Car Organizer Tutorial

Today, I'm posting my first sewing tutorial!!  I'm rather excited that this finally came together.  I've been wanting to find the time since June!  I had 2 to make for my Christmas giving.  Seemed like the perfect opportunity to put it together.  Anyway, let's get straight to it...

This is a basic over the seat car organizer.  There's plenty of room and plenty of pockets to keep all your kid's stuff off the floor and organized within their reach.

Car Organizer
Finished dimensions = approximately 21"x17"
Top pocket is approximately 6 1/2" deep
Bottom pocket is approximately 9" deep

What you need to purchase:
3/4 yd main fabric (I used cotton quilter's fabric)
fat quarter coordinating fabric for pockets (again, cotton quilter's fabric)
1/2 yd 1 inch webbing
1 yd 1 inch elastic
batting

Cutting your materials:

- Out of your main fabric, cut 2 pieces 22"x18".
- Cut your batting to be just a hair larger than 22"x18".  Sometimes batting shifts in ways you can't imagine.  Cutting it slightly larger helps eliminate frustration - which is always helpful!
- For the top pocket, cut your coordinating fabric 7.5"x17.5".
- For the bottom pocket, cut another piece of your coordinating fabric 10"x17.5".
- Cut the 1 inch wide webbing to 18".
- Finally, cut your 1 inch wide elastic to 33".  (You can measure around your car seat to ensure that this will be enough.)

Sewing your car organizer:

Step 1:   Lay your main pieces of fabric so that they are right sides together.  Then lay the whole thing over your batting.

Pin the 2 long sides almost to the bottom, and pin in the middle to make the whole thing more stable. 

Step 2:  Pull back the very bottom of the top layer of your sandwich (the part that will be your bottom hem).  Place the elastic 1 1/2" from the bottom of the fabric like so:

Make sure you put the raw edge of your elastic out (that part gets tucked into your seam).  I left about 1 inch outside the raw edge of my material.  Pin well.  Do the same for the other side.

Now you should have your elastic pinned to either side of your organizer, and a bunch of it dangling around the middle.  Pin this to your fabric so that you don't accidentally sew through it in the wrong place.

Position your top layer back where it goes (over the elastic) and pin in place around the rest of the sides and the bottom.

Step 3:  Using a 1/2" seam allowance, sew down 1 side, across the bottom, and up the other side, leaving the top open.

Unpin and trim the batting, but not the elastic.

Step 4:  Fold back the elastic over the fabric and sew over the elastic just to the outside of your existing seam.  This will reinforce the seam.  Like this:

Step 5:  Trim corners, turn right side out, and press.

Now, you should have something that looks like this: 

Step 6:  Fold the top seam into itself 1/2".  Press.

Insert about 1" of the webbing into the top seam space 4" from either side.  Pin well.

Starting at the top left corner, topstitch all the way around the organizer using 1/4" seam allowance.  Go back over the webbing once to reinforce.

Unpin elastic so it will be out of your way when you attach the pockets.  Pockets are next, then you're done!

Step 7:  Prepare each pocket.  Fold in 1/2" on each side.  Press.  Fold in the bottom corners like this:

Fold the bottom up 1/2".  Press.  This makes a neat corner.

Create a 1/4" rolled hem for the top of the pocket.  Stitch the top hem.  Do this for both pockets.

Step 8:  Position your pockets onto the organizer.  The bottom of the bottom pocket should line up with the bottom seam of your organizer.  Pin the pocket in place.

Position the top pocket 3" down from the top of the car organizer.  Pin in place.

Step 9:  Now you can mark where you want the divisions to be for individual pockets within each large pocket.  You can pretty much do whatever you want here.  Here are the sizes that work well for us:

Top pocket:  Mark for a seam at 5" from the left, again at 10" from the left, and once more at 12" from the left.  This gives you 4 pockets approximately sized at 5", 5", 2", and 5".  Perfect for small notebooks, colored pencils, pens, etc.

Bottom pocket:  Mark for a seam at 6 1/2" from the left.  This gives you 2 pockets approximately sized at 6" and 11".  The bigger pocket holds a standard sized coloring book nicely.

Step 10:  Sew your pocket divisions.  Be sure to back tack at the top and bottom.

Guess what!!!  You're all done!

To hang it in your car, it helps to remove the headrest first.  Position the elastic over the seat, and wriggle it down all the way to the bottom.  Put the headrest back making sure the webbing is around the spokes. 

Fill it with stuff to occupy your kid for hours in the car.  You can modify this design to include different pocket sizes if you have smaller things you want to have room for like MP3 players and whatnot.

Boy, Do We Have The Snow!!!

We've got lots of snow here in NE Ohio!!  LOTS!!!  The picture below was taken out the window of my back room.  There are bushes directly below the window ledge, and snow piled high on top of that!

Venturing out the back door...

Most of the schools around here were closed.  Since we homeschool, I don't follow the snow schedule.  We can work same as usual here even when the snow is up to the car's headlights.  Munch is unhappy with this.  I keep having to remind her that we take plenty of "nice weather" days and play outside or go on outings instead of working indoors at home.  Ahhhhh.  The beauty of homeschooling - setting your own schedule.

Do you have lots of snow?

Drawstring Backpacks

I've finally finished all 6 of the drawstring backpacks!!!  All are fated to be Christmas gifts for various young people in my life.

These backpacks are fairly easy to sew, and you can have TONS of fun playing around with color and style.  I follow Anna's (from Noodlehead) basic drawsting backpack tutorial (only I do a few things differently).

