Aimee's Pocket House

You will need (give or take a bit on measurements it will still work)

Main part of bag  =  2 X 47cm by 60cm (65 with top hem)  sturdy fabric  (I recycled bit of left over curtain)

Roof =  2 X Yellow felt rectangle sheets ( that you get from any craft store)

Door  + decoration =  blue felt rectangle door measures 13cmh by 10cmw and a button

Windows + decoration  = 4 magenta pink felt rectangle  10cm by 10cm and 8 hot pink strips 2cm by  10cm

Flower background = 20cm by 47cm       

Flowers = some green ribbon, 6 buttons and some different coloured felt

Elastic = length over 50 cm (mine was 57cm but I trimmed a fair bit when seams went together)

Ok I wanted to make something for Aimee’s 1^st birthday that was fun and busy for that age. My little 1 year old is forever putting things in and out of stuff so I was inspired by Eli and this fantastic  little house pouch over on The Long Thread blog (I will get around to making one of them). Tada the two combine to make Aimee’s pocket house, one large bag that will hold the toys to be sorted, and a strip of elastic so you can slide it over a dining chair, they can be busy at dinner making time yay!

So I cut all the pieces I needed out as above ingredients list details then I laid it all out to see if I was happy with design. To cut the roof you need the midpoint 23.5 cm on mine, this is the tip of your triangle then use ruler to measure slope down two sides, as per photo.

You will need to hem the top 2 pieces of your bag; mine didn’t need doing as I used the hemmed part of the curtain.  You will need the extra 4 0r 5 cm to top of your bag measurement to allow for this.  On the top side sew on your flower background stripe just top and bottom will do. Then sew the bright pink cross pieces onto your window squares. Pop the button onto your door and then you can stitch the door down on three sides leaving the top open making the pocket, do the same for the windows.  

Sew on the roof, mine took two bits of felt to fit across the width of the bag, so to hide the join I put some blue felt stripes about 1.5cm wide descending in length with the roof line over the top. It made it look so much more interesting, and then using my pinking shears I cut 2 long bits of bright pink felt about 1.5cm again to go the length of the roof, bit like fancy guttering ;) I used some decorative stiches to sew them to the bag.

Then cut your ribbon into 6 same but different lengths.  I cut out some circles using my pinking shears a bit larger than the buttons about 2 cm in diameter in some left over felt, think this would work as normal non bumpy circles too.  I had 12 circles in all layering them by two’s. I pinned the flowers in place and again used a decorative stitch on my machine went up the ribbon and a little onto the flowers. I then attached my buttons to make my flower centres.  

Then put your elastic at the very top of your house piece, put right sides together of your bag and sew your three sides together. Turn inside out after trimming any loose threads, voila an Aimee pocket house! Slip over a chair to test it out. It makes a great present and I got some foam letters for little Aimee to sort out.  I want to make an Eli boyish version, and I think this idea would make great organisers for the back of homework desks.