In the sewing class for my Paradise Bag, one of the students had a great sewing apron that she had made. It had a set of pockets that kept all of her sewing tools organized and within handy reach. Her one complaint was that the scissors and other sharp tools were poking through the bottom of the pockets and she needed to add a more resilient liner.

Taking on her idea, I made myself this sewing tool belt. Instead of an apron with a set number of pockets, I made each pocket an individual unit. To make the hanging pocket I:

• Measured the tool I wanted to make a pocket for and:
• length (tool length I want inside of the pocket, thus leaving space for the tool to extend above the pocket for easy grabbing) x 2 + 6 inches for the hanging loop
• width of the tool + 1 to 2 inches, depending on the thickness of the tool.
• I cut out two rectangles of the final size.
• Face the rectangles inside out and sew them together on three sides, leaving on the short sides unsewn
• Turn the "pocket" right side out.
• Roll the open end twice to form a french seam and sew shut.
• On the opposite end of the long pocket from the french seam, make a button hole.
• Now fold the french seam end up and form a pocket, leaving 6 inches to make the loop.
• Sew down the sides of the pocket at about 1/4 inch allowance.
• Now fold the button hole side down, and add a button.

Doing this I made a series of hanging pockets. To prevent the scissors from poking through, I measured their pockets to be a little longer. I made a french seamed strip and sewed that above the pocket as a loop. As you can see in the picture of the scissor pocket, the scissors hang from the loop and the point doesn't reach the bottom of the pocket. I opted to make the pocket for scissors to prevent the swinging blades from accidentally getting caught on anything.

The belt is just a nylon strap and that used parachute fasteners to make a quick release belt with. Each pocket is made from two rectangles