Quilted Pencil Case

One of my favorite things to do is combining fabrics. I like to think that I have a knack for it. When I start a project for a person I usually get a intuitive feel for, or image of, what to do for them. This pencil case was no exception. I had made one of these earlier in the year for myself. When a friend at school wanted one, I immediately had a color scheme in mind for her. Browns and blues. I went through my remnants searching for the right fabrics. This project doesn't take much yardage, so scraps work great. Below is what I cam up with. My friend happens to be an animal lover so I added a little bit of the paw print. I love how it works with the rest of the fabrics. A little fun/cutesy, but still chic.

This pouch tutorial comes from Terrabyte Farm. Her directions are great and she even has a link with 46 photos and steps. I cut out my pieces and organized them the way I wanted them. Sewed everything together per her instructions. Layered, pinned, and quilted. I decided to use a different color thread on the inside, or bottom, so that the quilting pattern would stand out. Very easy to do, simply change out your bobbin thread. I love the added touch.

As I mentioned this was the second time I have made this. The first one was for me :) However, after using it for a while there were a couple of things I wish I had done differently. They both center around the zipper. She says that you can zig zag stitch along the inside of the zipper to prevent fraying. I didn't. She also suggests top-stiching over the zipper once it's installed. Again, I didn't. The result is that my first pencil case is fraying on the inside and without the top-stitching you can see the inside of the zipper when it is open. These were the only two things I did not like about mine, so I changed them on this one. Hopefully you can see it in the photo below. The top left photo shows the top-stitching. I tried to stay in the same stitch line as the quilting, however it was a little too close to the zipper. I would recommend stitching about 1/8 to 1/4 away from the zipper. The bottom right shows the zig zag stitch along the zipper, which worked great. No fraying on this one!

I love the way that it turned out! Can't wait to give it to her. Hopefully she loves it as much as I do.