Fabric Car Seat Organizer

Crafts & Projects, Fabric & Sewing

Featuring: FreeSpirit Fabrics Mon Jardin by Nathalie Lete for Conservatory Craft

Pattern Design by: Sally Gauntlett

Sewn by: Sally Gauntlett

Skills Learned: Basic quilting

Skill Level: Beginner

Finished Size: 13” wide x 20” high (33cm X 51cm)

If your car is anything like mine can be, I’m sure you’ll love both sewing and using these cute fabric car seat organizers. Designed to fit onto the rear of the front car seat, these are perfect for both kids and adults to use for all those bits and bobs that generally end up all over the floor (well, they do in my car anyway!).

If you do have kids that tend to ride in the back of the car, these organizers are perfect for long car journeys. The pockets can be designed around your own needs but are plenty big enough to hold a water bottle, snacks, pens, a notebook and all the other essentials.

I hope you’ll enjoy sewing up today’s project with me!  

FABRIC SUPPLIES

Fabric Requirements:

3 fabric pieces - 44” x 20” (112cm x 51 cm)

  • Pansies Bright – SKU PWNL037.BRIGHT
  • Pansies Navy – SKU PWNL037.NAVY
  • Garden Lace Apricot – SKU PWNL036.APRICOT

*You will be left with some off-cuts from this amount that you can use at a later date.

Wadding/batting, interlining or heavy weight interfacing measuring at least 15” x 22” (38cm x 56cm)

Equipment needed:

  • Cutting mat (optional)
  • Rotary cutter (pins and scissors can be used here instead)
  • Ruler
  • Pins
  • Chalk pencil or erasable fabric pen
  • Scissors
  • Thread
  • Sewing machine

Additional Recommendations: A walking foot for your sewing machine is helpful but not essential.

Cutting out

The car seat organizer is sewn from a series of rectangles. We will need to cut the following pieces:

2 x rectangles of your chosen fabric measuring 14.2” x 21.5” (36 x 54 cm) These will be used for the front and back of the organizer.

1 x rectangle of wadding/batting measuring 14.2” x 21.5” (36 x 54 cm) This will be used to pad the organizer and give it a little more strength and durability.

2 x rectangles of your chosen fabric measuring 8” x 14.2” (36 x 20 cm) These will be used for the pocket sections of the organizer.

2 x rectangles of 2.2 x 21” (5.5 x 54 cm) These will be used for the top ties.

2 x rectangles of 2.2 x 29” (5.5 x 74 cm) These will be used for the bottom ties.

TIP: If you don’t want to make your own ties, you could use ribbon or bias binding, cut to the LENGTH measurements above instead. I wanted to make the most of the off-cuts I had of this beautiful fabric, so I made my own.

STEP ONE - Sew your ties

If you have opted to use shop bought ribbon or binding you can skip this step and go straight to step two.

Take one of your ties, fold it in half lengthways, right sides together and pin along the edge of your fabric.

Sew at a 3/8” (1cm) seam allowance to form a tube.

Turn the tie ‘tube’ the right side out.

TIP: The easiest way I find to do this is to attach a safety pin through one layer of fabric at the top of your inside out tie. Push the safety pin inside the tube and continue to feed the pin through the tube until it comes out the other end. You may need to flatten the fabric as you go if it gets a little bunched as it’s turning. When the pin appears at the opposite end of the tube continue to pull until all the fabric has turned through to the right side.

Give the tie a good press flat with an iron.

Repeat for the other three ties and set them aside for now.

STEP TWO – Prep your pockets

Take your two pocket rectangles. The pockets we are going to make are ‘patch pockets’ which means they are sewn directly onto the front of the organizer using a top stitch.

TIP: Top stitching is when a piece of fabric is sewn with a stitch line that will be visible on the finished garment or article. Stitches are sewn close to the seamline or pressed edge to give a neat finish.

Press the bottom long edges of both pockets to the wrong side by 3/8” (1cm).

Press the top long edges of both pockets to the wrong side by 3/8” (1cm) and then 3/8” (1cm) again to enclose the raw edge.

Topstitch along the top of both pockets close to the pressed edge. Sew as neatly and as straight as you can as this stitch line will be visible on the organizer.

Decide how large or small you would like your pockets to be. The pockets will be divided with stitched lines. It’s helpful to think about what you would like to put in the pockets once the organizer is finished.

TIP: It’s helpful to think about what you would like to put in the pockets once the organizer is finished. For example, I wanted to be able to fit a water bottle in one of my bottom pockets, so I decided to divide my bottom pocket in half which gave me enough room for this. If you wanted to add an iPad or tablet to the organizer you might wish to leave the bottom pocket undivided to give you enough room to do this.

Using a chalk or erasable fabric pen, mark a straight line where you would like to divide your pocket. Since my pocket was to be divided in two, I marked a straight line down the middle of my pocket at 7.1” (18cm).

This drawn line will be your stitch line when we attach the pocket to the main fabric in a moment.

