Friday, September 4, 2015

Pencil Case Tutorial and Therapy Sewing


Life is a rollercoaster. Try to eat a light lunch.
--David A. Schmaltz



Okay, folks. It's been one of those weeks around here. I had big plans to sew away my free time, but between kids and pets...

Our daughter started her first day of university Monday by realizing she had already missed her first class. Oops! The allergy dog, Lucy, got a nasty bladder infection on top of the itchy skin. Effy ripped off a toe nail and that was the next trip to the vet. And poor Cecil, our sweet llama, was diagnosed with meningeal worm. He started walking around like a drunk last night, and we thought it was the end. We pushed a lot of meds in him last night, and a visit from a blessed veterinarian today, and he's got a great chance of coming through this. Emotionally, we are all shot. At some point, we're all getting a little slap happy. Sheesh!

Comfort sewing and comfort food were on our menus today. My daughter is cooking sausage gravy and biscuits while I get this little post out about a request from another daughter. She's started grad school, and when I asked what she needed she requested a pencil case. Here's a 30 second tutorial on a selvage pencil case in an Ohio State pallette.
Ready?



Use one piece of paper foundation cut in half, and stitch your selvages down one on top of the other starting with the bottom.



Don't worry about being fussy with lengths. Just sew them securely on top of each other.




I try to contrast between colors to get a very stripey effect.


Trim those edges off with a rotary cutter and ruler. Choose a zipper. I used a metal zipper from my stash of 1000. If your zipper doesn't run smoothly, run a bar of paraffin wax over the teeth.



Sew the front panels to the zipper. Cut two pieces of backing slightly larger than needed, and sew to the back. This is nearly the identical construction method as used in my zipper bag tutorial, and you can refer to it for details.




It will look similar to this with edges uneven. Lay a piece of remnant batting in between each of the tops and backs, and adhere with 505 or your choice of fabric adhesive spray. I fit mine right up the top seam, and smoothed down to the bottom.




Trim the edges, top, backing and batting even with a ruler and rotary cutter. Use a serger to overcase all edges together or a zig zag will work equally as well. Use a close stitch length for a zig zag stitch.


Precision isn't a priority with overcasting the edges, but testing that they will lay on top of each other right sides together IS. Test and adjust as necessary. You may need to trim and re-surge the trimmed area.

Be sure to unzip your zipper! Put right sides together, and stitch around your serged edges using a straight stitch with a 2.5 cm stitch. Backstitch at both the beginning and end.



Turn right sides out and Ta-dah! You've made a very cute pencil or pen case. I've already got requests for other colors so you may see more of these soon. There's something about walking out of your sewing room or studio with something finished in your hand that makes you feel like you have some control in your world. That's therapy sewing at its best, and it feels SO good this week!

Tomorrow's the Pet Project Show so check back this weekend.

Toodles!
Come on, Doxie girls.
Biscuit and gravy.
Yum.

Linking up with~



9 comments:

QuiltShopGal said...

Sorry you have had such a rough week. I hope next week is much better and all your four legged kids will be ok.

Great tutorial for a beautiful pencil case. Love those colors.

QuiltShopGal
www.quiltshopgal.com

tink's mom said...

Very rough week. Glad everyone is doing a bit better. Love your therapy project. Thanks for the tutorial.

Sew Surprising said...

Upside is you did a bit of sewing :) the following weeks will be calmer and loved your comfort food, for me any food is comfort hahahaahahahah

Stitchin At Home said...

Sewing is a great stress reliever. I need to start saving selvages

Sherri @ RebeccaMaeDesigns.com said...

That is so cute! I have a huge selvage stash... gotta get going on some projects, thanks for sharing!

Kate said...

Ugh, it does not sound like a great week. The pencil case is really cool. Hope this next week goes much smoother.

Turid said...

Thank you so much. Think I will give this a try, because I'm working with selvages just now.

Ruth said...

Wow hope all the animals are on the mend and you get some time to enjoy the comfort food!

Anonymous said...

Hope all the creatures get better and life is less stressful soon! Love the pencil case - a longer version would be good for knitting needles too. PS if you haven't got paraffin wax an ordinary graphite pencil, run up and down the zip, will also help it run smoothly