How To Make A Felt Pencil Case

So you only have a few small felt scraps left and you’d like to sew something easy and quick? Then you are ready for a DIY felt pencil case! Make a simple patchwork and use it to make a colorful back-to-school felt pencil case. So much fun! Here’s an easy sewing tutorial for beginner sewing enthusiasts that will go just perfectly with the super simple sewn notebook tutorial from a while ago.

1) Sew several pieces of felt scraps together to form a long narrow rectangle, actually a stripe. Your choice of colors and forms – creativity at its best!

If you want the pencil case to match any non-standard size of pencils, measure the piece against the pencils before you cut the length. Adjusting the size will in no way affect the making process I’m about to show you below, so don’t shy away from tailoring the dimensions to your needs!

SEWING HOW-TO:

1) You’ll hem one narrow end of the stripe (here, the yellow part). I used a 1/2 inch seam allowance and made two straight stitches to make a firm hem. (Don’t use a twin needle! More on that later.)

2) Fold the rectangle up approximately 6 inches (or measure against the pencils if yours are not a standard size). The tips of the color pencils will peek out from the case when open, like in the photo above. Talk easy-to-find!

3) To make a flap for the felt pencil case, you’ll fold it twice. The photo is kind of self-explanatory. Just make sure the pencil case flap makes an overlap of at least an inch (but preferrably two). If not, you won’t be able to use the button for closing the pencil case.

4) Now, when hemming the flap end, I want you to sew two straight stitches 4 to 6 mm apart – see the photo. You’ll soon see why!

5)Then turn the felt patchwork right-sides-together and sew together the two sides of the pencil case. Straight stitch, easy peasy!

Now, BUTTON HOLE! – we’ll go the easy way 😉 Here’s the reason why you had to topstitch twice when hemming the flap of the pouch:

7) To keep the button hole from stretching, all you need to do is secure both ends of the button hole: Use short straight stitches on a sewing machine or simply make a few handstitches. (The latter will usually take even less of your time than machine stitching.)

8) One last thing to do: Stitch a button onto the case to close the flap. Since this is the last thing you do, it will be totally easy to test where the best place for the button is. No measuring, just close the pencil case flap and see where you need it. Bamm! You’ve nailed it!

You’ve just made your own, unique back-to-school felt pencil case. Easy, quick and fun, in these cheerful colors! Now it’s yours to decide whether to keep it to yourself or to give it as present. But you can always keep this one and make a few new ones to give away 😉

The best thing is, this project is not limited to pencils. You can sew a case like this one to hold any other item, like a calculator, or a notebook (you know, those tiny cute notebooks – kids love to get one as a back-to-school present). It would also make a great sunglasses case!

Want more tutorials + patterns?