Hello and welcome to my next blog here at Crafty Mammy Fabrics!
I admit it, I'm a hoarder (much to my husband's annoyance!). I can't throw things out that I may be able to repurpose. I tend to accumulate a lot of my husband's old denim jeans. I've used most of the denim I have for another project which is still work in progress and have been left with the pockets so rather than throw them out I decided to make this little storage wall hanging... it's pretty and practical :-) Here's how I made it:
You will need:
Fabric for the front - 18.5" wide x 28.5" long
Fabric for the back - 20.5" wide x 30.5" long
Wadding - 18.5" wide x 28.5" long
(I have allowed 0.5" extra in my sizing to allow for trimming and squaring off after quilting as explained below)
Spray adhesive (optional but very useful!)
Denim pockets
Scissors or rotary cutter and cutting mat
Quilters ruler
Sewing machine with walking foot
Thread
Fabric glue
Erasable pen/chalk
Iron
Bamboo stick
Lets get started!
Place your backing fabric down on a flat surface, wrong side facing up and spray with adhesive. Centre your wadding neatly on top. Spray a little more adhesive on the wadding and then place your top fabric down, right side up on top of the wadding. You could do all this without the adhesive spray if you wish and pin it together. I find the spray is great though... it's sticky enough to keep everything in place but not too sticky. You can easily separate the fabric again if you need to reposition.
Next, you want to think about how you are going to quilt your fabric. I choose to do simple vertical lines down the fabric. I found the mid point and drew a line down the length of the fabric with a heat erasable pen (these are amazing!) and then drew more lines at 2 inch intervals from the centre point. In total I have 9 vertical lines.
It was very difficult to stick all your layers of fabric down exactly straight so the lines I have just drawn were a great guide to help me square off the fabric. To do this I peeled back the blue backing fabric so that it's well out of the way and then lined my ruler up with one of the lines I had previously drawn. Then using my rotary cutter I cut of any excess fabric/wadding so that I had a nice neat, straight edge. I did this for all four sides and deliberately DID NOT cut the blue backing fabric at this point. The backing fabric should be 1 inch wider on each side. Once I had the top fabric and wadding squared off, I then put the the backing fabric into place and squared that off ensuring I had 1 inch extra the whole way around.
When you're happy your fabric is square then quilt it :-)
Just sew down the lines previously drawn and iron your fabric to remove the pen marks. Sorry it's hard to see the sewing lines in the picture :-(
Next, arrange the denim pockets on your fabric and sew on. This was difficult to do as the denim was quite thick. I used a walking foot on my machine and still couldn't sew to the very top of each pocket. I sewed as far up as I could and then stuck the last bit down with fabric glue and it held it perfectly.
Now it's time to do the edging. I deliberately left the backing fabric 1 inch bigger to make this easier. Of course you don't have to do it this way... you can cut the backing fabric the same as the rest and add a binding if you wish.
Start by folding the fabric half an inch in on one side and giving it a quick press as you go. Although the next two picture shows the side of my wall hanging I actually started at the top (apologies for my photo error!)
Fold over the remaining half inch so that it now covers the top fabric, ironing down as you go. Clip or pin to keep in place.
When you have the top done then you need to do the first corner. If you are looking at the wall hanging do the left hand side. Using your left hand fold the fabric down to form a triangle.
Fold the fabric in half an inch, like you did in the previous step. Clip or pin the corner area to keep it in place.
Next, go to the right hand side of the wall hanging and start to set the corner. When you're facing the wall hanging, fold the fabric down with your right hand to form a triangle, then fold it in half an inch. Just clip or pin corner area at this stage.
Now do the same at the bottom. Fold your fabric up half an inch, then fold it up again the remaining half inch to cover the top fabric.
Then start to form the corners. If you're looking at your wall hanging and doing the bottom left you are folding it up with your left hand to form the triangle. Then when you're doing right hand side you are folding it up with your right hand to form the triangle. Fold in half an inch at both sides as above and clip/pin the area.
Each corner is now partially formed and we've started to fold the fabric in half an inch at either side, top and bottom. Finish off folding the fabric in half an inch the whole way down either side of the wall hanging and press in place as you go.
Now start at the top left and fold the remaining half inch in to form the corner. This will be a little fiddly but you'll get there. I snipped away a little of the bulk of fabric at the corner to leave a nice neat, flat finish.
I then folded in the remaining half inch at the bottom left corner so that both corners were neat before folding in the remaining fabric in between.
Do the same on the right hand side. Again, I like to get the corners right first and then fold in the remaining fabric in between.
A little overkill with the clips... ha can you tell I'm a perfectionist!
Next, make some tabs to hang up your storage hanger. Cut 2 strips of fabric, 2.5 inches wide x 9 inches long. I used the same fabric as I used for the back.
Fold over right sides together and pin or clip. Sew down with approx 1/4 inch seem allowance. Turn them the right way out and press.
Fold your tabs in half and decide where you want to place them on your wall hanging. Mine are 3.5 inches in from the edge and 3 inches above the top of the wall hanging. Pin in place.
Sew right around your wall hanging, fixing the edging in place and sewing the tabs in place as you go . Insert a piece of bamboo into the tabs, hang up and enjoy :-)
I loved the combination of fabrics used in this project... they worked really well with the denim.
Thank you and I hope to be back with another Crafty Mammy blog soon :-)
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