How to make a gardening year planner

Keep track of your planting plans with a handy gardener's year planner, made using a blowsy floral print fabric in bright summery shades. It's pretty yet practical in design; month-by-month pockets make staying organised a breeze, providing plenty of space to store seeds, string, plant markers and more.

To make, you will need:

• Fabric
  (we used Cotton Duck Rainbow Rose, £20 per metre,
  Cath Kidston)
• Contrasting hessian fabric (Hessian, £8 for 2 metre roll, Hobbycraft)
• Matching cotton
• Length of dowel (ours measures 85cm)
• String
• Card
• Alphabet stamps
• Stamping ink
• Scissors
• Pins
• Craft glue

Step 1) Measure and cut out your main fabric. We measured out approximately 80x170cm. Wrong side facing, fold the fabric in half width ways and pin up the long edges taking a 2.5cm hem. Sew, then turn right side out. Remove the pins and press.

Step 2) Make a channel for the dowel by folding over a 2.5cm section at the top remaining raw-edged end of the fabric onto the reverse side of the hanging. Pin. With a sewing machine, overlock this into place, then press. This channel is now the top of the hanging.

Step 3) Measure and cut out the two contrasting hessian pockets (ours measured 80x25cm). Fold, pin and press a 2.5cm hem all around. Lay both on top of the main fabric at equal intervals. Pin then sew along the side and bottom edges. Measure and create six pockets along this contrasting fabric then machine stitch or tack down each separating line to form the pocket.

Step 3) Cut out labels from card and stamp out the monthly name cards with the alphabet stamps.
Secure the card in place with a strong all-purpose craft glue.

Step 4)

Finally push the dowel rod through the top channel, tie string around the ends and hang up.

Liked this? Find more craft ideas on House to Home. For more country-inspired crafts, visit the Country Homes & Interiors homepage.

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