I found this tutorial on Pinterest for a car book organizer. Pinterest has to be one of my most favorite websites!

My boys enjoy having toys in the car sometimes, especially if we are going to be driving for a bit. The problem that I find is that there is nowhere to put their toys or books when they are not using them. I had thought about making some type of organizer for the car but then I found this one on Pinterest so I thought I would give it a try. I did make a change or two to the tutorial but that was mostly because I am not very good with sewing on bias tape.

2 pieces of fabric cut to 11×22
1 piece of fusible interfacing or fusible fleece cut to 11×22
4 pieces of fabric cut to 11×13
bias tape, approximately 100 inches
thread
ribbon

I cut out all of my fabric and interfacing first. I used just one pattern of fabric for the entire project but you could mix up the fabric patterns. I used a piece of flannel with trains on it that I had in my stash because I knew the boys would like the trains. You can also adjust the measurements to fit your car or the items that you would be placing in there. I used fusible fleece for the interfacing because I had a lot of it in my stash. I probably would not do the flannel and the fleece together again for this project because it made it a bit thick going through the sewing machine. I would probably just use a cotton fabric next time with the fusible fleece interfacing. The fleece interfacing seemed to make the organizer a bit more sturdy.

I started by ironing the fleece onto the back of the front piece of fabric. I then ironed the pockets in half, wrong sides together, so they were now 11×6.5 inches. Once I had all of the pieces ironed I pinned the first pocket onto the right side of the front piece of fabric about 1 1/2 inches from the top with the raw edges on the bottom and the fold on the top. I stitched the pocket to the front by stitching a line across the raw edge of the pocket with a 1/4″ seam.

I didn’t like just having the raw edge there at the bottom of the pocket, although you wouldn’t really see it since the next pocket would cover it, so I decided to stitch a ribbon over it.

I spaced the rest of the pockets down about 4″ from each other but you could space it however you like depending on what types of items will be in the organizer.

Once the pockets are sewn on you need to place the front piece onto the back piece, wrong sides together, and sew on the bias tape. This was where my project took a turn for the worst. I am not very good at sewing bias tape so I did not enjoy this part of the project and it turned out terrible for me. The one in the tutorial turned out great but I just am not good with the bias tape it would seem. Since I really liked the organizer idea I ended up ripping off all of the bias tape to make it again. The flannel fabric frayed a bit so I had to trim it so my organizer ended up slighly smaller.

What I ended up doing was placing the front and back fabrics right sides together and sewing them together all of the way around with an opening for turning. After I had pinned it I decided to add a piece of webbing to use as a hanger. I unpinned the top of the organizer and pinned the webbing ends to the top with the raw edges matched. I tucked the rest of the webbing inbetween the right sides of the fabric, pinning the front and back pieces of the organizer together and sandwiching the webbing inbetween those two pieces of fabric.

I stitched it all around and then left a small opening for turning. Once I turned it I then top stitched around the entire organizer, closing the opening in the process.

I liked the way that the organizer turned out. It was actually a good thing that I had to make it a bit smaller to fix my bias tape mistake because it just fit inbetween the boys carseats. They are very excited about it because it can hold their coloring books, markers and Mobi-Go games. I may make one or two more of these in a more feminine fabric and have a “mom’s organizer” in the car. I figure that I could use it for items such as snacks, paper, pen, a small knitting project and maybe even a spot for my Kindle. I could also use one in my craft room for my craft supplies too.

I’m so happy with my little organizer and so are my boys. I love creating things for my family that they enjoy.