Vinyl Lego Organizer

LEGOS can take over your life… I’m not kidding!! If you have kids into LEGOS you know what I’m talking about. The LEGOS started out in the living room because the boys have a small bedroom, but spending about 20 min. every night picking them up was not ideal… so we bought the boys a lofted double bed to give them more floor space in their bedroom {yes, that’s just what it sounds like… a double bed that’s lofted up!} We got a special LEGO carpet.. and thought that was it… well, then the LEGOS took over the carpet and there was no room to actually play with the LEGOS… anyway I needed to come up with a system! This vinyl LEGO organizer has been {mostly} the answer to our problems!! Now we actually have room to play LEGOS on the LEGO carpet. 

To make your own, you will need a vinyl backing, 1-2 yards clear vinyl and 4-5 yards of bias tape.  You will first need to decide on the size of your LEGO organizer… My back is 25″ x 50″. I have two rows of pockets, four large pockets on the bottom and six smaller ones on the top.

My boys wanted to get in on the project. I drew the line and they trimmed the brown vinyl to the right size… then I was like that’s all you can help with so go play!

 After you have cut your backing to the correct size, you need to start on the clear vinyl. Decide on the height of your pockets, now for the length.. you want to create a very long piece of vinyl and the pockets will be created from this one long piece. Decide on the number of pockets, and how big each one will be.. you need to then add 2″ per pocket. So I had a width of 50″ and wanted 4 pockets, so I added 8″, for a total of 58″ needed of the clear vinyl.

Cover the top edge of the vinyl by using a zig-zag stitch and bias tape. You can use whatever width tape you have on hand… I had this pretty narrow blue, but it worked!

I’ve tried to show in this photo the general idea of how you will create the pockets. Start by pinning the edge to the far left side along the dotted line, you will then create a 1/2″ tuck on the bottom and a 1/4″ tuck on the top corner {top tucks options, see note below}: PIN. Move to the right side of the pocket and create opposite tucks on that side of the pocket {the arrows show the tucks on the right side} then pin down the entire height {the vertical dotted line in the middle}. Continue creating pockets like this across your width. You will also be pinning the bottom as you go. Sew on all the dotted lines.. then sew the tucks as shown by the pins.

NOTE: after I got this all finished I ended up picking out my top tucks… it was easier to get hands into the pockets and find LEGOS with it more open… you can do as you like.. this was just what we decided…

 Here’s my bottom row of pockets all pinned and ready to sew…

Let’s take a closer look at the tucks and pockets! Here are the bottom tucks pinned… the fold should face the pocket.

The same thing sewn… Just a little notice… I’ve never been poked by so many pins as when I was trying to sew this large, stiff piece of vinyl… it was worth it though because it turned out so great… so consider yourself warned {ha!}

Here are the top smaller tucks if you decide to use them.

And all sewn… After you finish one row, you can start all over again with the new row of awesome pockets.

You will have to decide how you are going to hang this now… I had a brace from the loft bed that I wanted this to hang from. I cut strips of the brown vinyl and sewed one side to the back of the organizer. On the other end of the strip I cut a slit for a button hole. Sew buttons along the top of the organizer, hang and button.  If you have a bar you could remove, you can just create loops and slide a bar through.. I couldn’t do that…

And the system isn’t fool-proof, as you can see the mess still does take over… it’s way better than it was though and my son decided what LEGOS go in each pocket, so he can pick up really quickly and without help.

Okay, let me know if you have any questions.. I’m happy to help out if you get stuck!!