Pencil Cases

These were really good fun to make, the fun consisting of getting the gist of how they are made, producing them satisfyingly quickly and getting rather neat results. (A novelty for a hodge podge seamstress).  I borrowed the way of making from Flossie Teacakes from her little make-up bag tutorial. When I was leafing through Lisa Lam's "Bag Making Bible"similar instructions were found. I altered (as usual) the pattern to be longer, so the pens would fit. Our nieces and my sister got these. My sister got one of the prototypes, which was too short for a pencil case to use as a make-up bag. The nieces had some pencils and pens thrown in as well.

The zips got added a little pull:

and the lining was another colour. The birds had nice seed pods on green, the orange bag had polkadots on orange and the brown one some nice stripes. The fourth one can be seen here as it was the only picture of the insides which did not shake totally out of focus:

I must admit, that in my eagerness I made a couple of them stiffened first with TWO layers of canvas inside and then just one. Did not work, so don't try. It really needs a proper interfacing. I was SO sure I had some, so I had not got it from the fabric shop, but none could be found, when I came home. This propelled me into a tidying frenzy of my materials and in the last, and very deep draw, of my Victorian chest holding my sewing and crafting materials was the said interfacing hiding! I took it as a bonus that I was forced to use a couple of days exploring the deep, deep guts of my chest of draws...

I put some homemade cosmetics inside my sister's and the teenage niece got hers on the side. My sister got the organic rose-water face water, which I use myself as it is lovely relief in these skin drying times. For the teenage niece I produced a facial cleanser/face water from rosewater and some oils. Nothing too exciting, but a nice gift idea for those who prefer natural products.