An "Aha" Sewing Moment: Sock Pockets

We all have a sock drawer that includes several lone socks. The missing halves of these pairs entered the laundering process and went on a walkabout, joining the mysterious pilgrimage of lost socks. We keep the lonely remaining sock because we hope in vain that the other half will somehow find its way back to us, even though that has never happened.

An artful solution to lost socks

This sewing/mending/upcycle solution addresses two common problems: lost socks and lack of pockets. Combine the two and you have sock pockets. 

Sock pockets in action

The children's shirts shown here were purchased for a few dollars each from a thrift store and were the focus of this proof-of-concept stage. In the next post I will move the sock pocket concept into adult couture. The two children's shirts shown here do utilize lone sole-survivors from my sock drawer but also include a few children's socks I picked up dirt cheap in Chinatown because I have no four-year-olds running around my house and was too impatient to launch into this project to track a child down and rummage through his or her sock drawer.

How-to close-up

With the genuine orphan sock above, I realized that anything put in the opening of the pocket would fall down into the toe and become inaccessible unless I created a pocket bottom by stitching across the base of the ribbing, as shown above.

Detail of sock pocket

For the much smaller children's socks no added pocket bottom was necessary. As a bonus, I realized the small flexible cuff on the child's sock serves as an added security measure to keep contents securely inside.

Close-up

I stitched the blue sock above so that half of the sock extends below the hem of the shirt, adding to that "just tumbled out of the laundry" look.

Shirt back

The socks on the back of the shirt aren't meant to be functional pockets (experience has taught me that it is extremely uncomfortable to sit back against a full pocket). Instead they add to that tumbled, lost sock, static cling look that I am going for here.

A second proof-of-concept children's shirt is shown below.

Shirt front: sock pockets loaded with toys, shells, and drawing pens

Detail

Detail: Perfect for beach combing

Detail how-to

Shirt back

Stay tuned for the adult version of the sock pocket in action. Meanwhile, here are snapshots of girls in sock shirts below.

Front view

Back view