Disclaimer: I don't sew and I don't have a sewing machine but when my boyfriend needed a pencil case for his design course, I decided to rise to the challenge. I was like yeh! I can totally make a pencil case, it'll be easy! You just sew 3 sides of 2 pieces of rectangular cloths together and slap a zip on then turn it inside out, right? It'll be simple and quick!
Surprisingly, I got everything I needed from good old Daiso:
♡ Denim Cloth
♡ A pack of colorful thread
♡ Needle set + Threader
♡ Pins
♡ "Find Pleasure" Tag (in a pack of 3) - I thought these were hilarious and so very Japanese
♡ Cloth cutting scissors
♡ Dressmaking chalk pencils (set of 2)
♡ Unpicker
♡ Plastic Box with compartments to put all the sewing stuff in
♡ Zips (1 pack of 5 which I didn't end up using)
The denim cloth was so worth the $2.80 because it was a massive piece of material. It was really easy to work with and dense enough for it to be durable.
Because I had never made anything like this, I made a mock pencil case with the zip and it was too simple and I didn't like it. I wanted to do some embroidery on it too and I was worried the thread would get caught with the contents of the pencil case.
So I took inspiration from a makeup brush roll. I literally just measured it out with a ruler and marked all the appropriate spots where the stitching would go, pinned it and hand-sewed it using the most basic hand stitches!
- I stitched all the pen slots first, leaving the sides and the bottom while I did my bunny embroidery on the outside of the pencil roll.
- I also embroidered another 2 bunnies on a separate patch and sewed that on as a pocket on the inside.
- For the strings that tie up the pencil roll, I simply folded 2 long and thin bits of the denim cloth and closed it up with a blanket stitch.
- Then to put everything together, I started sewing from the left down, all along the bottom and up the right side, attaching the strings I made as I go. Also, in the process, hiding the back of the embroideries.
The little critters I hand-stitched onto the pencil roll are bunny characters called Mofutans from San-X. I'm obsessed with them. My boyfriend and I text on an app called "Line" which is a Japanese/Korean version of Whatsapp with adorable stickers and predictive emojis (hilarious and amusing). We always use the Mofutan stickers with each other so I wanted to include it on the pencil roll even though its a bit girly. The bunny on the outside of the roll is supposed to be a sleepy Mofutan. And the ones on the inside are meant to be one nibbling the other one. You may remember them from this post because they are on my makeup bag!
They're bunnies inspired by a Japanese dessert called "Mochi" - which is a sweet glutinous rice cake with a stretchy consistency and it normally has a filling too. I'm probably doing a terrible job of describing it haha, but they are delicious and super cute. When you're eating it, it's like biting into a cloud of happiness. Here's a photo for reference:
So the Mofutans are essentially... stretchy, soft and lumpy bunnies LOL
I love bunnies and I love mochi so this is one of my favorite cartoon characters ever!!!
Check out this adorable video that the brand released:
And voilà, bit of a spontaneous project but I actually really enjoyed it. I found all my art stuff from high school recently and I realised that I used to love creating things. Arts, craft and drawing and I've kind of lost touch with it all. Now that I have put together a little sewing kit, maybe I will push myself to try and make more new things in the future. I really missed being creative
I didn't really have a plan for this pencil case but I'm so happy with how it turned out!
Do you have a passion/talent that you've long neglected?
=('.')=
chloé
