Make Your Own Garment Protection Bags to Organize Your Closet

Garment bags not only help organize your closet but also protect some of your finer clothing. Moths, dust and other closet friends can settle on your clothes and ruin them but not if they're safely tucked away in various shaped garment bags. To make garment bags you'll need wide sheets of plastic, zippers and bias tape.

Hang several shirts or blouses on hangers, stack them together, and lay them on top of two sheets of plastic. Make sure sleeves are hanging naturally and that hangers are all aligned. Mark a dot on each side of the curved part of the hanger, at its base. Draw a line from that dot, across the shoulder area, to the arm area. Stay a few inches away from the garments to allow them plenty of room in the bag, once it's done.

Now draw a line straight down to the hem area of the largest shirt. Draw across the hemline as well. Remove the garments from on top of the plastic. You should have an outline of the bag with an opening where the hangers can slip through.

Place binding tape around the hanger opening of the first piece of plastic and double stitch it. Do the same to the second piece. Now align the plastic to where one shoulder area is facing the shoulder area of the other piece. Butt them together and lay the binding over the top of the seam. Make sure, as you sew, one line of stitching catches the plastic on one piece of the garment bag and the other stitch line catches the plastic on the opposite side. The binding should be holding the two shoulder pieces together. As you arrive at the corner turn presser foot and continue applying the binding down the side seam as well. Do the same to the opposite shoulder.