Upcycled Denim Pocket Organiser

Upcycled denim organiser - it'll be great for storing all your sewing bits and bobs

YOU WILL NEED
- Various pairs of old jeans, in contrasting blue shades (we used UK size 14 and up)
- 1m of dark blue cotton fabric (for the backing)
- Thread (we used Coats Duet standard thread, colour 9068)
- 2 wooden dowels (ours were 68cm  long and 1.5cm  thick
- 1.5 m cord
- Sewing machine (fitted with a size 100/16 jeans needle)
- Basic sewing kit
- Cutting mat
- Ruler
- Rotary cutter
- Air erasable pen

Notes
Use a 1.5cm seam allowance throughout

 Over the last few months in Denim Upcycle, we've shown you smaller projects to make using singular pairs of old jeans. In this issue, Jess has chosen to showcase a variety of denim shades and jean pockets, and has used several pairs to make a handy hanging wall organiser in a classic nine-patch design. It's great for keeping toys, sewing kit or even accessories neat and tidy!
For this project we've used a Jeans sewing machine needle which is perfect for stitching on denim as it's stronger than an ordinary needle and it also has a very sharp point. You'll find it much easier to sew through all those pocket layers with one. Turn to p72 for our comprehensive guide on sewing machine needles to find out more.

1. Our hanging is made from four pairs of old jeans and an old denim shirt, which gave us four pairs of jean pockets and one denim shirt pocket.
Firstly, cut out the pockets from your jeans, then trim close to the edge of the cut pockets but not the pockets themselves. Turn over each pocket and cut away the excess fabric from the back, but make sure you leave the edges intact. You want to have just the front decorative part of the pocket left. Hand-sew the buttonhole on the shirt pocket closed and sew a button on top.

 2. The size of your patches may be dictated by how much fabric you have from your jeans. Our nine-patch has three central pieces that are 20cm wide and 24cm  long, and then six pieces forthe top and bottom that are 20cm  wide and 31cm  long (these are longer than the middle row to take into account the dowel rods' thickness, and will look the same length when the dowels are in and the wall hanging is hung up).
From the denim fabric from your jeans and shirt cut six pieces each measuring 23cm  wide and 34cm  long for the top and bottom rows. Cut three pieces each measuring 23cm  wide and 27cm  long forthe central row. Numberthe nine pieces and pockets so you will remember which order they should be in when you start sewing (you can take photos of your preferred pocket placement to remind you too).

3. Place pieces one and two from the top row right sides (RS) together then stitch down one long edge.
Stitch pieces two and three together in the same way to create the top row. Repeat these steps with the central row (pieces four, five and six) and bottom row (pieces seven, eight and nine). These are the three rows of your hanging organiser.

 4. Turn your rows over and press the seams open. With RS facing, pin the top strip to the middle strip and sew them together making sure you match the seams. Then pin the bottom strip to the middle strip RS facing, and stitch together. Turn over your now-sewn nine-patch, and press the seams open.

5. Iron your backing fabric and place it flat on the table (or floor). Then, with RS facing, lay your nine-patch on top. Pin together along the two long edges.
Sew along these two outer seams but don't sew the two short seams at this stage. Turn your wall hanging right sides out and press fiat.

 6. With the erasable pen, draw a line 25cm  up from the seam where rows one and two join, and 25cm  down from the seam joining rows two and three.

7. Turn the raw top edge of both the joined front and backing fabric over by 1.5cm      Now turn the top edge over again so it meets the erasable pen line. Check your dowel fits easily though this fold, as it's simple to adjust at this stage to make the turned over casing wider or narrower if needs be. Check you're happy with how this looks, then sew along this seam and press. Repeat for the other unsewn edge.

 8. Pin your pockets in place - ours are lined up at the pocket tops and placed centrally within the denim squares. They are positioned 5cm  down from the seam above, for rows two and three. The top row is 6cm  down from the top to take into account the dowel's thickness. Stitch the pockets in place by sewing about 0.5cm in from the edge of the pocket (between the two rows of topstitching for most of the pockets). Make sure you backstitch at the top corner of each of the pockets a couple of times - this will give them strength.

9. When all the pockets are sewn on and pressed, iron your wall hanging and then insert the top and bottom wooden dowels. Tie the cord around both ends of the top dowel and tape the loose ends of the cord to the dowel on both sides so that it sits flat inside the wall hanging.