Ever since seeing this gorgeous pocket organiser on
Pinterest (from the blog post
http://nicety.livejournal.com/1217050.html which has lots more photo's of the stunning kids space the organiser is hanging in) I wanted to make my own one and late last year I finally did, making one for my friend's daughters 7 year old birthday. Some of the fabrics I used were from a fabric scrap bag swap I took part in 2 years ago organised by
Nin (I was very lucky to also get Nin as my swap partner who sent me a beautiful bag of scrap fabrics which have been well used) so it was fun to get them out again to make this. If you have a bunch of scraps then this is the perfect project as you can have a lot of fun choosing different pieces for the pockets and you don't need a lot of fabric for each pocket. I didn't do any measuring for this project which really appeals to me so it was a reasonably quick project too - it probably took me 2 hours max.
For the white back and front pieces I cut out 2 large pieces of fabric (each one about 50cm x 80 cm approx). I used my favourite off white cotton duck that I get from Bernina, a lovely heavy linen looking fabric that I use for heaps of my projects. Then the fun part- I got out all my scraps and found a mix of pink pieces, then cut out different size rectangles and played around fitting them on the front piece of fabric. Once I had them sorted I folded over the tops and sides of each pocket and ironed them, and then stitched around them.
For some pockets I added a bit of embellishment like a piece of lace or ricrac.
You could also do things like hand stitch the initial of their name to a pocket, or appliqué their name across the top of the organiser.
I added a ribbon down one side to put hair clips on, and a little ribbon loop under one pocket to attach things like headbands, or a carabina with hair ties on it like this one I shared on
my Facebook page a few weeks ago.
I also added a line of lace across the top of the pockets so things like cards and postcards could be attached with pegs.
Then I pinned the pockets on and sewed around the sides and bottom of each pocket to attach them to the front piece of fabric. Once that was done I placed my back piece over the front piece (right sides together), sewed around the whole thing leaving a gap at the bottom for turning, then turned it right sides out and top stitched around the organiser to finish it off. I added two ribbon loops to the top back of the organiser so it could be hung on the wall.
I found a small container and filled it with a few things for the pockets to give with the organiser- 7 year old girls are lots of fun to buy for :)
I can't wait to make one of these for each of my kids - anything to facilitate any sort of tidying/storage will be a good thing in their bedrooms!
Don't forget to check out all the other blog posts for Nin's Scrap Bag Swap series- there's a link to them all here, and join in the swap next year if you are keen!
Megan
