don’t have POCKETS.
I've decided that I need more pockets in my

life. So, I’m going to add some.
Now, you can do this to any item of clothing

that has side seams – dresses, skirts, pants,
jackets – basically anything that has a

seam that you can rip open.

To make a pattern for my pocket, I grabbed
a piece of paper with a straight edge, and

then I put my hand flat on it, and then angled
my hand slightly downwards like this.

Then, I traced around the shape of my hand,
with roughly 1 inch extra all the way around,

turning it into a pocket shape that looks
like this. And then I cut my pattern out.

The fabric that I’m using for my pocket
is this thrifted cotton pillow case. The pillow

case fabric is already in two layers, but
if you’re just using a regular piece of

fabric then fold it over before this next
step.

I put my pocket pattern on top of the fabric,
traced around it, repeated this, and then

cut them out. Now if you remember, I was cutting
through 2 layers of fabric here, so this gave

me 4 pocket pieces in total and I will use
2 symmetrical pieces for each pocket.

Back to my dress, I tried it on and then I
figured out roughly where I wanted the pockets

to sit. Then, I turned the dress inside out,
lined up the pocket pattern with the seam,

and then I made 2 marks, using chalk, at the
top and bottom of the pocket, on the dress material.

Then, I ripped open the seam in-between the
chalk lines. I used some small, sharp scissors

and a seam ripper to help me out here, and
I actually opened up the seam to one inch

above and below the chalk lines.

Then – and watch carefully because this
is a little bit tricky – when I sew it on,

my pocket is going to end up facing in a downwards
direction like this. So, I line up the straight

edge of the pocket with the open seam, right
side of the fabric facing down, and then,

on the dress at the open seam, I fold back
the top layer like this. Then I carefully

place the pocket material on top, right-sides-together
with this folded-back dress fabric - and then

I insert pins to keep it in place.
That was a little bit confusing, so this is

what it looks like from the other side, once
it's all pinned together.

And then, I sew this piece of the pocket to
the dress like this.

I just use a basic straight stitch and I sew
the pieces together about 1 quarter of an

inch away from the edges.

On the other side of the open seam, I’m
going to do the exact same thing to attach

the other half of the pocket.
So, I line up the pocket, fold back the dress

material at the seam,

pin, and then sew the
pocket to this side of the dress using a straight stitch.

And once both the pocket flaps are sewn on,
I place them right-sides together. With the

dress still inside out, I sew the seam back
together where it’s been opened above and

below the pocket material, and also all the
way around the pocket like this.

It’s also a good idea to pin everything
in place to hold it together while you sew!

Again, I’m using a basic straight stitch.
When I was done I turned my dress the right

way around, and I admired this cute new little
pocket!

I then gave the pocket a good iron and then
I repeated the exact same thing on the other

side to end up with two pockets, and I’m
done!

And this is how it looks!
The addition of pockets to this dress makes

it about twice as interesting, and also infinitely
more useful because this dress can hold things!

I also like how the pockets are hidden - they're
really subtle and you can’t really see them

- but when you do, BAM, they’re super cute
and polka-dotty!

So, now that I know how easy it is to add
pockets to an item of clothing, I’m going

to go ahead and add pockets to every pocketless
item that I own. Thanks for watching, and

I’ll see you all later! Bye!