Pocket Magnets

      I’ve made these for over a decade. They are a standard gift for teachers and I make them in batches to have on hand year round. They stick to ‘fridges to hold coupons and pens, lockers to hold pens, metal file cabinets to hold scissors- whatever.

They are super handy and easy cheesy to make. I use outgrown jeans or pick them up for cheap at yardsales. I look for the rattiest jeans and offer 50 cents. Since all I use is the pockets, I like to freecycle the denim – usually to a quilter.

     How to:

Usually I trim all my pockets in small batches and toss the pockets in one bin and the denim in a bag to pass on.

Trim as close to the pocket as you can leaving a bit at the top to fold over and make a nice hem. (is it called a hem if it is at the top? I dunno).

I run a bead of glue along the flap and fold the pocket over (as opposed to folding the flap over the pocket).

 

    

I am not sure if it saves me some burns but that’s how I do it.

Warning: glue guns are hot and you WILL burn yourself. I keep a glass of ice water handy to plunge my fingers in when I do get molten glue on them.

 

I do all the glue gunning in batches, too.  Even if I do not have enough magnets in one sitting I usually finish out the hemming since I know it will just save me time next round.

    

I buy the magnet strip on a roll (using a 40% off coupon when there is nothing else I need so I have a good stockpile of it). Dryfit the pieces and trim to size. I use a lot of magnets because I know how much handling I do with these pockets. But I also recycle those freebie magnets- but keep the ratio low. Most are pretty lightweight.

 

Place the first strip across the top and then fill in the back.

      Running the bead of glue on the magnetic strip and then using your fingers to turn it over and place it down is the hardest part of the project- the glue overflows or squeeze out from under and gets ya!

 

This took about 2 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the layered ones? And the embellished ones? I love finding toddler jeans or embroidered jeans and layering different shades of blues. The jewel stones were leftovers from another project.

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