Pockets

Add pockets

Pockets are the change brides are glad they made: somewhere for lip balm, tissues and your phone, and somewhere to put your hands in photos. If your skirt has a side seam, they're one of the easiest things to add.

Where they go

Most added pockets are in-seam: the side seam is opened at hip height, the pocket bags are sewn in, and the seam is closed again, so nothing shows from the front. On a tulle or layered skirt they go into one of the inner layers, and the outer layers float over them. A skirt with no side seam, or with lace running across the seam, is harder, and worth showing to a seamstress first.

Keep them hidden

Cut the pocket bags from lining that matches the dress, not white cotton, which shows through tulle. Some sewists face the opening with a strip of the dress's own fabric or lace, so any edge you glimpse looks like the dress. Don't make them too big: a pocket full of things pulls the skirt down at the side.

How other brides did it

• Wedding dress progress: the skirt (Helen's Closet): a pattern designer adds in-seam pockets to her own tulle wedding skirt, anchors them so they don't sag, and faces them with lace.
• In-seam pockets in a lace and tulle dress (video, Sheer Stitchery).
• Side-seam pockets through layers of tulle (video, THE SEWIST): on a client's dress.
• Hidden pockets (video, AllbyOly).
• Hand-sew a pocket into a dress (Instructables): no machine needed, for a dress that's already finished.

Want someone to do it?

Any bridal alterations shop can add pockets, and it's a small job next to a hem or a bustle. Bring the lining you'd like, or ask whether there's enough hem allowance to cut it from.

What you'll need

• Lining fabric in the dress's color: hold it against the skirt in daylight.
• A good seam ripper: for opening the side seam neatly.
• Fine silk pins and fine hand-sewing needles.
• Thread that matches the dress.

Before you sew, put the dress on and mark where your hands fall naturally at your sides. That's where the pocket opening goes.

More ways to make the dress yours: adding lace, beading or pearls, adding a bustle, or start from all the projects.