Pocket Stories

"Handier than a pocket in a shirt!" How many times have we said that?! Pockets have other stories, too. Remember the first bell of Christmas from Polar Express? Pockets do have their problems.

If you have watched a gentleman move the items in his pockets from one pair of pants to another, you know there are at least two ways of accomplishing this strategic move. One is to leave the old pants hung in an upright position and the next day to retrieve the items and place them in the correct pocket in a clean pair of pants. (This is how one finds coins, etc. in the washing machine.)

The second method is to remove all items from the pockets and place them on a dresser, table, or shelf. This results in lost combs, et cetera, and sometimes also results in some items being placed in the wrong pocket. These items are of course, now lost forever.

Women, when you first put on a pair of jeans, don't you put your hands all the way down in the pockets to smooth them out? We wouldn't want an extra bulge on our hips!

Pockets have an interesting history. We think of pockets as being attached to clothing, but historically that was not always the case. Pockets didn't appear in men's clothing until the late 1600's. But for women the pocket was not sewn into her clothing. Instead, she hung a pocket on a string around her waist.

In Colonial Williamsburg, I bought this one. There, women wore them over their petticoats but also under their skirts; they had slits in just the right places to slip your hand into your pockets. Here was the handy place where a woman kept her thimble, pin rest and needle keep. She need not move these items when she changed her skirt – she simply put on her pocket!

It wasn't until the late 1800's that women started to sew pockets into their clothing.

Since I've become a woolie, I've learned about other types of pockets as well. This pattern makes a pocket intended to be hung on the wall. (1) From what I can surmise, it held spare candles and matches for providing light in the evening. I hang mine next to the bed. It's a great place for items needed in the night such as cough drops or ear plugs.

This is also called a pocket. This pocket has much the same purpose as the colonial ones. With a snap-close top, it is a safe and handy place to keep your thimbles, needles, scissors, pins, and thread. The designer created it for this purpose. For some reason, she doesn't like keeping needles and pins in her pant's pockets! (2)

1. Wooly Pockets by Rebekah L. Smith. 2017
2. Pocket Full of Posies by Kathy at The Cottage at Cardiff Farms.