DIY Chair Pockets!

If you give a teacher a table, she's going to want to find some chairs.Once she finds the chairs (from a friend across the hall), she'll start thinking about organizing student supplies. Thinking of student supplies will lead to various storage ideas...such as chair pockets. And she'll just have to make a class set! Measuring, cutting, and sewing the chair pockets causes dear teacher to be exhausted... and need to rest her head. Looking for a clear area to lay her head down, the teacher thinks, "Gee, I really need a table!"

Here's how I went from this:

Yes, there are two sewing machines here...Trust me, you don't want to know. I'll just say, "Thank goodness for my sweet MawMaw!"

 To this:

Looks funny on my sun room chair, but really great on my classroom chairs!

Before I go any further, let me say that the only part of this idea that is mine is that I wanted chair pockets! My good friend, Charlotte, came up with this awesome DIY and just showed me how to do it! I'm sure she won't mind me sharing it with you:

There's a little bit of sewing involved--4 straight seams. If you don't sew, maybe hot glue would work. I've hot glued curtains before, why not chair pockets? Here's what you'll need:

• Sturdy fabric-We (Charlotte and I) used window shade fabric from Hobby Lobby. Its vinyl so we're hoping it will hold up pretty well. We'll soon find out. 
• Quilt Binding (Double Fold Bias Tape)
• A working sewing machine! (Or hot glue gun, I suppose)
• All the usual sewing utensils: scissors, thread, measuring tape, PATIENCE. Okay, that last one was just for me.

And here are the steps:

Measure your chairs. I have different kinds, and each one had different measurements. I'd highly recommend making ONE chair pocket and trying it on your chair before doing any more. My cut measurements wound up being 31" by 16" for my red chairs and 31" by 18" for my green chairs. 

Sew the quilt binding along the short edges of your fabric:

Fold your chair pocket to the desired length in front and in back. You can use actual measurements for this, or just play around with it until you get it the way you want. 

Pin your quilt binding to each edge. This will hold it in place as you sew. 

Sew the edges, and you're done! Again, let me say that I had nothing to do with the planning of this project. It all came from Charlotte. I'm just glad she was willing to share! And I really like the way they turned out. I never, ever, in a million years would have thought to use quilt binding on the edges, but I think that just really makes the whole project! What do you think?