Hanging Plant Pocket

These are modeled after the hanging wall planter made by "woolly pockets" . This company is environmentally friendly and uses fabric made from recycled plastic bottles to make their planters. Consequently, the pockets are a little pricey for my budget. If you can afford it, I fully recommend supporting this company, but if you can't you can try out my method using cheaper, but less sustainable products. Or, you can always procure your own recycled materials to make these out of. I think next time around I'm going to try to make the liner out of plastic bags using the method shown here . 

Step 1: What You Need

materials:
1/2 yard of thick felt - i got mine from the fabric store for about $4 a yard
2 square feet of plastic - again, from the fabric store, pretty cheap
two sets of grommets - one package is about $3-$5
thread to match your felt
brown paper bag for the pattern

tools:
sewing machine (or if you're good at sewing by hand you could probably get away without a machine)
scissors
clothes iron or soldering iron
grommet tools to fit your grommets
hammer
pen or pencil
sewing pins

also:
plant that will look nice in your pocket
potting soil

Step 2: Cut It

first step is to cut your pattern to look like the picture above. start by taking apart your paper bag so you just have one big sheet of paper. determine how wide you want your pocket to be and cut your bag so it makes a big long strip. i just made mine the width of the bag which was about 16 inches wide. fold one side in so that the end reaches about two-thirds down the bag (see notes on picture). now you're going to fold up the other side, but give about two inches extra between your new fold and the edge of the other side which has been folded in. I'm sorry if this doesn't make much sense. basically, just try to make it look like the picture or the pattern.

once you have both sides folded in cut out the notches.

now that you have your big pattern done, you need to cut a pattern for the support strips. Cut a strip of paper about an inch and a half wide. lay the strip on top of the pattern so it lays where indicated on the pattern above. cut the end of the strip at the same angle as the notch.

pin your pattern on top of your felt and cut it out, including the support strips.
cut out your plastic so that it matches the red dashed lines on the pattern.

enough cutting. on to the sewing.

Step 3: Sew the Hem

fold over a half-inch strip on the short side of your big sheet of felt. iron it down so you have a nice crease. then, sew it down. this will be the front of your pocket. you can probably get away with not ironing first, but it looks nicer if you do.

Step 4: Melt Some Plastic

lay your felt out and then lay the plastic on top so that the notches are lined up. fold it all up again so that plastic is folded over itself. I suppose it's not really necessary to fold the felt along with it, but i just wanted to make that everything lined up correctly before i started melting things.

pin the plastic in place where it is folded over itself. now place the plastic between some wax paper or parchment paper, or in my case, i just used the paper that came with the plastic. now iron the edge so that the plastic melts slightly and forms a seal, but don't get too crazy. you only need a little bit of heat. do the same to the other side.

Step 5: Pin It

lay out the felt. lay the plastic on top. fold it all together. lay the support strips on top like it looks in the pictures. pin it all in place.

Step 6: Sew It Up

sew down along each side of the pocket including the indented part at the bottom.

then sew two little "L" shapes at the top of the supports that will support the grommets. support. on the picture above they are already sewn.

now sew a small seam along the top and you're done sewing. trim any uneven edges.

Step 7: Grommet Time

put a grommet in each of the top two corners of the pocket (inside the square that you sewed). usually there are instructions on the grommet package, but if you need help there are several sites with instructions such as this one .

Step 8: Fill Er Up

you're done!
find a plant to put in it. i think ones that are viney and will spill over the edge look nice. just google vertical wall garden and you'll see a ton of cool ideas for putting these outdoors and combining them. also, if you're going to put your pocket outdoors you don't have to include the plastic layer.

now just put in some dirt and put in the plant. hang it up by the grommets.

to water it, just lightly water the felt along the back and it will drip down into the soil.