How often have you gone traveling and realized that there were never going to be enough hangers in the hotel room closet for the amount of clothes you needed to bring with you? It’s happened far too often for me, mostly as a result of over-packing (see my most recent travel post for confirmation here…).

I blame the need to change clothes between day time work wear and things to wear when going out in the evening.

For the longest time, MM and I would bring a bunch of full sized hangers – they’re thin, but metal, and super heavy. Not exactly the best option when trying to avoid breaking your back with your luggage.

Recently, my friends KB and LM told me about a set of foldable travel hangers they had found over on that one website that sells almost everything and shares a name with a forest in South America. The problem was how to easily transport them, as they didn’t come with a travel bag.

Enter: Kegger! (Instructions first, then the story, because maybe you couldn’t care less about the story.)

Materials

• Qty 2: 8″ x 12″ main fabric
• Qty 2: 8″ x 12″ contrast fabric for lining
• Qty 2: 7″ x 11″ interfacing
• Qty 1: 14″ zipper
• Matching thread

Tools

• Sewing machine
• Straight pins
• Zipper presser foot
• Iron / Ironing board

Method

Following manufacturers instructions, center and secure the interfacing to the wrong side of the outer fabric.

Place the outer fabric face up. Lay the zipper face down along the long side of the outer fabric. Sandwich the zipper with the lining fabric, facing down.

Pin and sew a 1/4″ seam, using a zipper foot. Flip both fabrics so that you can see the right sides. Iron to make a crisp fold at the zipper.

Repeat this process for the other side of the zipper.

Open the zipper almost all the way (this is incredibly important – make sure that it is more than halfway unzipped, but it is not extended past the edge of the fabric).

Match the layers of outer fabric and lining with the zipper between so that it looks like the picture below (which shows the stitching complete). Pin the fabric together, and sew a 1/4″ seam, leaving a 4″ opening to turn the fabric.

On the lining fabric, locate the center of the panel (approximately 6″ from the short edges), and sew a 5″ seam up the middle of the panels.

Using the opening you left, turn the pouch right side out. This will be a bit difficult due to the divider seam, but don’t worry – you can do it!

Locate the opening left in the lining and either hand or machine sew it closed (with a very small seam allowance).

If desired, top stitch along the zipper.

Ta da!

In case you were curious…

The goal was to create a pouch with a closure that can be relatively flat but not take up too much space. We don’t necessarily want to lay all of the hangers (while folded) out side by side – that would take up a huge amount of space. They don’t need to have their own individual slots either. If I were to make a non-divided pouch, though, chances are the hangers would shift around in transit.

There needs to be a bit of flexibility in terms of use, too. if there’s only a thin amount of space left in the suitcase, a flatter profile would be best. But it should also be possible to slide them into a thicker rectangle shape, too (those of you who have had to treat your suitcase as a jigsaw puzzle know what I’m talking about here).

All of those requirements led me to what you see in these pictures – a very flat, zippered pouch, divided in half to provide two compartments that can be laid out flat, or folded at the center stitching.

I’m now considering what else I could fit into a pouch like this in the future – makeup maybe? Eye shadow palettes? What would you put in one of these?