Sewing your own bathroom storage

Sometimes you just need that little bit of extra storage to keep your space looking peaceful and calm. And there is no better way to have a beautiful space than when you fill it with your own handmade linen pocket organizer.

I used to dread getting ready in the morning because all my products were cramped together on a shelf. It felt cluttered even though there wasn’t all that much on there. But now that every little thing has its own pocket, it feels much more organized and calmer.

Now when I need something I no longer have to search for it but can grab it without any hassle. I just love my new linen pocket organizer that makes the entire space feel more serene and my mornings more enjoyable.

What do you need for your pocket organizer:

A little bit over half a meter of linen fabric (or sturdy fabric of choice)
Optional:
- Some string or ribbon for the tabs
- 240 cm of matching bias tape for edge (I made my own tape)
- Some embroidery floss for decorating
Sewing supplies:
- Sewing machine
- Measuring tape
- Fabric scissors
- Pins

Cutting your pieces:

To start off we will be cutting out our pieces, if you’re also using linen then I would advise reading the tutorial for a half apron. There I talk more about drawing the thread as it’s called. It will make working with linen easier and will create a nicer end result.

Main piece: 55 by 65 cm
Bottom pocket: 55 by 26 cm
Middle pocket: 55 by 15 cm
Top pocket: 55 by 10 cm
Top reinforcement: 55 by 13 cm
If you choose to use bias tape you don’t have to cut out this one
- Cut out a strip of fabric of 4 by 240 cm. (If you only have shorter strips, then cut those until you would have the right length.)

The pockets

Fold the hem

For all three pieces, you fold over the top twice, so that the rough edge is hidden, then you pin it into place.
I would advise you to dampen your fabric and iron it while folding to achieve nice crisp edges. But I’m also aware that most people don’t want to get the iron out for this, in which case just do your best with your fingers to flatten the fabric.

Sew the pockets

Sew the hems for your pockets on your machine. For the hem, I used a longer stitch because I feel it looks better and makes the stitching pop out.

I choose for the bottom two pocket pieces to have the hem facing outwards to give it a more rustic feel.

So keeping in mind what you want your top edge to look like, pin the pieces to the main piece. With the right side of the pocket facing the right side of the main piece (it will lie upside down, inside up) pin the bottom of the pocket to the main piece. You should be able to afterward, fold the pocket up and have the sewn rough edge hidden inside the pocket.

Repeat for all 3 pockets.

You can iron the pocket pieces for a nicer finish.

The top reinforcement piece

Optional decoration

If you would like to decorate your organizer then you might want to embroider a little heart or flower on your reinforcement piece. You can easily do this by using an embroidery hoop before you attach the top piece to the main piece. I used a stem stitch to create the heart but use whatever stitch you think looks best for your chosen design.

To make the heart pop out even more I chose to sew it to two separate strips of cloth, to create my top reinforcement piece.

Of course, it is completely up to you whether or not you decorate your creation.

Attach the top reinforcement piece to your pocket organizer

The lower side of your reinforcement piece you can attach the same way as you attached your pockets. The sides and top you can either pin in place for when you attach the band or sew into place. If you already sew it into place it will be less difficult to keep everything aligned.

Round and round the band goes

To create the band you can attach all your pieces at a 90 degree angle, to create one long piece. If you’ve cut your band in one long single piece you can skip the last step.

To shape your band so that you can attach it to your organizer you can iron the piece into shape.
I prefer to dampen the entire piece and then fold it in half lengthwise and iron that flat.
Then I fold both rough edges inwards so that they’ll be hidden, and iron flat.

Attaching the band

To attach the band to the main piece, you pin the band to the edge of the main piece. Try to keep the back and front edges of the band parallel to each other with the rough edge of the main piece in the middle.

Then you can sew over the entire edge until you have about 15 cm left of the band. You can then attach the two ends in the same way as you attached the band earlier.

Tabs

If you prefer to use tabs to hold up your linen organizer then you can easily create these using the same technique as we used for the band. Then sew the edges together and attaching it to the corners of your main piece.

I choose to use some handspun yarn instead of tabs to hold up my linen organizer. Because I hung mine up in the bathroom and the tabs had to be able to go behind the shelf.

It’s super easy to attach the yarn to the pocket organizer, you thread the yarn on a thick sturdy needle and pull it through the fabric. You start on the back of the organizer, underneath the hem, and push your needle up to the edge. Then a bit to the side of your original hole you push it back down, then you make a knot in the two ends and pull up your loop on the top.
Repeat this for the other side.

Measure and sew the pockets on the pocket organizer

Before I decided how wide my individual pockets were going to be I grabbed all the things that I wanted to store in there. I laid my organizer down on the table and played around with which items I wanted where.

Once I was satisfied with their placements, I pinned the line for the stitching. That way I could then take everything out again and still know exactly where I needed to sew in order to create the individual pockets.

Once the individual pockets are created you can fill it back up with whatever you want to keep there.