Housewife MacGyver: Place Mat Car Organizer

Happy Monday! Today we have Debra from Housewife Eclectic, my BFF -- or is bestie the term to use when you're not texting and/or adolescent? whatever it is, she's the best :) -- and she's here sharing a cute and easy craft for your car. You'll love it and want to make one in every color... so here's Debra:

Hi friends, I am Debra of Housewife Eclectic, where Lu shares her web knowledge weekly. I wear many hats, crafter, photographer, mother to an almost 3 year-old, avid reader, writer, baker and a bunch of others that I only pull out for special occasions. I am excited to be here to share a easy and wonderful craft with you guys today.

We all like to be prepared in case of an emergency and the car is no exception. This glove box sized organizer is made from a place mat and holds your insurance cards, a pen, a tire pressure gauge, small notepad, scissors and a flashlight.

In order to make your organizer you will need a place mat, a hair elastic or elastic headband and the items you want to include in your organizer for measuring purposes.

Take your place mat and fold it up about a third of the way.

If you want a card pocket, fold down the corner. Sew the corner down first. Do NOT SEW it down to the large section/back of the organizer, just to your front third that you folded up. This pocket is perfect for your insurance card. 

Then lay your objects into the fold to see how much room they need. I sewed a seam right besides my folder corner, then I placed my notepad in the center of my place mat and mark how much room I would need on either side of it. After sewing your large pocket for the notepad, I took the left over space on the right side and sewed a seam down the middle to give it too even sized pockets. Those pockets are the right size for a lot of items, like pens and your tire pressure gauge. 

After you are done sewing your pockets, fold up the organizer around the middle panel and mark where your hair elastic needs to go. I used a head band and had to cut a couple inches of length off of it to make it fit snugly. Go over the hair elastic multiple times to get it secure and you have complete organizer. This quick project can be made in just a few minutes time and is perfect for a beginning sewer, so pick up a place mat at the dollar store and organize your glove box! 
Now you want one in every color, right? I told you that you would ;) And this is the perfect place to store your log of car maintenance that Tricia told us about last week! 

And stop by and say hello to Debra over at Housewife Eclectic. She's pretty much da bomb in every way - she crafty, shares amazing recipes, and is a fantastic photographer to boot -- and nice enough to share her photo tips once a week. :)

This post is part of the Housewife MacGyver series on just Lu. Read more about Housewife MacGyver and see all the posts in the series here.