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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Hanging Fabric Pocket Organizer

 Homeschooling my children is a wonderful blessing that bares with it a great responsibility. With so many different roles (wife, mom, teacher, homemaker etc.) that I play around our home organization is key to keep things running smooth.
Often times the way school lessons break down in a day, one side of a worksheet is completed that day, leaving the other side for the next school day. What to do with all those papers for different children? What to do with them so they are not forgotten or overlooked? Where to put them so each child knows what they have for that day? What to do with them so they are not in the clutches of the youngest sister who wants to try her hand at her big sister's worksheet? These were the questions that inspired this.
 Individual pockets adorned with ribbon. Perfect for holding school papers to be done or to be completed, corrections to be made or homework.
Eyelets make this possible to hang over the door from metal hooks. You can purchase eyelets at any fabric store, I got mine at Hobby Lobby. I then used ribbon to hang the organizer to the height I wanted. 
Now for a peak of what is hiding under the fabric. How I made it.
I used a large Diaper box from Costco. I trimmed off the flaps or edges and this created the base for my organizer. I cut out pockets to the size I wanted, (keeping in mind they will be hemmed and turned under so that in the end it is at least big enough to fit a piece of paper) and then turned the edges in and sewed a thin hem. I then placed the pockets on my main piece of fabric. I turned under each edge excluding the top opening. I pinned the pocket to the main fabric and then pined on my ribbon wrapping it around the pocket. I sewed on each pocket and only sewed the ribbon edges to the main fabric. Once the pockets were all complete, I then used my hot glue gun to glue the main fabric to the cardboard box (only warping and gluing the edges to the back side of the cardboard). I also used the hot glue gun to glue down the middle or center part of the ribbon onto the pocket.There you have it... very simple. You could hot glue the whole thing if you did not want to sew.
 This organizer will most likely hang on the inside door to my classroom closet. The closet door remains open during school time. The top pocket for now will hold my oldest daughters books. The one she is reading for her book report and the one I am reading out loud to her. The other pockets hold school papers! Yay! A wonderful solution! You could also use this for printer paper, notebook paper, construction paper, story books, coloring books, magazines, mail, bills, school or craft supplies and anything else you can come up with! Labels or numbers on the pockets are possibly in this organizers future. If I do then I will show you the update in a later post.
Now for a bit of an update. Here is what now fills my Mason Jar by my chalk board... because I know you have just been dying for this update. :)


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Guest Post - Place Mats

 Hi all! I am super excited to introduce you to a very dear old... um let me rephrase... a very dear, long time friend. We grew up right next door to each other for many years. Life took hold of both of us, we lost contact only to be brought back in touch over a year ago. Oh glory day! As many of you know I have a three month old little boy... well my wonderful friend has a three month old little girl. Our babies are the best of friends even though we live a thousand miles away from each other oh and they have never met. Minor detail. Any how my amazing friend Diane is a mother to three beautiful kids! She blogs over at Cherishing All Our Moments and had her little ones make the place mats I shared with you awhile back. See post here. I just love that her sweet little ones had a blast making them. They turned out so darling and I just had to share them with you. Hope you enjoy. And now my friend Diane...

Thank you so much Carrie for the wonderful idea of making place mats!! Gavin and Emma really really really loved this project and they have such great conversations now about their beautiful work while they eat. It is so neat to see how something so simple can be such a huge deal in their eyes. Here are pics of the place mats they made...I included a photo of each side...they had fun picking out a few different pictures that I had in a stack for their place mats.The sequin idea was the icing on the cake. Emma put hers on in piles and Gavin was very meticulous.