A very old post of mine about our hallway storage solutions is still one of my most popular (go figure!). Of course our hallway doesn’t actually looks like that anymore (it was four years ago after all), but the coat hooks and old pew are still key elements in the space. One thing that was causing constant mess and irritation was all the hats, gloves, scarves that ended up strewn across the bench. Apparently a family of four can have rather a large collection of accessories, and when they’re all mixed up together it’s all but impossible to find what you’re looking for – not ideal during that crazy morning rush when we need to get out of the door in a hurry.
I bought a bulk lot of plain cotton tote bags at the end of last year (10 for about £7), and decided to use these to knock up a quick solution using things I already had in my craft cupboard. Each family member now has a bag with their initial on it, which is used to store all those accessories so that we no longer have to rifle through one big, overflowing basket to find what we need.
You will need:
Natural cotton tote bag
Crafting felt
Pencil and sharp scissors
Spray mount (or fabric glue)
Needle and embroidery thread
Directions:
- Draw your initial onto the craft felt with a pencil (I also used a ruler to keep my lines nice and straight) and cut out with the scissors.
- Fix the felt initial to the middle of bag using spray mount (you could also use fabric glue, or go traditional with pins)
- Thread the needle with your embroidery thread (I chose a contrasting colour to the felt), and go round the outline of the letter with simple overcast stitches.
The twins love anything personalised, so the bags were an instant hit with them, and I don’t get driven to distraction trying to get everyone’s things together when we’re off out somewhere. When we went away recently I didn’t even bother pulling things out of the bags, I just put all of the bags themselves in the boot of the car. I’ve lost count of the number of odd gloves that our car seems to have eaten this winter, so it’s handy having everything kept together there, as well as in our hallway.
Very nice solution!!
Thanks Maria!