The Pocket That Wasn’t: On Sewing, Mistakes, and the Joy of Experimentation

I was on a mission: add pockets to every skirt and dress I own. What could go wrong? As it turns out—plenty!

Anyone familiar with the absence of pockets in their garments knows the power of a well-placed pocket or two. After amending several dresses in my closet with pockets, I was getting cocky. I grabbed a brown wool skirt without even thinking twice—one I had been wishing had a place to slip my keys. I carefully disassembled the side seams, measured and marked the perfect spot for my in-seam pockets, and stitched them in with precision. When I held up my work, it looked fantastic.

Then I tried it on.

Immediately, I knew this was not going to work. My a-line skirt is more fitted through the hips than the other garments I’ve altered, and so the pockets didn’t drape secretly into the folds of the fabric—they gaped open awkwardly.

I sighed, grabbed my trusty seam ripper, and removed them. I sewed the side seams back up, no pockets in sight. The project had failed. Or had it?

Mistakes Matter

My mind immediately labeled this a terrible, calamitous mistake. But really, I learned something valuable— this type of in-seam pocket work best for fuller skirts, where they can disappear into the folds. And of course this was a new discovery for me, my general attitude is that the fuller the skirt the better!

In reality, it’s not that serious! It’s just a skirt. It was another opportunity to learn something about fabric, fit, and construction.

This is a mindset that doesn’t come easily to me. Like many, I struggle with perfectionism—feeling that if something doesn’t turn out perfectly the first time, it’s a worst case scenario disaster. But sewing helps me unlearn that.

I once worked with a ceramics teacher who talked about how much of her artistic process was simply experimenting. She’d throw a shape, see what worked, and often smush the clay back into nothing. The experiment was the point. And yet, we live in a world that rarely allows for visible failure. Everything has to be polished, Instagram-ready, effortlessly perfect. But that’s not how we grow creatively.

This got me thinking about the seam ripper. Someone, somewhere invented a tool exclusively for unpicking misplaced stitches. Our sewing ancestors didn’t believe in perfection. They recognized that sewing is a process. I say, let’s celebrate the seam ripper and what it represents! Every stitch we unpick is proof that we’re pushing ourselves, learning, and trying something new.

No, my skirt still doesn’t have pockets. And yes, I ended up exactly where I started. But therein lies the victory—sewing (like life) can be an adventure, and not knowing exactly how something will turn out is part of the magic.

Have you ever ripped something apart just to put it back together again?