I am not an athlete and I never have been. I kind of loathe exercise and would rather be sewing. Ehem. That said, I do try to take care of myself. Seriously, I’m 40 and I’d rather not fall apart as I get older.

I have a fabulous collection of yoga pants and jersey shorts of varying ages. These are my favorites for taking a long walk in the morning, something my hubby and I have been making an effort to do on a regular basis (see above comment about falling apart).

One of the best parts of these walks is that I usually text with my best friend while we’re out.  My best friend, my husband and I have all known each other for about twenty years. We all shared a house in college and we’re all friends. Eli and I live in Austin. Jewells lives in Albuquerque. Texting gives us a way to walk together despite the geographic distance. It’s kind of awesome and I look forward to it every day.

What’s driven me crazy for ages is that my favorite workout pants have no pockets. No place for keys. No place for a phone. That’s great if I’m not leaving my house, but for a long walk when I want to take my phone and I want easy access to it? Not so much. I’ve tried pouches, hip bags, and neck slings. They all make me crazy. I just want a pocket!

And then this happened…

My hubby has been cleaning out his closet. He’s 6’5″ and I’m 5’5″. I love his big tees for sleeping in and sometimes I do things like turn them into pants or girl shirts for myself.

He pulled out a plain grey tee that had a pocket on it. I looked at that pocket and it hit me that it’s the perfect size for my cell phone, so I grabbed my handy Havel seam ripper (best seam ripper EVER!), and removed the pocket.

When I flipped it over, WHAM!, I realize it I can use the bottom of the tee to make more pockets just like it!

This was a serious case of “Why did I not think of this before?!”

This is the pocket I Removed from the tee. It is an approximately 6″ square before the bottoms and sides have been folded in, including the seam.

I cut a 6″ strip from the bottom of the t-shirt, leaving the hem intact. I then subcut that 6″ strip into 6″ squares. Using the original t-shirt pocket that I removed from the same shirt, I pressed the squares to match. I used Best Press and steam to get them seams to stay. My iron was a little over enthusiastic with the steam…

This is the original t-shirt pocket on navy yoga capris. I lined it up just below the elastic and the string in the waistband.

Pins are good, just to keep everything in place.

I stitched around each pocket using a ball point needle and a stretch stitch. Ball point needles are made for stitching through stretchy fabrics like jersey and makes stitching it much, much easier. Stretch stitches have “give” so that when the fabric stretches, the thread doesn’t snap. Most sewing machines will have at least a basic stretch stitch. A narrow zig zag works just as well.

In the end, I placed all the pockets in the same spot, on the left hip. It’s been a couple of days since the addition of the pockets, and I LOVE them. My phone fits perfectly and it’s easy to grab when I get a text from my bff. I can even keep my house key in the bottom and it doesn’t interfere with my phone at all.

So, what became of the rest of the shirt?

I used one of my favorite tank tops to as a template for this. This was the length after removing the 6″. I cut off the sleeves and just serged up the side seams so it matches my other tank top. Wallah! One new work out top and 5 pockets from one t-shirt! I still have the sleeves and a few squares from the bottom, just in case I need to add spontaneous pockets to anything else!

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