wildyard

There are drawings of most steps and photos for reference at the bottom of this tutorial. Sorry I didn't know how to get them in with the proper steps. I hope this is easy to follow. This is not something I am used to doing and it fuddles my fibro foggy mind. Please post any questions and I'll do my best to help. Hugs, smiles, and good luck. wild Linda

The one I made has 4 pockets, but this is adaptable by you as to how many rulers you want to include. I made it for my cutting mat (), 12" square, strip cutter (), and long narrow ruler ().
I chose a different fabric for each pocket, a heavier fabric for backing and bottom, and a co-ordinating solid to trim each pocket top. You will also need a strip of velcro the width of your finished holder.

1. Measure width of each item you are making a pocket for and add 2". Measure 2/3rds of length and add 1". These are the sizes you will cut your fabrics for the pockets. Cut one fabric for each.

2. Measure area where you will be hanging the holder if it is a limited space, as mine was. The width of my largest pocket was the width of the space in my case.
If your space is unlimited, you can adjust your pockets as you wish for more width.

3. Cut the solid color fabric into 1.5" strips as needed to trim the tops of your pockets. You can also use purchased bias tape.
I simply sewed the strip, right side to wrong side with a 1/4" seam, flipped it over, turned under another 1/4" and sewed it on the right side. You can also press the strip in half and press the 1/4" folds in before sewing them if you prefer. I wanted the solid color trim to be about 1/2" wide. How you do yours is totally optional. You can also simply double fold the top of your fabric and stitch it down if you don't want to bother with the trim piece.

4. Cut your backing fabric the dimension of your desired finished size plus 1" width and 6" length.

5. Play with the arrangement of the pockets on the right side of the backing fabric until you have the placement that pleases you and is convenient for removing and replacing the rulers and mat. You will want to work with the tallest in the back to the shortest in the front, spacing the pockets evenly across the width of your backing.

6. Now it's time to sew the pockets together. Here it is most important NOT to sew through more than 2 fabrics at any one time. Otherwise you will be sewing a pocket shut. No pocket is sewn to the backing except at the sides as the space between the backing and the first fabric becomes the pocket for the cutting mat. Here is how I did mine:
I positioned the long ruler pocket to the far left of the largest fabric piece. After pinning in place, I turned under a 1/4" seam and sewed it down the inside making a small triangle of double stitching at the upper corner.
[ I did not sew the outside edges at this time. I will repeat this triangle double stitching on all upper corners of the pockets.]
Next, I took the other two pieces of fabric, the medium and smaller ones, and placed the small pocket to the far right on the medium pocket; pinned and stitched the inside edge, leaving outside edges free.
Now to layer all 4 fabrics. I see that my medium pocket is going to overlap my tall ruler pocket so they must be sewn together. Carefully lifting just that layer of fabric from the larger piece, and folding the larger one out of the way, I pin the medium pocket in place, fold under the 1/4" seam and stitch as I did the others, still leaving the outside edges free.

7. Now smoothing all the layers back into place. Stitch a narrow zigzag or straight stitch around the 2 sides and bottom of the pocket fabrics.

8. Cut a 4" by width of section from your piece of backing fabric. Sew this, right sides together, to the bottom of your pocket unit using 1/2" seam. Press seam towards the backing fabric. This becomes the sturdy bottom of your mat pocket.

9. Next, align your backing fabric, bottom edge, and your front pocket backing piece, right side to backing wrong side. Sew 1/2" seam across the bottom only. See sketch.

10. Flip backing piece over and press bottom seam. Your backing right side should now extend about 6-8" above your highest pocket top.

11. Pin sides together, and zigzag stitch edges to prevent ravelling and give a nice finish.

12. Fold under 1/2" on each side and stitch with 1/4" stitch from edge of pockets, making your double stitched triangle when you come to a pocket top.
Note: I did not use this step but would if I made another one.

13. Fold down top edge width of your velcro and stitch around all edges.

14. Attach hook side of velcro to surface using double sided tape or you can install 3 grommets across the top instead and hang from hooks if your area is accessable that way. You can also sew on 3 sturdy loops to hang it by rather than the velcro.