Imagine, if you can, a world where all the necessities for a road trip - long or short - are neatly stowed away.

This handy car organizer is just the thing for all of those items that are easy to misplace and clutter up the front seat: maps, sunglasses, toys, insect repellant, flashlight, umbrella - all stored in a great-looking embroidered caddy!

Instructions:
Measure the seat of your car. You will need the height and width of the back of the seat, and how far it is around the top and bottom.

Mark on the fabric the dimensions of the pieces of the organizer. Here, the back piece is 18" wide by 22" long. The first pocket is 18" wide by 6" high and the second pocket is 18" wide by 9 1/2" high. Now mark where you want to divide the pockets. I divided the top pocket into 3 equal parts and the bottom in half (note the blue markings).

Embroider your pieces. I determined that I wanted the top embroidered area to be 6" tall, so I made a purple line 6 1/2" from the top on the back piece. I centered the Happy Face Flower in the 18" width, and I put the words just under the flower design. Then, on the pocket pieces, I centered the Daisies in each of the 3 spaces in the top pocket piece and the Three Flowers on the top of the bottom pocket piece. 

When you are finished embroidering, cut out the back piece and the two pocket pieces. The organizer is 12" wide at the top and 18" wide at the purple line.

I found that this fabric ravels easily, so I used a heat tool to fuse just the very edges of the fabric to keep it from fraying too much while I was working with it.

Now, hem the top of each pocket piece.

Line up the top of the first pocket with your marked line, and then mark where the bottom of the first pocket is to be. Then, with right sides together, line up the bottom of the pocket with the marks that you just made. The top hem of the pocket should be away from the smiling flower. Stitch along the length of the pocket bottom, about 3/8" from the edge.

Now, fold the pocket over, towards the smiling flower and topstitch close to the pocket bottom. 

Stitch the bottom pocket beneath the top pocket, meeting the bottom edge of the backing piece. Stitch up the sides of the organizer to secure the sides of the pockets in place.

Use a satin stitch to make the dividing lines for each of the pockets.

Stitch bias tape along both side edges of the organizer and then hem the top and bottom.

Here you can see the loop end of a buckle attached to a corner. The unattached end is adjustable.

Attach the loop ends of the buckles to the organizer with a short piece of webbing.  Secure them with a square of stitching with an X inside the square.

There should be a buckle at the top and the bottom; opposite each buckle attach a piece of webbing long enough to go around the seat. Feed the webbing into the adjustable end of the buckle according to package directions.

Attach to the seat of your car, organize your road trip essentials, and Keep on Truckin' !

Click here for a printable version of these project instructions.

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