Making your own KnitPicks Options needle organizer is actually quite easy. You’ll only need a few things to get started:
- Fabric of choice - solids seem to be easier to work with, as you need to see where your working lines are.
- Ruler or tape measure
- Cord elastic
- Interfacing - I used a mid-weight, iron-on type, but I doubled it to make the insert super firm
- Needle & thread
- Fabric chalk or pencil
- Straight pins
- Sewing machine - If you don’t have one, you can sew the seams by hand, but it’s neater and more secure when you use your machine.
- iron
- #0 Grommet kit
Note: Do NOT waste your money (or time) buying the grommet sets found at Joann’s or Michael’s, as the setters, the hole cutter, base and die, make or break the quality of your grommet. I researched and finally chose Set-it-Yourself Grommet Kit by C.S. Osborne, as it comes with everything you need to manually set your grommets without cracking, over curling, and they look machine quality. Also C.S. Osborne’s tools come highly recommended by most people, who use hand tools.
The other kit that I purchased is Lord & Hodges Grommet Setting Kit, which gives the same quality results.
Steps:
1. Start by measuring one of your plastic inserts from the KnitPicks Options binder. This is what you use to determine the width and height of your needle organizer. My measurements are: 6 3/4 x 6.
2. Lay your interfacing out on a flat surface. Rather than fussing with sewing a front and back panel together, you’re going to fold your interfacing from the top down, so that the height is at least 6 inches. You are going to now cut your interfacing, based on our measurements.
Now, we’re going to move on to the actual binder. Hang on! No cutting yet.
3.You need to add at least a half an inch to the width and height. This allows for where you are going to sew. So, your final measurements will be 7 1/4 x 6 1/2. Again, you’re going to fold the fabric in half, ensuring that there is at least 6 1/2 inches height and you can cut your fabric.
4. Once you have your interface and your binder cut, you can center the two pieces and iron the interfacing in place. The added weight of the interfacing, not only serves to make your binder firm, but it adds strength and acts as a reinforcement to the area holding your elastic.
5. Fold your binder in half with the interfacing on the inside; use your straight pins to secure the edges together and iron the fold, creating a nice crease.
6. Measure about 1/2 an inch on each edge.This will be where you sew, closing up the binder later. You need to determine this area now, because we’re going to create markers for where we stitch our elastic in place.
7. On side A, using the crease as my starting point, I measure 1 1/2 inches from the top, drawing a line across the length of the binder. Then measure 2 inches below that, creating another line.
8. On side B, using the crease as the starting point draw a line across 1 1/2 from the top. Create two more lines: one inch down from the first line, and the last one an inch below the previous.
9. Now, we’re going to create “intersections” to mark where we want to stitch the elastic. Again, allowing at least half an inch from the edge, I start creating dashes that intersect my lines every half an inch, until I have 17 crosses. Make sure that you are creating an intersection on both lines at the same time, to be certain that they will line up when we’re ready to sew our elastic in place.
10. Flipping the fabric over, I start intersecting my lines every inch, starting a half an inch in from my edge, until there are eleven intersection. This side will accommodate the larger needles tips.
Hang on…we’re getting closer to the finish line
11. I used a good old fashioned thread and needle to sew my elastic cord in place. I tried using my machine, but cord rolls, never stays put, so it was easier to sew it on manually. To get started you need to cut five 7″ (or longer) pieces of elastic cord. Now, just stitch your elastic in place, where you have your intersections marked.
12. If you still have your straight pins in, pull them out. Fold your binder inside out, so the interfacing is now on the outside.
13. Starting a half an inch in, sew up the side of the binder; turn and sew the other side. The bottom, opposite side of the fold, should be the only seam left open at this time.
14. Before turning your binder to the right side, fold the hem up, so there is at least a half and inch on both side; pin it down and iron. Now, go ahead and turn the binder back to the right side.
15. With the hem turned in, sew across the last open seam.
16. Now, the grommets might be intimidating, if you haven’t used them, but I assure you that they very easy.
To ensure that you are putting the grommets in the right place, place your plastic binder on top of your new binder, lining it up corner-to-corner. Use your chalk to mark where the first grommet will go. DO NOT MOVE AHEAD!. The reason why you do not want to move ahead, is because although it seems as if you should just be able to mark all holes at one time. I tried this and once the grommets were set, things were off just enough to cause the binder to not line up with the binder rings.
Set your first grommet and re-align the plastic binder with the new binder. Continue this step until all of the grommets are set.
That’s IT! You’re ready to go. Pictures will be coming (as soon as I get them off of my camera).