All of my measurements for each piece of fabric comes from Anna's tutorial.  However, I piece together the pocket differently.  For the patchwork pockets, I sew the 2 pieces (top and bottom) together.  Then, I follow the Sew, Mama, Sew Blog's Zippered Pocket Tutorial to complete the lined pocket.  I line up the zipper with the seam between the top and bottom piece.

The above backpack is made from some of the vintage fabric passed along to me from my mother when they moved from their house into an apartment a few years back.  I'm not sure exactly when it's from, but I love it.  For this one, I used only one piece of fabric for the pocket.  I didn't want to take too much away from the main fabric.

To assemble the backpack, I follow Anna's instructions.

Each backpack is fully lined, and the perfect size for a young person to carry around.

This pocket-less one is going to serve as Sweetpea's new dance bag.  Munch and Boy are going to paint some things on the front of it to make it special for her.  I lined it with pink (her favorite color), and used the same material for the tabs at the bottom.

(I love them all, but I think this one is my favorite!)

They come together fairly quickly, and can make the perfect gift for someone - alone or stuffed with some goodies.  It's been my go-to gift for birthdays and such this whole year!

(If all goes well, on Thursday, I should have my first ever tutorial of my very own to post!  I'm so excited about this.  Fingers crossed.)

Snowman Garland

Today, we made snowman garland.  I got the idea from a Family Fun book at the library, but decided to change some things to suit my preferences.  For one, the original craft called for craft foam.  But I don't care for craft foam, so I opted for stiffened felt (which can be purchased at any decent craft store) instead. 

Using glasses, we started off cutting the felt into 2 different sized snowmen.

Then we went to town using every thinkable thing to decorate our snowmen - googly eyes, snowflakes, puff balls, felt for hats, fabric for scarves and hats, bells, ribbon, etc.

We used an all purpose craft glue to stick everything on, but I'd have to say, next time (if there was such a time) I would definitely be using something stronger like hot glue or a fabric glue.  Lots and lots of our little items fell off to everyone's dismay.

We kept all the little craft items organized by using saucers.  You could use little take out dressing cups or little bowls instead if that's what you've got.  But it's helpful for keeping down messes and for easier cleanup.

All in all, we had a grand time, and our little creations turned out rather cute.

After they dried, I punched holes where the arms would be.

Using a tapestry needle, I threaded ribbon into the front of the left side, around the back, and out on the right side.

But, in hanging them, I realized that they were top heavy and tended to flip over.  Not very good unless you want a string of snowmen standing on their heads.  To fix this, I just made sure they were all leaning against the wall - not dangling in space.

If you want them to hang freely in space, you may want to consider weighting them somehow.  I tried to think of something quick and easy, but frankly, I was done with the project.  So, my fix by leaning them all on the wall was perfect for me!

What sorts of things are you making for Christmas this year?

Crafty Monday

We are in the midst of a craft!  Stop back later (probably this evening) to see how it all strung together.

Working Hard

Here at my house, we are in the throes of Christmas preparations.  Although it always seems to be a crazy time of year, we are trying our hardest to enjoy ourselves while we prepare.  Sometimes wanting to celebrate Christmas in a more simple way makes for other stresses that end up making it feel NOT simple.  Really, it's a trade off - one stressor we can't stand for another we are comfortable with.  Doing this make the stress seem less like stress.  Actually enjoyable.  For instance, I really don't like to shop.  But I do like to sew and shop at fabric and craft stores.  So, this year, I am making gifts for the majority of the people on my list.  Any shopping that I want to do is happening online for the most part.  I don't mind that as much.  And there are so many cool things to see on Etsy!!!

We've all been busy.

Hard at work. 
Sewing

Baking
Crocheting
Decorating

Cleaning
Crafting

And trying enjoying nearly every minute of it.

Boy's Hat and Scarf Set

I've finished up Boy's hat and scarf for Christmas.  The hat took a bit longer than I expected, but I love the way it turned out.  (Many thanks to my extremely patient pumpkin model who did not squirm, fidget, or complain even once!)

I found this pattern in Crocheted Gifts by Kim Werker.  I absolutely love this book and have made several things from it.  This hat is made with 100% cotton worsted weight yarn from Universal Yarn Inc. in brown.  Aside from using a worsted weight instead of a sport weight, I followed the pattern to a tee.  Check this out:

I love it!!!!  It looks like it might be tricky, but it's really very simple.  Clever.  Boxy.  Hat Squared - that's it's name.  It's really sized for a man's head, but I figured that way, Boy will just grow into it and be able to wear it as long as it lasts.  He has a rather large head anyway for a 6 year old.

I did not really follow a pattern for the scarf. 

It's really just a series of small shells [sc ch 2 sc] - 7 in a row - with a hdc at the end.  I used all 100% cotton worsted weight yarn for this as well - brown and beige from Universal Yarn Inc. and envy heather (green) from Simply Cotton (which, by the way, uses organic cotton).  I started out doing stripes whenever the spirit moved me, and then ended up with this as a finished product.  The scarf is about 4 feet long and somewhere around 5 inches wide - perfect for a small boy.

So, I've finished Sweetpea's and Boy's.  I've finished with Munch's hat and started her scarf last night.  I really need to stop crocheting at a reasonable hour and get my rear to bed.  I don't do well with not enough sleep, so although I am enjoying working on these gifts for my kids, I really need to sleep so that during the day i can enjoy them as well.

What are you working on for Christmas?!