This project was born of a need to have an area where my husband’s and daughter’s hats could be stashed. My husband seems to have trouble keeping up with his own hats and I always find an overabundance of wee hats and mittens in my purse or on the dining table.
This is the first pocket I made and it’s hanging on a wall in our kitchen so that things can be tossed in or fished out just as we are leaving the house. It’s nice to finally have all of my critter’s accessories in one place. It apparently isn’t large enough because things keep spilling out. I guess I should mention that my daughter has a knitted hat for every day of the week.
I decided to make a larger pocket for my daughter’s toys which I’m featuring in this tutorial. I used old sheets for both since sheet fabrics tend to have a tighter weave and therefore more durability (oh yeah, and you can get them pretty cheap at thrift stores).
Materials:
Approx 1 yard of fabric or upcycled bedsheets
Interfacing
Eyelets or grommets and a tool to install them
Obvious things like needle, thread, scissors, etc.
This is the basic shape of the pocket that I came up with. All of the measurements you see include a 1/4″ seam. Cut 2 of this shape from your fabric and cut 1 of this shape from the interfacing.
Fuse or baste interfacing to the wrong side of one of your fabric pieces. (I suppose the interfacing could be skipped, but it will really help make the pocket sturdy. I even added a layer of batting to the first pocket I made, but chose not to for this particular one.) After applying interfacing, put both fabric pieces right sides together and stitch 1/4″ seam all the way around, leaving about a 5-8″ opening for turning (my opening was at the top). Clip your corners, turn the project right side out through the opening and press the entire thing flat while also carefully pressing in the seam allowance at the opening. You can either blind stitch across the opening or just top stitch it closed about 1/8″ from the edge. Be sure that you backstitch at both ends.
Finger press the ‘tab’ and pin it to what would be considered the ‘back’ of the pocket.
I pinned the tab to the outside for this tutorial but you can pin it to the inside as well. (This photo shows the whole project flipped over so you’re looking at the back.)
You will want to stitch these tabs on and it may take some maneuvering to get it through your machine (I actually had to use my quilting foot for the first pocket I made because I had to feed the pocket in diagonally as it was too awkward to go in straight.) Make sure you backstitch both ends! You don’t want pressure from a full pocket undoing this seam.
Insert a couple of eyelets at the top. Alternately, you could use your machine to make small reinforced button holes.
Hang your pocket on the wall.
Fill with goodies!
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