Add A Lace Pocket | DIY

I am all about repurposing/up-cycling items, especially clothing. So when I was ripping apart my closet and ended up with a stack of items I didn’t quite love the way they were, my first question was “how can I change this to make it work?”. I’ve done this with a few items in my closet already (examples already on the blog here and here) so I had some pretty good ideas for this stack.  The first one I did was this fleece vest I’ve had since high school. It is prefect for throwing on for a chilly run when a sweatshirt is too much and would great with some plaid for some extra warmth. There was just one tiny little problem…my high school varsity soccer logo. Now this was never a deterrent from wearing it on a run, however made it impossible to wear outside of athletic endeavors. And ad to the fact that I already get enough questions about my age that I was tired of encouraging those inquiries. You have enough people ask you if you go to the local high school and it makes you start to think… yeah, yeah, I’ll love it when I’m forty, but at the moment I’d at least look old enough to legally drink the margarita I so thoroughly enjoy. I’m not bitter, I swear.

Anyhow, I digress. Back to the vest! I had some leftover t-shirt sleeves (from my DIY fringe scarf) and a god bit of black lace from a shirt that had it as an overlay that was ripped in the back. Being in love with pockets, I figured why not cover that pesky logo with a lace pocket! I could still wear it to run and simply be a little extra girly, and now wear it in public free of the fear of being asked when I was going to graduate.

the finished product! complete with lace pocket 🙂

It was incredibly simple and I’m so excited about how it turned out. Here’s all I did…

1. Cut out the t-shirt (or whatever fabric you want to use to a touch larger than the area you want to cover (or whatever size you want it to be – think if you want to hold something specific!)

2. Cut the lace the same height as the fabric (mine is scalloped so it’s a tad higher in the center) but make the width an inch wider (so you have 1/2 in on either side of the fabric piece).

3. Overlap the lace and fold the sides under (see below). Now do a simple stitch around the edges to hold the lace in place. Note: see how the top is the edge of the sleeve? That way you won’t have any rolling from the edge you cut.

4. Now that you have your “pocket”, place where you want to sew it, and sew it tightly in place around the bottom and two sides (so you have a working pocket!).

5. While this is quite an easy project, it is always nice to have a little “helper” for such a a project 🙂 So there you have it, an easy upgrade to an old favorite!