Scissor Organizer

What I have done this week is absolutely NOT limited to this small project, but you'll have to wait for next week to see the full extent of my busy-ness from the past 2 weeks. In the midst of the big projects, I couldn't shake the need to make this scissor pocket organizer I saw on One Pretty Thing. I whipped this one up without reading the tutorial on Expect Moore, which I should have read because I like hers much better. Mine was probably a little easier, but hers is more compact and cuter. Oh, well. It still holds scissors, and anything else I care to slide down into the pockets.
This is actually sort of a project for the men in my life. To start with, the scissors are the first thing my ornery 18 month old son goes for when he sees Mom's sewing table unmanned. Now they're high on the wall--how handy! And secondly, dear husband doesn't know where any scissors in our house are, ever. Now I can say, "Upstairs in the sewing room, hanging on the wall above the drawers on the desk--and DON'T use the red ones!!!" :)

So, here's what I did:

1. I used a scrap off a denim skirt that I shortened for a friend for the back, and 2 Salvation Army cloth napkins for the pockets. They were something like 25 cents each. Might have been 10 cents each, but for the sake of overestimating and still being proud of myself, I'll say 50 cents total. I folded the napkins in half and ironed them flat, then stitched the long sides closed along the edge.

2. I centered the napkins onto the denim, pinned, and stitched around the sides and bottoms. Then I divided the napkins into equal sections--4 on top, 5 on bottom--and sewed a straight line to form individual pockets.

3. I folded over about 1.5" on top and stitched it down. If I want, I can run a dowel rod thru here. However, even a dozen pair of scissors aren't too heavy so I didn't mess with finding a rod this time.

4. Because I was skipping the rod option, I grabbed a ribbon scrap, cut it into 3 equal lengths, folded it over like an awareness ribbon, then pinned and stitched it to the top edge of the organizer. Make sure all your loops are of the same length, or it will be tough to hang it evenly.

In order to keep the option for a rod open, I didn't sew it onto the tube. I put my stitches even with hem.

Hang it, load it, and you're done! I didn't even bother finishing the edges. I mean, it's denim. Who cares?? :P And I tacked down the bottom corners with thumb tacks, just because.
This is an excellent, excellent beginner project, and a very good way to solve an organization problem with very little monetary and time investments. This whole thing might have taken 30-45 minutes, and wasn't more than 50 cents! I didn't have to finish any edges or do any real cutting, of course, but if you go thru your scraps, you might find that you don't, either! :D

And here's a bonus pic, because it's the first belly picture of me during this pregnancy. This was at 10:30 pm, so please forgive the hair and makeup and PJ situation. 26 weeks. And yes, there's only one in there.