Shut Up And Sew: Art Supply Organizer

This post originally aired on kojo designs blog.  It is a fabulous blog with loads of inspiration.  They hosted a series awhile back called "destash".  I was honored to be a part of it.  Check it out if you have a "stash" that needs some work!

Such a fabulous idea to "destash".  I desperately needed to dive into my abundance of fabric, ribbon, and supplies.  So, here is a small sampling of my stash...

I have a 5 year old little girl.  With my little girl comes an enormous amount of art supplies.  The girl loves to draw, cut, glue, and color anything she can get her hands on.  This means that our kitchen island is constantly covered with an abundance of art supplies.  

My solution: An art organizer that could be hidden from view to fool everyone into thinking our kitchen was clean.  Ha.

So I found a lot of muslin fabric in the stash.  I also found an old pair of pants in the closet that I could put to good use.

I cut the muslin fabric into two large pieces that would fit on our pantry door.  I put the two pieces of fabric right side together and sewed only the bottom and sides together.  I flipped it inside out and had a large muslin rectangle.  I then began preparing the pockets.

I cut out the butt area of the pants as well as the bottom of each pant leg.  I would use the bottom of the pant legs as two pockets for the top of the organizer and the butt of the pants for the large bottom pocket.  I measured how big I wanted each pocket to be and then hemmed the sides and bottom of each one.  

Then I pinned and sewed each pocket into place on my fabric.

 I folded the top of my muslin rectangle over and ironed it down.  Before sewing, I made sure to leave an opening big enough for my dowel rod and ribbon to go through.  I sewed along the bottom edge.

I inserted my dowel rod and some fun ribbon into the opening.

I tied the ribbon in a knot at the top and hung it from a hook inside our pantry door.

I went through my old teacher stash and found these nametag holders.  They were perfect for labeling my art organizer.

I typed up labels for each pocket and then cut them to size and slipped them in the holders.

I clipped a label to each pocket.  I am going to let my little girl write the labels herself when we get a chance.  Great writing practice and she loves being a part of my projects.  Also, who doesn't love a little kid's handwriting?

And there you have it.  Organized art supplies.

 The supplies are within her reach and it makes for easy clean-up because everything has its place.  We can close the pantry door and our art supplies are out of sight.  

Cheers to a cleaner kitchen. Woohoo!  

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be linking to these parties this week!  

Happy Tuesday!