Have Pockets. Will Party. {Dress Refashion}

Not nearly enough women’s clothing is made with pockets. I’m tempted to purchase any dress or skirt that I try on if it has pockets… even if it doesn’t look that great on me.

“But women carry purses, they don’t need pockets in their clothing.” 

False! There are plenty of times when carrying a purse with you doesn’t make sense or isn’t permitted. The struggle is real.

So what do you do with the bare necessities that you must carry? You improvise! Remember the time I created a utility garter for my diabetes supplies while I carried out Matron of Honor duties?

I’ve long thought about adding pockets to some of my favorite dresses but never got around to it until last week. Last Friday, I volunteered at my local JDRF chapter’s annual gala fundraiser. I worked on auction check in/out and entered donations and couldn’t really have my purse with me. They requested that volunteers dress in black, so I went to my closet and pulled out my favorite black skater dress. You may remember it from my blog post about our 5th wedding anniversary.

One problem, there’s nowhere to stash my phone so I can track my blood sugar. I thought about the garter, but it would need adjustments to fit a phone securely and it might be awkward to dig under my dress for it at this kind of event. So I decided to add pockets.

The pocket material also had to be black to blend in with the dress, so I snipped part of the sleeve off from a black shirt in my refashion pile, making sure it was long enough to hold my phone.

Next, I determined where on my skirt would be most natural for a pocket and opened up the seam at that point.

With the dress turned inside out, I stitched the sleeve piece to the seam and then sewed up the bottom of the pocket.

It was a quick, easy alteration because of the cut and material of the dress. Adding pockets to other clothing could be more difficult, but this one was a breeze.

And the gala? It was a ton of fun. Most of the volunteers were also people who have type 1 diabetes or parents of children with type 1. The gala was held at the State Theater at Playhouse Square, it is a beautiful venue for such an event. However the lobby area where the cocktail hour, dancing and auction registration were held was LOUD, so by the time I arrived home my voice was very tired from yelling every conversation.

But I left with my heart full of hope and gratitude, having processed hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to help find/fund a cure for this disease.