Helpful family and friends will have great ideas on what a freshman or returning college student should bring with them to their dorms. A dorm room will be small so it’s important to minimize clutter and yet keep the essentials handy while organizing and storing all the rest.

Here are a few organizing and like-to-have dorm room sewing project ideas that are economical and can help to keep a small space as tidy and comfortable as possible.

A traditional favorite and easy to make organizer is a padded bulletin board with crisscrossed ribbons for hanging flyers, contact numbers, schedules, etc.

An over-the-fridge caddy, with side pockets to keep paper plates, plastic utensils, and napkins within easy reach. A little used table runner would come in handy for this purpose; just fold up each end about 8 inches and stitch the sides closed.

Sew a fabric pennant garland (made of traditional triangles, squares of sports themes/or hand-drawn fall leaves for example) with added battery-operated tiny lights for decoration. Include some Command hooks for easy removability. Tiny colored craft clothes pins can be used to clip family/friends/travel favorite photos between each pennant.

A convenient fabric bedside caddy that tucks and hangs under the mattress might be considered a must to hold an eReader, tablet, cell phone, TV/Radio remote, travel tissues, lip gloss and water bottle.

A-dorm-able (adorable) floor pillow or two when visitors come for a study session and need a place to sit. Usually just two yards of a brightly printed fabric would cover an over-sized pillow and add a pop of color.

Embroidery hoops covered in bright fabric with pockets to hold first aid supplies (Band-Aids, headache remedy, first aid creams, cold medicine, Q-tips, tweezer, etc.) or make pockets to hold sewing repair supplies (small scissors, packet of needles, a few small spools of threads, safety pins, seam ripper, buttons, iron-on hem tape). Command hooks to hold the hoops on the wall are helpful. The covered hoops double as wall décor as well.

Drawstring laundry bags are easy to sew and may be considered among those essential items as well as collapsible fabric storage bins to keep all odds and ends organized.

Desk chair back cover. No need to know the size of the chair back if the cover is made flat with ties on each side. A rectangular size, finished to approximately 15-inches by 30-inches should work. Add a pocket or two on the back for added organization. Seasonal prints work well. The cover can easily be made reversible with two different prints/solids for a quick change.

Power cord organizer. Electronics and their power cords are ubiquitous. Sew an organizer for the many power cords by making a compartmented roll up. Use two rows of 1/4-inch elastic stretched the length of the inside of the roll and tacked down at intervals to a quilted rectangle of fabric 8-inches by 12-inches. Add ribbon ties to one end or an elastic ponytail holder to one end and a button to the other for closing.

Bright cheery pillowcase covers double as pillow shams and are easy to sew envelop style.

There are so many ideas, and easy to sew ones, to dress up a dorm room to create a more home like feel and convert a bare room to one with personality as well as needed organization.

Many dorm room ideas and easy to sew ones can be found on Pinterest.com.

Sew happy, sew inspired.