No-Sew Pillowcase Chair Pockets

This is not something I got from Pinterest, but since I'm going to pin it when I'm finished writing this, it belongs in my Pinterest diaries. :-)

I have to admit that the idea for this came from a coworker of mine. She gathered pillowcases and had a grandparent of one of her students sew them to create seat back pockets for her. Since I am definitely not a seamstress and my mother, who loves to quilt, lives sixteen hours away, I filed her idea away that "to-do-at-some-point" part of my brain. Recently I came across one of those hand stitchers and thought that I'd be willing to spend the $11 it cost to try to make them. I found a few pillowcases at thirft stores and bought the rest from the dollar store. Not the best quality, but workable for now.

Unfortunatley, things did not go as planned. After struggling with the gadget for about 15 minutes, I gave up. As I was looking at my pile of pillowcases, I knew I couldn't just leave it. It suddenly dawned on me that I could just use safety pins to make them. So, $6 for 150 safety pins later, I almost have chair pockets for all of my students. I need to get a few more safety pins to finish the last few pockets. Once I got a few done, I was really glad I used the pins instead of sewing. They're much easier to adjust if they're just off, or if I end up with bigger or smaller chairs, or if they get stretched out after being used for awhile.

Once I go the hang of it, these took less than 5 minutes each to do. It seems like a lot of steps, but it was actually pretty easy and the kids are loving them so far!

Here's the final product:

Start with a standard pillowcase:

Turn it inside out and place it over the back of the chair you are using:

From the bottom, fold the pillowcase up to meet the top of the chair:

Take the pillowcase stright off the chair, flip the whole thing inside out, keeping it folded, and place it back over the chair:

Pull the fabric tight across the back of the chair and using large safety pins, pin each side of the pillowcase, about 1/2"-1" away from the side of the chair. If you pin too close, it will not fit back over the chair when you are finished:

Only pin the top two pins on each side (there will be four on each side total):

Take the pillowcase off the chair and lay it on a flat surface. Pin two more safety pins down each side:

My chairs get slightly wider near the seat, so I found that pinning the bottom pin a little further out toward the edge helped make it fit better:

After all the pins are in place, flip it right side out:

It is now ready to be placed back over the chair:

Great way to store library books, binders, etc. My students say that leaning against thier binder or books is actually more comfortable than leaning against the hard back of their chair:

Ta Da! A chair pocket solution that is not only cheaper than buying comercial versions (free except for the safety pins if you ask your students to send in old pillowcases!)  but also doesn't require any sewing expertise!

Crate Seats

These crate seats were one of the first things I pinned on Pinterest. I filed them away to do "some day" but little did I know "some day" would come very soon! Not long after pinning, I came across the file crates on clearance at WalMart....FOR ONLY $1 EACH!!!! I couldn't pass up a deal like that! So I bought the crates right away. I bought two red, two blue, and two pink.

I went to Home Depot to buy the plywood and took a crate in with me. They were able to cut it to the exact size I needed. The guy that cut it messed up on a few and had to re-do them, so they didn't charge me extra for the extra cuts. Even if they had, it would have only been 50 cents per cut after the first three, I think it was.

I found the fabric on sale at JoAnn Fabric. I bought 3 yards of one fabric (for the blue and red crates) and 2 yards of another fabric (for the pink crates). I used a 50% off coupon at A.C. Moore to get the stuffing. Later I found out that fabric "quarters" are the perfect size. It actually would have been a little cheaper because WalMart also had them for $1.

A few fabric cuts and nails from a nail gun later, I was finished!

Here's the first one I finished (I was so excited I had to take a picture to send to friends and post on Facebook right away!)

This is the same fabric I used for the red crates. The fabric I used for the pink crates is the same pattern but white with orange and different shades of pink for the dots.

I used the crates for seating at one of my small group tables in my 2nd grade classroom. Since then I've gotten rid of my desks so that table had to become a regular seating table with their chairs with backs. I'm still looking for a replacement table so my crate seats can be used once again! Until then, they're still used for storage and are available if a student would like to sit somewhere to read other than their table.