Pocket Shoe Holder

Baby shoes are so tiny and cute, people just can't resist them.

 My little girl has way too many, considering she just learned to walk. So I decided I needed a good shoe organizer.

This organizer would be great for anything small as well- like jewelry, toys, office supplies, etc.

Supplies:

- one 28"x 26" rectangle cotton

- four 5"x 36" cotton

-ribbon (I used rickrack)

- dowel rod about 18"

-Buttons (optional)

First double fold hem the big rectangle 1/4 inch all the way around, press and sew. Then bring down the top 1 inch, press and sew to make the pocket for the dowel rod. Your big rectangle should now be about 26"x 25".

Then fold it into fourths length wise excluding the rod pocket and press. This will make guide lines for sewing the strips on.

Here you can see the guide lines (kind of).

Then press the sides of the small rectangles down 1/4 inch and sew just one of the long sides. (The rest of the sides will be sewn when you attach it to the big rectangle.)

Now you will do a lot of pinning and measuring so stay with me. (The point of all this is to create two 1 inch pleats in the center of each pocket.) Measure every 9 inches and put a pin (1). Then inside every 9 inch section find the center (2). Then from each edge of the 9 inch section measure 2.5 inches towards the center and put a pin (3).

Next you are going to move both pin 3 to where pin 2 is. This creates the pleat.

From where pin 1 was to the edge is the pocket, it should measure 5 inches.

Then you repeat that for all the pockets - 4 pockets on one strip and 4 strips. Then when you have all the pleats made and pinned, press it so it will stay in place.

When you have all the strips pressed and pinned line each strip up with the pressed lines from before (make sure the sewed hem side is on the top). Then pin it all in place.

Next sew the sides and the bottom of each strip to connect it to the big rectangle. Then sew to separate the pockets (at where pin 1 was) every 5 inches.

Then you are going to sew the rickrack to the edge of the rod pocket going diagonally. (This makes the hanger.)

Then put the dowel rod into the rod pocket.

And push it all the way until you have about an inch of fabric at the end.

Then put a pin in holding the dowel in place, and sew the other end of the rickrack on.  

(I added some rickrack at the bottom and buttons for decoration.)

Here it is, a way to keep all those cute, tiny shoes! It fits nicely in her closet and someday when her shoes are too big to fit any more we can use it as a toy holder.

I love it when things are multi-purpose! :)