If your night stand in your bedroom is too cluttered, you can give yourself lots of extra storage room by making a set of these easy-to-do bed pockets. Included are instructions and list of materials you can use.
Hem all the way around the large piece of fabric, and then hem all the way around the small piece. Position the smaller piece of fabric at the bottom of the large piece. Now sew down one side and across the bottom, putting tiny pleats in as you go across the bottom. This will allow the pockets to expand slightly rather than lay flat up against the large piece of fabric. After sewing the pleats in the bottom, sew the side seam. Now you can decide how many pockets you want and sew straight lines up and down the pockets to separate them. You can leave it with just one pocket, but the pocket will tend to sag if you put much in it, so it's advisable to make at least 2 pockets. You can embellish the bed pockets by tacking bows on where the pockets are separated, or by using decorative braided rope to go around each pocket. Don't forget to make another set for the other side of the bed.
The bed pockets are easily made for furniture, too. For a chair, measure from two-thirds down the outside arm, over the arm, down the inside arm, under the cushion, back up the inside arm of the opposite side, over that arm, and down the outside arm. Then cut two pieces for pockets, one on each side. After hemming both the large piece and both smaller pieces, attach the pockets, one on each side, and put in your separation seams. Then, remove the cushion; place the pockets over the arms and on the seat, then place your cushion back in its spot.
For a sofa, you can make the pockets similar to the ones for a bed, but make sure that the fabric will go well under the cushion to keep the pockets from sliding from the weight of the items in it. When no one is sitting on the cushion, the weight in the pockets can cause the pockets to slide if they're not tucked far under the cushion.
To use an old pair of jeans for your bed pockets, take the back pockets off, turn them upside down, and then reattach them. Now you can tuck the legs of the jeans under the mattress and use the two back pockets for tucking your remote and glasses. You can also add a second set of pockets to this arrangement by cutting 2 more sets of pockets off of a second pair of jeans, then stitching them in place above the first set. For a child's room try making a set for the end of the mattress for storing shoes or toys.
