Sewing Supplies Pockets

So, sometime before the Summer of Stashbusting began, I bought a couple of yards of this fabric. The lighting doesn't do it too much justice, but the coulors are gorgeous. Mostly, it's sati in a bag looking pretty waiting for me to decide what to do with it.

Then one day I was looking at my printer's tray/thread holder and realized I was tucking everything onto the precarious 1" edge to keep cutters, scissors, pins, etc. out of reach of the toddler (who, by the way, got hold of a dowel from my fabric rack and was flicking spools of threads off here one by one...sigh).

So, I decided to bust out my fabric and make a little set of pockets that could hold all these bits and pieces...and stay out of dowel reach of my daughter. I measured the space I had underneath the tray and over the sewing machine. I needed something that would be about 33" x 11" or so.

I picked a simple off-white for the lining and cut two identical pieces, each measuring 33"x23".

 

I layered them together, with right sides facing, and sewed a 1/4" seam all around the outside edges, leaving a 2" opening.

Trim the corners, and using the 2" opening, turn right side out. Use a chopstick to poke out the corners gently and iron flat (make sure to iron the hems flat at the opening as well.

Fold over one long edge by 1 1/4", with lining together, and edgestitch. This will create a channel.

Fold up the other side of the long edge until it meets the top edge you just sewed into place.

 

Edgestitch around the entire border (do not sew the channels shut!).

Then choose where you would like your pockets to be - I made a few very narrow ones for pencils, etc., and the rest quite large for holding scissors, rotary cutters, pin boxes, etc.

Once you've decided, sew a straight line from the bottom up to the edge (do not sew into the channel) - be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end.

Mark where it is to be hung on the wall - use two cup hooks and space them evenly on the wall (ensuring they are balanced evenly) and then slide a 5/8" dowel through the channel and rest on the hooks.

 

Slainte!