DIY: Over the Door Organizer with Vinyl & Cotton

Why the lack of posts lately? I've been working on this thing since Tuesday!
I've discovered that I'm terrible about keeping my clothes organized, but if all it takes is hanging it on a knob (not a hanger) or balling it up and stuffing it somewhere I can be slightly more organized. Also the current way I had of storing my basic T-shirts and tanks was simply not working. I had them stored in a drawer and inevitably whichever one I was looking for was the last one to be pulled out of the drawer, meaning all the other rejected tops were strewn about my desk or the floor. So I decided to make an organizer.
Materials: an over the door hook thingy, vinyl (heavier that 8 gauge, lighter than 20 gauge), cotton & heavier cloth (linen, duckcloth, canvas, etc.),  3 packages of Bias tape double wide, leather sewing machine needle, paper clips, waxed paper, thread and lots of patience.

To start I put my over the door hooks, over the door. Along with a big scrap of paper to determine size and pocket placement. I figured out that the size of my piece was going to be 26''x 36'' but with .5'' seam allowance. Therefore being 27"x 37". Then I drew out pocket sizes, using the drawings to test out sizing and placement. I also measured the distance from the top of the paper to the hooks that the organizer will attach to. Very important as my hooks were of varying lengths.

I ended up with this:

First cut out your pattern pieces 3 pieces 27" x 37". One of pretty cotton, and two of the sturdier fabric. Also cut out your vinyl pockets. Use paper clips to 'pin' your pattern pieces in place. Why paper clips and not pins? Every time you poke a hole in vinyl it is permanent. And as you want the least amount of holes as possible use paper clips over pins. Oh yeah and here's the pattern pieces for the pockets:

I made the pockets like this so that they would be roomy. (If you don't want as roomy pockets I'm sure you could find a less time consuming how to.) The dotted line indicates .5" seam allowance. I hope that if you try to use the pattern pieces for the pockets it will download at the correct size. But if it doesn't, make the middle rectangle the right dimension. And as it's all proportionate the sides should be right. 

Moving on the next thing I did was to baste the edges of the cotton and one of the sturdy fabric pieces together on all sides. The cotton will probably not be strong enough to hold all the weight of pockets and their contents, so you want to reinforce the cotton. 

You may have noticed that the pockets have no seam allowance on the tops. This is because vinyl will not fray, but to make them look prettier I lined the tops of the pockets with bias tape. To sew the bias tape on to the vinyl use paper clips again. AND use your leather sewing machine needle. 

Then sew the sides of your pockets to the bottoms. Sew from the inside to the edge of the pocket. Stop .5" from the edge. Use a thread that will blend in with your base cotton fabric. And because vinyl is tricky to sew with, it will stick to your sewing machine. So use waxed paper strips. Put the waxed paper underneath the vinyl. The order from top to bottom should be presser foot, vinyl, waxed paper, sewing machine plate. And again as the holes are permanent do your best to get the sewing right the first time.

Next chalk off the dimensions of the pockets onto your cotton piece. Be sure to mark off sides and bottom. Marking the the very top of the sides are essential. So I marked off the sides, tops and bottoms. 

Using the chalk lines as guide lines sew the bottoms of the pockets onto the reinforced cotton piece. Start from the center and work out. These seams should be inside the pocket. I couldn't figure out a way to sew with my machine the sides of the pockets, so that they would be inside the pocket. And I think it being inside the pocket makes the pockets overall sturdier. (Of course I figured this out after I had already cut out all the pocket pieces and lined them with bias tape) So I sewed the sides by hand. Get a thimble. Two days later I was done........ Any suggestions for an easier way to do this in the future are welcome. 

Almost done! Figure out your loops to go over the hooks. I doubled the distance from the hook to the top of the fabric, then I added an arbitrary inch and another inch for seam allowance. So if y = your fabric to hook distance, the math goes like this (y" x 2) + 2"= length of your loop. For the width I did 3" + .5'' seam allowance on both sides, equalling 4".  I cut these loop pieces out of the sturdy fabric. 

 Right sides in, stitch sides together and then turn the tube inside out. Time to switch back to your regular sewing machine needle.

It's time to sew the loops onto the reinforced cotton piece. I folded the loops in half width-wise. Point the loops to the bottom of the organizer. Sew the loops inside the .5" seam line, like .25". 

Sew the back sturdy fabric piece to the cotton-pocket piece, right sides in. Only sew the top. 

Turn right sides out. Test your loops. Make sure they work. If they work turn the right sides in and sew across the top a couple more times. This is where the greatest strain will be on the fabric so make sure it's secure. 

Turn out again. And lay the organizer out flat. Line up the sides and bottom. Because the vinyl pockets contorted the reinforced cotton piece my front and back pieces didn't match up exactly. I had extra fabric on the back piece. If you have the same issue trim the back piece to match the front. Then to seal up the raw edges, line the sides and bottom with bias tape. Top stitch in place. (Since I didn't want to deal with turning the whole vinyl pocket monstrosity inside out I lined what edges I could with bias tape.)

FIN!

While this was a much more time consuming project than I anticipated I really like it. Also while the cost of the materials are cheap (less than $20). There are ready made over the door organizers that are $15. But those are boring. They don't have awesome skull fabric and pretty colored bias tape. You have been warned.