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Good morning everyone! Today we are opening the eleventh door of the BERNINA Blog Advent Calendar 2024. We are still a little more than halfway through the Advent season. Even though for many of us this time of year is filled with appointments, the end-of-year rush and all sorts of other things, I particularly like the Advent season. And especially when things get stressful, I like to retreat with a little sewing project. Today I have a little sewing project for you: a holo faux leather pencil case. You can either sew it for yourself or give it to someone as a gift. Let’s sew and create some magic!
Do you still know the small round plush pencil cases or leather pencil cases? The ones that everyone loved to have? I no longer have mine from my school days, but I can still remember how much I loved it. Today we want to sew a leather pencil case for ourselves. And because it’s Christmas time, I’m sewing this pencil case from a holo faux leather, which gets even more interesting when you crumple it up and work the material.
Material supplies
What you need for sewing the leather pencil case:
- Holographic Imitation leather
- Endless zipper with a width of 2.5 cm and a length of 26.5 cm
- narrow double-sided adhesive tape
- Sewing thread
- Brackets
Cutting and preparations
The pencil case is sewn unlined, has a final length of 21 cm and a diameter of 5 cm. A seam allowance of 0.75 cm is already included in the cutting dimensions. For the ones of you who know a bit of patterning and prefer full inches, you might want to adjust your size.
- First, I cut a rectangle measuring 22.5 cm wide and 14.7 cm high. Why 14.7 cm? Very simple: the circle we are about to cut out has a diameter of 6.5 cm and we will later sew on a circle diameter of 5 cm. The circumference of a 5 cm circle is 15.7 cm. Since we still want to insert the zipper, use the open faux leather edge and see the zipper 1 cm, the rectangle is cut to a height of 15.7 cm – 1 cm = 14.7 cm.
- Then I cut two circles with a diameter of 6.5 cm. I used my school compass and drew the circle on the back of the Kundstleder.
- Then I cut two small rectangles 1 cm wide and 4 cm long.
Before sewing, the zipper is first glued to the artificial leather.
To do this, I draw two parallel lines to both 22.5 cm long edges on the back of the artificial leather, at a distance of 0.75 cm from the edge. Now stick the double-sided adhesive tape to this edge and then divide the zipper.
Glue one side of the zipper flush to the line or onto the adhesive tape with the right side facing down.
The zipper is intentionally 4 cm longer so that it is easier to thread afterwards. It may therefore protrude 2 cm on both sides.
Take your time gluing on the zipper, as you want it to be nicely even in the pencil case afterwards.
Sew the leather pencil case
Now it’s time to sew. The zipper is topstitched. For this I use the Teflon foot, better known as the Zigzag Foot with Non-Stick Sole #52, set the needle all the way to the right and set the stitch length to 3 mm.
Again, take your time, you will see the seam afterwards and separating and re-sewing artificial leather is no fun and you will see the holes afterwards.
Once you have topstitched both sides, pull the zipper close.
I like to pull it straight through the first time I put it on, because then both sides of the zipper are closed. Check that the zipper is exactly 1,1 cm wide after sewing it in.
Afterwards, however, please pull the zipper back on urgently so that the bag is not accidentally sewn without the zipper. 😉
Now fold each of the two small rectangles in half, clip them over the zipper and sew them in place within the seam allowance. The strips should fit perfectly between the two artificial leather edges.
The whole thing now looks like this and the zipper can be put on for the next step of the leather pencil case.
Now it gets tricky for a moment, because we turn the resulting tube inside out. If you are practiced at zipping, you can also do it from the left so that you don’t have to turn it around.
Mark the quarter points on the circle and the tube with a small clip so that everything comes together properly. We also make several 5 mm deep cuts in the hose. The roll will then fit snugly into the circle. The first circle is now pinned or clipped to the roll – first clip the quarter sections on top of each other and then clip the areas in between evenly. I rarely use the clips, but they were perfect here. I clipped both circles.
Now the circles are made with the Zipper Foot #4 sewn on. This is indeed tricky and requires a little patience.
Every now and then you may need to use tweezers or pliers to hold the two layers of the leather pencil case in position or to bring them back into place. Sew with a stitch length of 2.5 mm and pay attention to the seam allowance of 7.5 mm. By the way, it is easier if the circle is at the bottom and the cut roll is at the top.
When you have both circles in, you can turn the roll over and check whether you have sewn the circles in properly. If this looks good, you can turn inside out again and trim the seam allowances to 2 mm.
Then turn it inside out, fill your leather pencil case and enjoy 🙂 I love how the colors shift, and every dent lets you see the magical play of colors.
Have a wonderful Advent season and enjoy the BERNINA Blog Advent Calendar.
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