Stuffed animals pockets

Our granddaughter loves her stuffed animals, especially doggies.  In fact, she sleeps with so many that there is hardly room in the bed for her.  Solution?  Doggie pockets!  They could also hold books.

Do you want to make one?  Start by cutting two 10X12 pieces from  each of five different fabrics.  The 12-inch measurement will be the width.  This could be important depending on the design of your fabrics.

Sew two strips of fabric along the 10" side, using each of the five fabrics in each strip.  Put the fabrics in the same order in each strip.  One strip will be for the front of the pocket and one for the back.

Interface each strip to make it stronger.  (I don't have pictures for the next few steps.)

Lay the two strips, right sides together, and stitch them together on the side that will be the top of the pocket.  I used a 1/4" seam.

Turn the right sides out and fold the strip in half at the seam line.  Press.  Topstitch along edge.

 You will be sewing the pockets onto another piece of fabric.  I used one yard of the 44-inch wide yellow dot fabric.  (The picture below is the only one I took that shows the background piece.)

Now you will be marking the location of the pockets on the background.  Along the width of the fabric, make marks at 9",   17 1/2",   26",  and  34 1/2".

Lay the pocket strip onto the background fabric edge with the markings, matching pocket seams with the marks.  Raw edges should match at the bottom.  Sew pockets onto the background at each seam.  There will be a gap in each pocket.  In other words, the bottom of the pocket will not be flat to the background.  Reinforce the top of each pocket by sewing a little square of stitches in the seam line.

At the sides, match the edge of the pocket strip with the edge of the background fabric.  Baste.

To give the doggies, or other stuffies, room to sleep, you will be making pleats.  I didn't measure to do this.  I just tried to divide the extra pocket fabric in half and folded it into a pleat at each side of the pocket.

The ends require a little extra attention.  You will need to allow room for the binding, so the pleat should end about 1/2" from the edge of the background fabric.  The picture below shows how this looks.

 When all of the pockets are pinned on, baste along the bottom edge.

 Now all you have to do is bind the entire piece.  I cut strips 3" wide and folded it like bias tape.  (You could also purchase wide bias tape.)  Sew the binding on just like bias tape, mitering the corners.

 This sweet bear looks happy about his new home.