What has she got in her pockets?

[redbird]

melannen is making a cloak, and asked how many secret pockets it should have. My thoughts, some of which I posted as a comment:

Whichever number of secret pockets you pick, you shouldn't tell the world the answer.

The thing about secret pockets is that it's tricky to use them for everyday items, because -- for example -- my winter coat has an inside zipper pocket that contains a small amount of emergency cash, a pen, and a pair of earplugs. The earplugs are there because I want to be sure they don't fall out/get lost, and the cash is there in case of random pickpockets.

The earliest version of this, the inside pocket contained a subway token and a quarter for a pay phone. None of the subway systems I now ride still uses tokens, and pay phones are a rarity, so these days it's a $5 bill. I have other coats with similar pockets; they each have a $5 bill and a pen. That's a total of fifteen or twenty dollars; I've occasionally gone into the coat closet to get money to pay for a food delivery and refilled the pockets later.)

Any time I use the earplugs, the most casual bystander could become aware that I'm using an inside pocket; it's not secret, but feels safer than the outside pockets. (This coat has four outside pockets, two with zippers, and two inside pockets, the other large enough to hold my kindle; the manufacturer labeled it as the place for my hypothetical ski goggles.)

/[not in that comment, as even less relevant:] Right now the various front pockets contain gloves, a small tube of NSAIDs, a lightweight silk scarf, and at the instant are getting my house keys when I go out. The large inside pocket is being used for a hat -- a cheap felt "pussy hat" that I am still wearing, two years after the Women's March, because it's the snuggest warm hat I own -- and a reusable shopping bag, both of which fold flat. If the temperature gets significantly below freezing, or I'm traveling without a backpack, my kindle will go there: Jo, who lives in Montreal, says that model is okay to about -10 C; it might get colder than that in the outside backpack pocket, but if it's not safe in the inside pocket of a coat I'm wearing, I have much larger problems.

Comments

[anne]

Well now I want to knit you a hat. If that sounds good, let's discuss it!

[redbird]

That sounds delightful. NB: Some wool (though not "smartwool" socks) makes me itchy, and we'd need measurements, since > 90% of the hats out there are too small for me. On the other hand, that might be a convenient excuse to get together and drink tea or something.

[anne]

It might be coarse wool, or it could be an allergy to the proteins. We can try some stuff!

[redbird]

We can indeed. (I'd have to be careful wearing it around rysmiel because they're more sensitive to wool than I am, but that's also true of my wool socks, and we manage.)

[alatefeline]

<3

[brithistorian]

With my second generation Kindle I had the opportunity to see it having trouble with cold weather. At or below -10 C, as I'd turn the pages, the entire screen would gradually become grayer and grayer until I could barely see the writing. When I'd bring it back inside and it would warm up again, it would be fine. Until I saw it happen, it had never crossed my mind that cold weather could be a problem for e-ink.

[hlagol]

I think that I am frequently bothered by in comparing men's and women's outerwear as various stores, in the dearth of secret/inner pockets in the women's versions. Secret pockets are so nice, and it is so sad to be deprived of them!

[redbird]

Likewise, and coats/jackets are a category where I can't just shop in the men's department, because the sleeves are too long for my arms. (I have several pairs of LL Bean men's jeans, because they fit me better than many brands/styles of women's jeans, and have better pockets.)

[hlagol]

I struggle with both hip space and arm length in men's coats, and tailoring outerwear is generally well outside my budget.

But whenever reasonable, I'm happy to defect. Perhaps it's confirmation bias, but I feel like the quality to price ratio tends to be superior in menswear. Alas and alack.

[adrian_turtle]

I've seen the same thing with quality to price ratio. Sometimes the same brand will make men's shirts and women's shirts at similar price points, and the one for men will have stronger stitching and more secure button attachment as well as the less-flimsy cloth I thought I was looking for. Boxy coats are out of fashion these days for both men and women, though...everybody seems to be making them to fit close to the body, which leaves less room for pockets.

[mindstalk]

How hard/expensive is shortening the sleeves? Or does the material of coats make that a non-starter vs. lighter clothes?

[redbird]

I don't know what it would cost to have someone shorten the sleeves of a wool coat; my winter coats tend to be a shell with filling (either synthetic or down), which I've been assuming would be either quite expensive or not something a local tailor could handle. (My own skills are adequate to replacing buttons, but the repair tends to be visible if you look closely.)

[minoanmiss]

I love this advice from the first line onwards. :)