Bed pockets - a tutorial

A while ago I made some pink bed pockets for my daughter's beds, for them to store some of their many books in:

They proved to be a big hit - my girls love hanging over the side of their beds to choose a book - and even now - months later, they still put them away in them!! That has got to be a bonus!

At the time, several people asked if I had a tutorial for these pockets.  Well finally, I got around to making up a tutorial, as I decided to make more pockets for the spare bedroom bed to accomodate the girls growing book collection!!

So here finally is the tutorial:

First you need to choose your fabric, and cut the following:



Main fabric:85cm x 40cm (33.5 x 15.75”)

Top flap: 15cm x 40cm (6 x 15.75”)

Inside drawer magic grip: 20cm x 34cm (8 x 13.5”)

Stitch in velcro 10cm piece.(4”)

(the magic grip stuff is the rubbery mesh rolls you can buy to line your kitchen drawers with - this just helps hold the bed pockets in place under the mattress - but you could change this for velcro straps or ties - it just depends on what kind of bed base you have. My original ones had velcro straps which tied around the metal frame base under the matress)

First of all take the top flat piece and make all 4 edges neat by double turning them and stitching:

Then stitch one side of the velcro piece centrally and close to one one edge:

Next take your main fabric piece, double turn and stitch one of the shorter edges to neaten, then stitch on the other velcro piece centrally and 3cm (1.25”)

  down from the finished edge.

Next fold the main piece of fabric right sides together to form the pocket. From the fold to the finished edge should be 28cm (11”).

(of course beds may vary in height - the one I'm working on, where the base and mattress meet to the floor is 34cm (13.5”))

Stitch both sides (I use 3/8" or 1cm seam)

Next you need to box out the corners of the pocket so you can fit lots of books in!

To do this, reach your hand inside the pocket you just created and flatten out the corner with the seam in the middle:

Make sure the seam is central on your fold, then stitch across the triangle  4cm (1.5”)
  in from the point.  It's worth doing a double row of stitching here for extra strength.

Then snip off the triangle of corner just below the stitching, and repeat with the second corner:

Now turn the pocket right side out.  For the next part, I finished off the edge of the fabric that will sit under the matress.  This part will not be seen, but is worth doing to prevent fraying.  Of course it depends on the type of fabric you have used as to whether it will fray...

Just double turn the edges over and stitch:

Next you need to attach the grip material.  Just place this on the right side of the main fabric piece above the pocket-

Pin in place and stitch around the edge.  I found that I needed to firmly hold the fabric behind the needle as I sewed so the foot would move along the rubber grip.

Finally you need to attach the top flap. Place this above the pocket, slightly below the line of stitching from the grip material on the other side. Then pin and stitch on.

Now you are ready to put your pocket in place . Lift up the mattress and place the top piece of fabric with the grip material stitched on where you want it to hang on top of the bed base. Put the mattress back down, and fill with books!

You can fit around 8 large books in a pocket (depending on the thickness of the books)

There you go!

I hope that's clear!

For the downloadable PDF version of this tutorial with measurements in both cm and inches
 click here.

And for over 100 more free sewing tutorials for all levels of sewing ability, take a look at 
My Free Sewing Tutorials Page.