Love Fridays ... and pencil rolls

I Love Fridays! They mean the weekend is coming up soon, and that means …. more pencil rolls! I’m hooked on pencil rolls right now.

Here is my first one ever. It’s very young – only six days old. I just made it on the weekend. Isn’t it cute?

It's super-easy to do, you just need two contrasting fat quarters, interfacing, some bias tape, and a ribbon.

I got the idea from Swede-Heart, whose pencil roll was featured on the sewmamsew blog. For those who aren’t familiar with Sew Mama Sew, let me just say that this is an incredible achievement. They are very selective with the items and photos they feature – it’s a real honour.

And I looked at this pencil roll and I thought: that is a simply fantastic idea. I wonder if I could make one of those?

So over the weekend in the Japanese bead shop I selected the beautiful orange, sage and chocolate pinwheel cotton, and up the road at Sew Bright I chose a patterned pumpkin cotton from the Michael Miller Farmer’s Market range. They also had a lovely stripy bias tape which I used to accent the edges.

It’s all straight lines:

1. You cut the fat quarter in half lengthways and seal one piece with interfacing.
2. Take the contrasting fat quarter and cut one third, lengthways. Seal this with interfacing as well.
3. Add your bias tape to the top of the contrasting piece you’ve just sealed. Stitch very close to the edge so that it holds firmly
4. Pin the two half pieces with wrong sides together, then pin the contrasting piece on top
5. Sew all the way around the outside to secure the three pieces together.
6. Cut your ribbon in half. At the right hand side juncture of the contrasting piece and the main body, sew the two ribbon pieces to the very edge of the outside body piece, in the middle. You want to be able to wrap these around the roll so make sure they’re long enough.
7. Measure off your bias tap and pin all the way around the outside, making sure it covers up the join of the ribbon to the main body. Stitch close to the edge
8. Measure out your pencil pockets – I find 2.5 cm is plenty and will fit an 18-pencil set inside. But if you have more pencils, make the pockets smaller
9. Stitch straight lines to form the pockets

Voila! Your pencil roll is complete - and here is the result. I am so pleased with it – thank you so much Swede-Heart!

I made this second one for my niece the Squirrel.

See the cute fabric? – it has squirrels all over it. It’s a Japanese Trefle piece that’s been in my stash for a while and just waiting for the right opportunity.

Happy sixth birthday, Squirrel!