29 Jul Thanks, it has pockets!
I was honoured when Jennifer Long of Bee Sew Inspired asked me if I would like to write a guest blog post for her 2nd annual Organize-Along. The Organize-Along shares insightful tips and ideas on how to organize your sewing room to be an inspirational and creative environment. If you haven’t already, be sure to start with Week 1 so you don’t miss out on any of Jennifer’s fabulous ideas. My article is part of Week 4 with the theme of “Tools of the Trade”, focussing on organizing all the little tools in our sewing rooms: rulers, scissors, glues, needles, pins, etc. I put on my thinking cap and came up with a system that works really well for my sewing space. I hope you are inspired by it.
Quilted wall hanging sewing room organizer
What you’ll need:
This wall organizer can be completely customized to suit your space and your organizing needs. For instance, if you have a larger (or smaller) wall space, you can adjust the size of the background fabric to suit your needs. You can also adjust the number of pockets. Once you read my method it should be fairly easy to customize everything. Here’s what I used to make mine:
- Front fabric: 24″ wide x 34″ long
- Pocket fabric 1: 6.5″ x WOF (width of fabric)
- Pocket fabric 2: 10.5″ x WOF
- Pocket fabric 3: 14.5″ x WOF
- Backing fabric: 26″ x 36″
- Batting: 26″ x 36″
- Binding: 10″ x WOF, cut into (4) 2.5″ strips
- 0.25″ elastic, approximately 23.5″ long (optional)
- (3) 1.5″ D‑rings (or you can use eyelets)
- Straps for D‑rings: (3) pieces of fabric 6″ x 3.5″
Instructions
Prepare the background:
1. You can use a whole cloth piece of fabric for the front of your organizer, but I pieced mine using 4 colours of pink fabric. I used Riley Blake Designs Confetti Cotton Solids in: Petunia, Rose, Super Pink and Cranberry. I cut each colour into 24” x 9” pieces and sewed them together in sections from light to dark.
2. Create a “quilt sandwich” by layering the front fabric, the batting, and the backing. For my backing fabric I used Riley Blake Designs Swiss Dots Black on White. Baste the sandwich together with pins or spray baste.
3. Quilt as desired. I quilted a 2″ grid then added some additional curved orange-peel quilting to give it a whimsical look. Once you finish quilting, square it up by trimming off the excess batting/backing.
Create the pockets:
4. For my three pocket fabrics, I used 1/8″, 1/4″, and 1/2″ black and white stripe fabric. Fold the pocket fabric pieces in half lengthwise, then sew a seam along the long ends, making them into wide tubes. Do this for all 3 pocket fabric pieces. Trim off selvedge ends.
5. Turn the pocket tubes right side out, press the seams flat.
6. Position the 3 pocket fabrics on top of the background to determine where you would like to attach them. I spread mine out evenly.
7. Divide Pocket 1 fabric into 8 equal sections, draw a line at each section or insert a pin at the top and bottom of each section to mark it. Mark 8 equal sections across the width of the background (should be approximately 3″ apart). Align the marks/pins of the pocket piece to the background marks. Insert a pin at each mark (top and bottom). Insert pins at the edges to hold it securely in place.
8. Repeat step 7 for the other two pocket pieces:
- Pocket 2 fabric should be divided into 6 equal sections with the background divided into (6) 4″ sections.
- Pocket 3 fabric should be divided into 5 equal sections with the background divided into (5) 4.75″ sections.
9. Sew the pockets to the background fabric along each section divider and at both sides. Remove pins as you go. Back-stitch at the beginning and end of each seam to secure stitching.
10. Fold pleats under at the bottom of each pocket fabric, lining each pleat up with the divider seams you just sewed. Place pins through each pleat and background fabric to hold them in place. At the sides, leave at least 0.25″ space at the edge for the binding.
11. Sew across the bottom of each pocket fabric piece, back-stitch across all pleats and at the sides. Leave the top of the the pockets open.
12. I added a piece of 0.25″ elastic across the bottom of my organizer. I cut it about 0.5″ shorter than the width of my organizer so that it would be taut when stretched. I pinned it in place then marked even marks about 2″ apart. I stitched a tight zig-zag across each mark. This step is optional, but it gives a nice option for hanging items that you will want to quickly access such as small scissors.
13. How you hang your organizer on the wall is up to you. You can make a sleeve for the back and hang it on a rod or add eyelets and hang it on C‑hooks. I chose to use some D‑rings I had in my junk-drawer.
14. To make the straps for the D‑rings fold the strap fabric in half, lengthwise. Sew along the long ends, turn right side out and press the seam flat.
15. Insert the D‑rings then sew the straps securely to the back of the organizer at equal distance apart.
FINISHING
16. Sew the short ends of the binding strips together using 45 degree seams. Trim the seams, press the seams open then press the binding in half lengthwise.
17. Attach the binding to the back of the organizer using a 1/4″ seam. Mitre the corners as you go. Once it is attached all the way around, flip the biding to the front of the organizer and secure all the way around with pins. Stitch all the way around taking care around the side of the pockets and at the top straps. You may want to reinforce the seams with extra back-stitching at those points.
Voila! You’re finished! I hung some Command Strip hooks on my wall to hang my organizer up and then got to the fun part… filling the pockets with all my little sewing room doo-dads.
I hope you have been inspired by my tutorial and use it to help you get organized in your own work space. If you do, I would love to see it. Please tag me on Instagram @holdmyseamripper or send me an email. Make sure you are following Jennifer @beesewinspired on Instagram for more Organize Along projects and tutorials.
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