I've wanted to do something like for ages, but I've just been too scared of zips. My Mum finds them a nightmare on her sewing machine and probably I would too, but I did these by hand. In case I'm not alone in my fear of zips I thought I would put together a little tutorial of what I did.
I know I've said before, but I am not very confident when it comes to sewing and although I'm delighted with this there are areas where it all looks very messy. I think I must be the only person on the planet that can ends up in a tangle of knots within the first three stitches.
Anyhow, to start this project I first decided what size pencil case I wanted and simply cut the felt accordingly (no pictures of this I'm afraid). Next I lined up the zip with the top of the felt. I had the zip closed and attached one side of the zip to ones side of the felt. At this point I still had the zip closed. The picture is of the zip open so you can see (just) the stitches I made to attach it. They're not beautiful little even stitches, but I'm proud of them anyway.
Next I opened up the zip, and attached it in the same way to the other side of the felt. So far so good. I then closed up the zip again and used a blanket stitch to close off the ends of the pencil case. Now it was starting to look like something that could be used.
After that the next job was to create to the outside cover of the pencil case. I love crochet and I love stripes and my son loves red and orange, this was a mixture of our favourite things. This was easy, I started with a chain that was just longer that the pencil case middle I'd already made and then used a half treble crochet (half double crochet in US terms) stitch to create the rows of stripes, changing colours at regular intervals. I finished with a row of double crochet (single crochet in US terms), once it was large enough to fit the pencil case middle inside. Then I crocheted the edges together using double crochet (single crochet in US terms), two stitches for each space. Here it is before I sorted out all the ends, and tidied it up a little.
Next I slipped the middle into the cover. Despite checking the size I seemed to have to sort of push it into the corners to make it fit properly.
But phew, in the end it went in fine without any problems. Next I just had to attach the middle to the cover.
I just did this around the top of the pencil case and it has worked fine.
Next add your stationary to the pencil case and you're ready to go!
I've made a couple now, and both are in use all the time. My daughter uses hers to keep her money in, much of which is change, so I can say they will hold a fair amount. My son has taken his to school and uses it everyday. So far, so good, I've not needed to make any repairs anyhow!
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