kidding around

This gift is perfect for school-aged children- boy or girl, and easy to make! I literally used a dinner napkin (that I still liked, ahem, but wanted to use something for this tutorial), but a placemat or any fabric will do! Just be sure that whatever you do use, that the piece is a rectangle and is approximately 12×18. A finished edge will be needed as well…that’s why the napkin/placemat method made it so easy.

Total needed: 75
*It would be nice to include pencils and a sharpener if possible. I will personally make sure each roll gets something!*

Like I mentioned, I really did “used what I had”, I even used ties from my daughter’s dress that ripped out months back!

Place the ties and pin to folded fabric.

Pin edges and sew along the sides and bottom of roll. I used about a 1/4″ seam allowance. Make sure the ties are “caught” in your stitch.

By using a ruler, decide the width of your channels for the pencils. I started measuring from the outside edge and just marked off every inch. I also used a disappearing ink pen, but pins or any other method will do.

After marking off the channels, I began stitching straight lines- starting from the top and end at the bottom (duh!), just make sure your last stitch is “locked”. I eye balled my channel lines and they turned out great, plus it saved me time! Who wants to bother with drawing straight lines anyway?!

Here’s the fun part, rolling up the pencils and finishing it up with a tie. Here are front and back views.

I really liked this project. Because I used a dinner napkin, this gift literally took me 15 minutes with only one headache. The headache was caused by not pinning the fabric together and the case looked all nutty (2nd step- lame, I know).