sewing/craft question?

A question about : sewing/craft question?

Hi, hope you good people may be able to help here. I've been asked by my daughter if I can make an over the door hot wheels car holder like this, or something similar, for my grandson's birthday.

Can anyone help with ideas or direct me to where I can find out how to do it?

Many thanks.
Margaret

Best answers:

• pickupsomecreativity - website
  matchbox-organizer-and-mini-tutorial
  I haven't made it myself yet but it's on one of my Pinterest boards as a future project!
  I can't post links but hopefully if you google the above info you should find the right page.
• Thanks keeponlearning, that looks pretty good. I've sent details to my daughter. It may be a bit small, but I can upsize it I'm sure. I think she was hoping for the pockets to be clear plastic/vinyl so that her boys can see the cars.
  I've looked at how to sew vinyl and I cannot find anywhere that sews it onto material, just to itself - if you can understand what I mean - to make bags etc.
  Margaret
• You can sew it to fabric, but it would be best done on a machine with a walking foot or dual-feed. Slippery but stiff... you'd need a fairly sturdy background fabric, and a fairly lightweight vinyl.
  Vinyl tears pretty easily, too. If it's just that she'd like him to be able to see which cars are where, maybe you could use voile or something similar?
• To make it see through, instead of vinyl you could use some sort of net. I was thinking of the sort that lingerie bags are made from (not sure where you can buy that) or just use ordinary coloured net. It does go soft with washing but that wouldn't matter. You could match/contrast the colour but you'd need to edge it with bias binding/fabric to make it robust and give a neat finish. HTH.
• I can't exactly see what OP wants to make, but wanted to share 2 of my favourite sites for more unusual, fabrics:
  the darling, cheap & astonishing fabricland.co.uk
  and the (usually but not always) dearer fabricuk.com who have all sorts of fabric that it's difficult to find.
• Thriftwizard, I agree with you about the vinyl/plastic tearing, especially as there are 3 boys going at it! LOL I did think of voile, but thought same might happen, but it's worth re-assessing.
  maman, Thanks, the net idea is a pretty good one, plus it's fairly sturdy. I'll have to google it to see if you can buy it, I wouldn't want loads though. I did think of net curtaining, the mesh kind, as that may be easier to get hold of.
  jackyann, thanks for the sites, I will look into them. What I'm trying to make is an over-the-door hotwheels/matchbox car holder for my grandson(s). They have loads and my daughter, in her wisdom, thought I would be able to make something like the picture - she has such faith in me of making something unusual!
  She has found some for sale, but only from USA, and the postage, as you can imagine, is very high. I've got till end of February to do it, as that's when DGS's birthday is, but didn't want to leave it till last minute to do in case I can't make it and we have to think of plan B.
  Thanks for all your ideas - all are welcome.
• Net curtaining is an excellent idea. I suppose I'm fortunate and have a fabric shop in the city centre. they seem to stock coloured net as it's popular for ballet and fancy dress/Princess outfits.
  Don't know if this is any use to you:
  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLUE-WITH-...item339c728fe6
• A lot of fabric shops nowadays sell clear vinyl of the right type for this kind of project by the yard - it is made for machine sewing this kind of craft item and is quite tough - stretching quite a bit before it tears if the longest machine stitch is used. As someone else said though, it probably will be prone to tearing with rough little hands grabbing as kids do, and it does tend to stick badly to the presser foot and drag unless you use a walking foot or double feeder. Tulle/net rips even more easily than the vinyl in my experience - almost like paper - ever trod on your net underskirt?
  The mesh net curtain type stuff sounds like the best idea so far, but as a suggestion for another, more see-through, alternative.....
  I've successfully used Crystal Organza and very fine plain Organza as a substitute before - it doesn't tear along stitching lines like tulle/net or vinyl does, it's more transparent than mesh net curtaining, it's available everywhere and is extremely cheap (I can usually find it between Ј1 and Ј3 a yard locally). It does tend to fray if you don't zig-zag stitch, or otherwise securely 'finish' the edges though and you would need to hem or bind the pocket top but I'm guessing you'd need to do that anyway.
  Another plus is that it comes in an enormous range of colours (both my tiny local fabric shops have at least 10 each in stock and there are loads more) so you could easily match the backing fabric or choose one which gives more of an impression of transparency. Counter-intuitively, I found that medium neutral shades like grey or beige look more 'transparent' than white or very pale colours and very dark shades like black or navy can also work as they reflect less light. If you can find a local shop with several colours in, you can drape several over your arm to see what's best. The 'petrol' type two-tone colours seem to be less transparent because of the reflections but look really fun
  Also, really posh bunches of flowers (Tesco Finest) often come wrapped in it so you could get it for free if you're savvy
  Hope this helps
• Ooh maman, I just love that material! Thank you so much for letting me have the info. I would have to do a bit of 'patching' to make the size I'm thinking of, but still ............
  I have a new fabric shop in town, they are pretty good, but not a lot of stock (as of yet), so I could pop in to see what they have!
• The crystal organza sounds interesting - I must check that out!
  The American website I looked at for sewing vinyl suggested putting scotchguard (sellotape I think) on the bottom of the foot, leaving a gap for the needle to go through, and also a strip on either side of the caterpillar tread things that feeds your material for stitching. This supposedly stopped the vinyl from sticking.
  I've got a new material shop in town, I'll have to mosey along to see what they have, and if they could get me some of this organza.
  I'm getting quite excited about the project now!
  Thanks ever so much.
  PS you cannot be called Evil Olive with helping me like that!
• Just googled the new shop and found this on their website - hope they have it in stock. Looks pretty good.
• Just remembered, I've used talcum powder sprinkled on the shiny side of fabric backed vinyl to stop it sticking before.....
• I'm so grateful to you all for your help and ideas. I've found some netting on ebay which seems to be good as it's non fraying and heavy duty.
  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polyester-...-/111328269933
  I have to buy it to check it out though, which is a shame, but it's not too expensive and if it does the job, then I'd be a happy bunny, and presumably the GS's would be pleased too (and their mummy and daddy if it helps to keep the room tidy!)
  Daughter now suggest backing it with something sturdy to keep it in shape! She said cardboard, but I assume it would have to be quite strong and not the corrugated type, otherwise it would bend as well!
  The things you do for love!
• That mesh looks like a good option.
  Remember if you stiffen the whole backing with card, it won't flex so you might have to make the pockets a bit wider so that it's not too tight a fit for the cars. Maman's idea of dowels sounds better to me.....
• Hi, it's me again with another sewing problem!
  Daughter and I looked at materials and we decided that the car holder was going to go on the bottom the bed. Denim for the main part with the pockets in a striped cotton. Bias binding round the edges. To fasten it to the bed we're using strong nylon webbing with adjustable spring clip fasteners like you can find on some haversacks.
  Now I've done most of it, but I just cannot machine sew the webbing, has anyone ever sewn it, and if so, how? DGS birthday is on Saturday and as I'm also doing the cake, I need to finish this tomorrow at the latest.
  Any help at all would be really helpful.
  Many, many thanks.
• I've previously sewn nylon webbing on the machine, but I did get a heavy duty needle and took it slowly . Or is there another reason why you're having problems?
• Have never sewn webbing, but if you aren't going to manage because it's too heavy duty for your sewing machine/needle, perhaps another idea?
  What about folding over the top a little, enough to encase the webbing, and stitching. Either put the webbing in place first, or thread through once stitched.
  If that's not practical, a spare piece of material stitched to the back to thread the webbing through?