What’s a “Pocketin Board”? It is a pretty bulletin board - with pockets! It’s made by stretching fabric over a piece of Homasote and stapling it on the back. Homasote is a type of building material made of recycled paper. It's used for sound proofing, and is very light.
This small board has a divided pocket to hold a pencil and letter size paper that's been cut into in quarters - a perfect way to use the back of scrap paper! I used Jessica Jones' (from How About Orange) tutorial to turn some fabric covered buttons into thumbtacks, you can find it
here.
The fabric used needs to be strong and not too finely woven so it can take being poked again and again. I used cotton duck (a type of canvas) that I hand dye and osnaburg, (what feedsacks were made of). It looks like linen but is less expensive.
MATERIALS - Cut (w x h)
Osnaburg/Decorater Weight fabric for:
• Bottom 17” x 11”
• Top 17” x 4”
• Pocket 7.25” x 4.25”
• Sketchy Stripes Scraps
Quilting Weight fabric for lining:
• Pocket 8.5” x 4.25”
• Covering Buttons Scraps
• Low Loft Fleece 14” x 13”
Non Fabric Materials - Cut (w x h)
• Homasote 12” x 11””
• (4) 1/2” Button Covers
• (4) Thumb Tacks
• 5 mm Luan Plywood 9.75” x 2” and 2” x 2” OR (2) Sawtooth Hangers & mounting screws
Tools
• Staple gun with 1/4” staples
• (optional) Router with keyhole bit
• Scissors
• Sewing Machine
• Iron
• Rotary cutter, mat and long ruler
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STEP 1: Prepare for Hanging
Although you could add picture hangers (either sawtooth or the screw in loops), my husband came up with a more supportive way to hang the pocketin board, and it helps to do this step 1st. If you ARE going to use picture hangers, wait until the end.
Apply a thin layer of glue to the Luan plywood and lay it in place on the homasote 1” down from the top and each side. We’ve also added a small piece of scrap Luan to the bottom as a “bumper” to keep the board sitting level when it’s mounted on the wall; the exact size or location of this piece is not crucial. Place a large piece of plywood over the homasote (to evenly distribute the weight and avoid making any dents in the homasote), weigh it down and let glue dry overnight. (I’m making a bunch of these, I’ve got a show coming up in just about four weeks, that’s why there’s a stack all sitting with a weight on top).
Once the Luan has dried, use a router fitted with a keyhole bit to rout 2 keyhole slots, which are channels that are larger at the bottom than the top. If you look closely at the bit pictured below, you can see that it has a wider part (that you plunge through the plywood and into the homasote) and then a skinnier part, which cuts the narrow channel as you move the router along the plywood. Again, this is optional, but if you’ve got a router hanging around – well, here’s a chance to use it!
STEP 2: Sketchy Stripes
For the sketchy stripes gather some scraps that are at least 3” high and between 1-4” wide. Lay them out in a pleasing arrangement and then begin stitching them together (for this part of the construction, I use _” seams to reduce bulk). You could use straight seams, but I chose to make free form, “wonky” seams. To do this, overlap 2 pieces by ~ _-1” and use your rotary cutter to cut a gentle curve through both layers at once. Remove the waste pieces and lay the pieces together, right sides together, with the beginning of the raw edges meeting. Slowly stitch these together, adjusting the edges to meet as you come to them. Press, and continue adding pieces in this manner until you have a strip that’s wider than your flap.
After giving your strip another good press, (I press all the seams to one side) trim it to 2.5” in width. Sew it in between your 2 pieces of Osnaburg using _” seams and press again. (Note: my stripes aren’t as wide as the Osnaburg – not to worry, they wrap all the way around to the back, which is all that matters!)
STEP 3: Layer Front & Batting
Using a very low loft batting (I use Pellon fleece) cut 2” wider than the homasote (in this case 14” x 13”), center & smooth this on top of the homasote.
Lay your finished front on top of this, right side up, smoothing again all around.
Wrap the finished front around your homasote and mark the corner locations with pins as pictured. Pin the top to the fleece, remove from homasote and topstitch along the top and bottom of the stripes.
STEP 4: Attach the pocket
You’ll be making 1 pocket that is subdivided into a paper pocket and pen pocket. Cut a piece of your decorator weight fabric and quilting weight lining fabric 7.25” x 4.25” Place right sides together, and using 1/2” seams stitch all the way around, leaving an opening for turning in the bottom of each pocket. Clip your corners, turn inside out and press. Topstitch across the top of the pocket.
With tailor’s chalk or a washable marker, mark a line 1.75” from the left side of the pocket. Then mark a corner in the bottom left corner of the top, starting 1/2” in from the pin-marked corner. Draw ANOTHER vertical line 1” to the right from the marked corner. Align the pocket with the line _” from the bottom of the corner, and match the marked line on the pocket with the line that is 1” from the outside marked corner and stitch, making sure to backstitch at the top for reinforcement.
Now pin the left side of the pocket to the outer marked corner, this causes a bulge which will give you room for the pencil. To form the pleated pockets, pinch each pocket together so that the excess fabric is perpendicular to the “pocketin” front and then push it down, forming a small pleat. PRESS with a hot iron.
Slowly stitch down the right side of the pocket, across the bottom of the paper pocket and pencil pleat and up the left side of the pocket , make sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of the seam for strength.
STEP 5: Staple the Fabric to the Homasote
Center and spread the batting over the homasote (it should just barely go around the edges. Center and spread the front over the homasote, taking care that the pockets are straight up and down and that there is a 1/2” border between the bottom left corner of the pencil pocket and the corner of the homasote. Flip this over so the back of the homasote is showing.
Drive a staple into the center of the back. Go to opposite side and pull fabric tight, until a straight crease is formed running across front. Maintain tension and drive staple (with right hand for right handed person) into the center of back.
Stretch and attach the top and bottom centers in the same manner. Double check that your pockets are straight and where you want them to be. See Picture A.
Drive in staples every 1” - 2", moving outward from the center, alternately switching to opposite sides. Drive in one staple to the left and right of center, then go to opposite side and repeat. Then go to adjacent sides and repeat. Work from the center toward the comers.
Stop 3" from comers and clip excess batting from corner, see picture B.
To staple corner, pull the corner of the fabric over the corner of the homasote and staple, see picture C. Then straighten and fold one side over, picture D, and then the other, picture E. Staple this corner, picture F.
Repeat for the other 3 corners...Phew! Give your hands a rest!
STEP 6: Hang & Enjoy!
If you didn’t put the hanging hardware on in the beginning, add it now.To hang, mark the location of the top of the keyhole slots, screw a drywall screw ALMOST all the way into the wall, and slide the board onto the screws and voila! Step back and enjoy your hard work!
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