I decided to divide my top pocket into three equal sections to give me enough space for sunglasses, tissues and those all-important snacks!! If you’re doing the same, mark a straight line at 4.75” (12cm) twice along the top pocket too.

STEP THREE: Sew your pockets

Now we need to attach our pockets to our front rectangle piece of fabric.

Using your chalk pencil or erasable pen, measure 2.5” (6.5cm) from the bottom of your front piece of fabric and draw a line

Line up the pressed hem of your bottom pocket with this line and pin in place. You can pin the top to keep it more stable if you like but we won’t be sewing the top.

Top stitch along the bottom line of the pocket.

Top stitch along the dividing line(s) of your bottom pocket to section it. Be sure to backstitch a couple of times at the top and bottom of this line as it will be under quite a lot of pressure when the organizer is in use.

Tip: When top stitching, I like to line up the inner edge of presser foot with the edge of my fabric, this way I’m guaranteed a lovely, neat line of stitching.

Now we need to attach our top pocket.

Measure 2” (5cm) up from top of your bottom pocket and draw another line. Pin the bottom pressed edge of your top pocket along this line.

Top stitch along the bottom and the dividing lines of your top pocket in the same way we did for the bottom.

Your pockets are now done!

STEP FOUR: Attaching the ties

To find the points where your top ties need to sit, you need to measure the poles of the front head rest in your own car. Measure the gap in between the poles as the ties will need to be spaced this wide apart to attach the organizer to the seat.

Take your top ties and fold them in half lengthways and fold your centre point flat to form a triangle.

The width between my headrest poles was 6” (15cm) meaning I needed to sew my ties 4.2” (10.5cm) in from each edge of my fabric.

Once you’ve worked out your own measurement. Pin your ties in place with the triangle of the tie lapping over the raw edge of the top of the front fabric. Your ties must be facing downwards onto the front fabric.

Baste your ties in place on your sewing machine.

TIP: A basting stitch is a temporary stitch line sewn using the longest stitch length on your sewing machine. The long stitch length holds the object in place but means the stitching is easy to remove at a later stage if necessary.

Trim the triangle so that the raw edges of your ties align with the top raw edge of your main fabric.

Pin both of your long bottom ties 1” (2.5cm) from the bottom of the front fabric. Make sure your ties are facing in towards the centre of the organizer.

Baste the bottom ties in place.

STEP FIVE: The big finish!

Making sure that all your ties are facing in towards the centre of the organizer, place your back fabric piece FACE DOWN on top of your front piece with all the ties and pockets inside and the right sides of the fabric facing together.

Place your rectangle of wadding/batting on top on your back piece. Your back piece of fabric will now be sandwiched in between your front piece and your wadding/batting.

Pin all around the edge of the rectangle leaving a gap at the bottom of 4” (10cm)

Sew all around the rectangle at a 3/8” (1cm) seam allowance being sure to leave your gap of 4” (10cm) unsewn. Be sure to backstitch at the start and finish of the gap.

TIP: If you have a walking or quilting foot, it might be helpful to use it here since we are sewing through a few layers of fabric. A walking foot helps all layers of fabric to feed evenly through your sewing machine.

Trim your seam allowances by half and snip your corners at an angle. Be careful not to snip through your stitches! This will help us to achieve neat corners when we turn the organizer through to the right side.

Turn your organizer through to the right side using the gap at the bottom you left open. Do this gently so as not to accidently put pressure on any seams.

Once the organizer is turned to the right side, pull out the ties, poke out the corners using a point turner or a knitting needle and smooth down the edges.

Give everything a nice press over with the iron. Press the seam allowance of the gap in by 3/8” (1cm) so that it aligns with the rest of the edge.

Pin the gap closed.

Now we need to close that gap and we’ll do that by topstitching right around the rectangular shape of the finished organizer as close to the edge as you can making sure to catch in the edges of your gap as you go.

Presto! Your gap is closed, and your organizer is all finished!! You can give everything another press over if you’d like to.

STEP FIVE: Attach your organizer

The organizer is tied onto the rear of the front seat in the car. Tie the top ties around the head rest poles and tie the bottom ties around the width of the seat. You can poke these below the cushion to keep them out of the way once secure.

You can now fill your organizer with all the essentials and enjoy a road trip!!

I hope you enjoyed sewing up this car organizer. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the sizing of any of the rectangles needed to make this up if it would suit you better.

You could make your pockets larger or smaller, add more or less patch pockets, or you could even add elastic or a strap around the top instead of ties if you would prefer.

Thanks so much for reading, if you give this tutorial a go, share a photo on Instagram and tag me @secret_life_of_a_seamstress so that I can see it.  Don’t forget to tag @siysewityourself too.

Happy sewing!

Sally x

Learn more about Sally here.

Instagram: @secret_life_of_a_seamstress
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/SecretLifeOfASeamstress
Blog:https://www.secretlifeofaseamstress.co.uk/

Fabric Details

To view the complete FreeSpirit Fabrics Mon Jardin collection by Nathalie Lete for Conservatory Craft click here.

To find a retailer near you click here.