We still have bunk beds in our children’s room. They don’t have bedside tables to put their things on. They like to read and write. My daughter needs a place to put her eyeglasses away and likes to mark her calendar. My son needs a place to put his bedtime medicine. I have been planning to make this bedside organizer caddy for a long time. In this post, I not only wrote how to sew a bedside organizer step by step with photos, but I also included a pattern below with dimensions to help you shorten the planning process.
I designed this bedside organizer based on our needs. My kids needed a place to store:
1. An alarm clock
2. Medicine and eyeglass case
3. Pens, pencils
4. Books, notebooks etc.
5. A calendar
So each pocket serves a specific purpose, which I think are pretty common for a bedside. It is also designed to work with their bunk bed. As you see, for these reasons, my design is different than the ones you can buy from a store.
Materials used for this project
1. Background fabric (canvas)
2. Pocket fabric
3. Clear vinyl fabric for alarm clock pocket
4. Velcro (non-adhesive)
5. Other sewing materials: Thread, scissors, measuring tape etc.
Sewing Materials
Instructions:
1. Cut your fabrics – dimensions are provided in this printable pattern
2. Draw guiding lines for the placement of the pockets on your background fabric. You can use finished organizer dimensions provided in this printable pattern.
3. Pin the pocket fabrics you cut to the background fabric using a sewing gauge on the guiding lines you drew.
4. Cut out a window hole for the alarm clock pocket before pinning it. (I did it after sewing the pocket fabric on and it was hard to cut after. So do it before pinning)
5. Cut your window out of the clear vinyl sheet and glue it on the fabric using a glue gun. Then pin the pocket fabric on the background fabric.
6. Sew the bottoms of your pockets on.
7. To attach the organizer on the bedrails, I used these velcro straps I had purchased from Home Depot. I strapped them on the railings and pinned where the organizers should go on. Then I sewed the straps on the back of the background fabric on where I marked.
8. Here comes the hardest part. (Good news: this is the last step) Sew the sides and corners of the pocket. For bigger pockets it is easy. It might be tricky for the smallest pocket. I simply turned the pockets inside out, sewed them, cut the excess fabric, and turned them back.
Here is a closer look at the alarm clock pocket corner.
This is what it looks like from outside.
Pockets are on and everything fits. Yay!
Inside of the pocket.
This is the finished bedside organizer caddy for my son. We hang it on the bedside railing.
This is my daughter’s bedside organizer. She hangs it to the frame of her brother’s bed. Therefore, it has a different style strap. I made these 3 x 2″ straps from background fabric and sewed (non-adhesive) velcros on.
I also made a small 1/2″ strip at the bottom for her to hang her calendar. You have to make sure it matches the width of the calendar exactly so that it doesn’t droop.
The nicest thing about these is, when I lay down with them for a good night’s hug, I don’t jump out with stabbing pain caused by a sharp object like a corner of a hardcover book or a pen anymore.
You can download my free Bedside Organizer Carry printable pattern by clicking on the image below. (Pattern is not to scale. You’ll need to measure your fabric before cutting.)
If you liked this post, you might want to check out the decorative bunk bed curtains I made for the kids.
[…] house. When kids see us making or creating something instead of buying, such as Bunk Bed curtains, bedside organizer or gymnastics beam, they pick up on it and choose to make/create to solve a problem or fulfill a […]