How To Make A Pencil Case - A Tutorial

Well after I wrote a tutorial last week "How To Make A Lanyard" I thought I'd have a go at writing a tutorial on "How To Make A Pencil Case" and hope you'll have a go at making one too. There are a lot of pictures with this tutorial, but I have tried to make it as simple as possible.

REQUIREMENTS:
Scraps of fabric to make a rectangle approx 12" x 10"
Backing fabric approx 13" x 11"
Strip of fabric for binding and tabs approx 1½" wide 
Wadding
14" zipper
Quilting thread
Ususal sewing supplies - rotary cutter, cutting board, ruler, pins etc.
Sewing machine in good working order, walking foot - edge foot and zipper foot optional.

I have chosen a gorgeous range of fabrics for this project, "Secret Garden" by Lynette Anderson for Lecien. Thank you so much fro this fabric Lynette - you can see I'm still making alot of projects with it!!.....

---

.....I start with a rectangle of fabric for the outer part of the pencil case, approx 12" x 10" - this can be a single piece of feature fabric or a combination of fabrics pieced together. This is then layered with a slightly larger backing fabric and a piece of wadding - and made into a simple quilt sandwich. I have spray-basted these layers together with some 501 spray glue, and then quilt it as you like - straight rows, cross-hatch, wiggleywoo - the choice is yours.....

---

.....here you can see I have already marked a cross-hatch pattern, spacing the lines about 1½" apart. I have used a Mettler quilting thread for this project, in a shade to co-ordinate with my fabrics. I find it much easier even for small pmall projects like this to use a walking foot....

---

.....if you want to add any trimmings, now is the time to do it. This was has been trimmed with some vintage lace, along the centre panel.....

---

.....once the rectangle is quilted and decorated, trim it to size, using your rotary cutter and cutting board. This one has been trimmed to 9" x 11" - remember the longest measurement is along the top and bottom, where the zipper will be sewn.....

---

.....then the two longest edges are neatened with a strip of binding fabric. Cut 2 strips of fabric just longer than the pencil case, and sew to the wrong side along the longest edge, then pressing the binding over to the right side, press firmly and stich close to the edge. You can use an edge foot for this, but I prefer to use my walking foot, with the needle position set to the left, and repeat for binding the oppasite edge.....

---

.....the trickiest part is sewing in the zipper. I prefer to use a longer zipper than needed, and cut it down to size. Again, I have used a walking foot for this, as it saves changing feet on the machine..... 

---

.....open the zipper fully and machine the other side of the zipper into place. It is much easier to use a longer zipper than you need and trim it to size after you have sewn it into place. For this project I used a zipper about 14" long.....

---

.....turn the pencil-case inside out and neaten the edges of the zipper. This is done by slipstitching the edges into place by hand - it might seem like a lot of extra work, but it will be worth the extra effort - I always prefer to finish it off by hand.....

---

.....then sew some securing stitches over the binding and the zipper to make sure the zipper pull does not come off the ends before you have finished,  making sure you have opened the zipper first then you can trim it to size - and sew a small tag to each end over the zipper.....

---

.....this shows a picture of the small tag at each end - you will hold this to open and close the pencil case when it is finished. Check your pencil case opens and closes smoothly before moving on to the next stage.....

---

.....turn the pencil case inside out, and mark the centre front and centre back with pins, then mark the 2 sides with pins.....

---

.....pleat the sides in to almost meet the centres - this is a bit tricky, so use plenty of pins to hold every thing in place. Make sure the zipper is open at least halfway, so you can turn it through the right way once you have sewn the side seams!.....

---

.....sew through all layers, taking care not to break your needle when you sew over the zipper, and sew a few stitches in reverse at the beginning and end of the seam to secure.You can see I have also sewn a small piece of fabric underneath, this will become the binding to neaten the seam - I do not like to see lots of raw edges.....

---

.....the inside seams are neatened with a small strip of single fold binding, folded over then this is then slip stitched into place by hand - oh, and I have added one of my labels here too.....

---

.....turn it the right way through, and you have your pencil case. You can experiment with different sizes, and make a larger bag. I'd love to read your comments about what you think of this tutorial.
* This style of bag is also useful as a cosmetic bag too!

---