Card Pocket for Little Cards

Business cards, gift cards, loyalty cards- they all need a place to go!

With the holidays usually comes an influx of gift cards. How about a cute way to contain them in your bag, along with all those loyalty cards and business cards that accumulate? Here’s a truly easy and fast little pocket tutorial to help you out. It also makes a simple way to present a merchandise card you’re gifting to someone. Made of felt, there’s no need to line it, and you can even use a bit of a felted sweater or felted fabric. Add a couple buttons from the bottom of the button box (they don’t even need to match) and a bit of cording or string, and you’re ready to get started.

If you’re lucky enough to have in hand one of my fold-over business cards, use it as a pattern to help you cut the felt and find the right place for the bottom button.

Here we go!

Materials

• a piece of felt at least 4″ by 9″. You can use purchased felt or it’s especially cute to use a felted sweater or fabric you’ve felted yourself

• two buttons – mine were about 5/8″ in diameter. They don’t have to match, be creative!

• a piece of thin cording, string, pearl cotton, etc, cut to 9″ long

• matching thread and a sewing machine (although you’re welcome to sew it by hand as well. A blanket stitch would be beautiful)

Instructions

1. Cut a rectangle from the felt, 3½” wide and 9” long. If you have my business card, you can use it as a pattern by folding the felt in half, placing the unfolded card on top of the felt so the fold line marked on the card is about ½” away from the folded edge of the felt. Cut around the card leaving the fold of the felt in place. That should give you a rectangle that is 3½” wide and 9” long.

Reuse, Repurpose Notepad Tutorial

Here’s a quick, scrap-busting tutorial for you. I’ve had this idea rolling around in my head for awhile now. You see, in my day job I create print publications, so I generate a lot of scrap paper that’s been run through the printer. As much as possible, I try to print on both sides of the paper before throwing it in the recycle bin, but my pile of half-used paper continues to grow. On the other hand, I never seem to have a piece of paper in my handbag when I need one.

Solution, a little covered notepad that holds quarter sheets of letter-sized paper. And it doesn’t hurt that creating it helped me use up some small scraps of fabric as well!

This super simple project only takes an hour or so to put together, so I made another win with economy of time. Here’s how to whip one up for yourself:

And even though it looks like the pencil pocket is on upside down, it’s done on purpose. The pencil won’t fall out when the cover flap is closed. Clever, eh?

Materials:

Cut from scrap cotton fabric:

5″ by 12.5″ – cut two pieces for cover

5″ by 8.5″ – cut one piece for cardboard stiffener pocket and top gutter to hold paper

2″ squares – cut two pieces to hold bottom corners of paper

2″ by 8″ – cut one piece for a pencil pocket

To stiffen the back so it’s easy to write on, cut two pieces of lightweight cardboard, such as cereal boxes, each 4.25″ by 5.5″.

Directions:

(Excuse my rough drawings, it was sometimes easier to show you by drawing a picture because a photo couldn’t show enough detail.)

Finish one short edge of the pencil pocket, using a zig-zag stitch or a serger.

Press the two long edges of the pencil pocket 1/4″ to the wrong side, then press the top finished edge 1/4″ to the wrong side. Do nothing to the other short edge.

Topstitch the top edge of the pencil pocket.

Press the squares in half diagonally, so they form triangles. Set aside.

With the piece of fabric that’s 5″ by 8.5″, press one short edge first 1/4″ to the wrong side, then another 1 1/4″ to the wrong side.

Stitch close to the folded edge to keep it in place.

Next, press that edge back to the right side 3/4″. This will form an upper “gutter” to hold the paper in place.

To place the pencil pocket in the right place before stitching it down, first lay one of the cover pieces right side up. Lay the cardboard pocket in place on one end and baste it in place with a glue stick. Lay each of the triangle pieces on a bottom corner on top of the cardboard pocket. Baste in place with a glue stick.

Place the pencil pocket diagonally on the upper cover. The bottom of the pocket should just cross the upper right corner. The top of the pocket should end just above the cardboard pocket and stay 1/2″ from the left edge of the cover. See diagram. Baste with a glue stick.

Stitch the two long sides of the pencil pocket to the cover close to their folded edges. The bottom of the pocket will extend beyond the edges of the cover.

Once again lay the cover piece with its pockets right side up. Place the other cover piece on top, right side down. Pin and stitch 1/4″ around all four sides, leaving a 2″ gap along one edge for turning.

I find it easier to get a better looking end result by first opening the seams and pressing them before turning.

Turn right sides out, press, then stitch close to the edges of just the top flap of the notepad.

Tuck the two pieces of cardboard into the large pocket.

Slide scrap paper and a pencil into the holder. Enjoy!

Warm and Cozy, Snuggly and Toasty!

Throughout the month of December, I was seeing encouraging posts full of “last minute” gift ideas. Hah! I don’t consider gift ideas last minute till I hear reindeer hooves stamping on the roof! And in my usual holiday tradition, I came up with this idea on Christmas Eve. I had been glancing through one of my knitting books, Linda Guy’s And So To Bed..., and came across her beautiful hand knitted hot water bottle cozy. It reminded me that I wanted to make some of these for the kids years ago but never got around to it.

Inspiration struck. Obviously I had no time to pick up my knitting needles, but I did have some old wool sweaters in my sewing stash… I grabbed my keys and ran off to Walgreens around the corner to buy a couple of classic pink rubber water bottles, then back to my sewing nook to rummage through my stuff. Less than two hours later and, whalaa! Two more presents under the tree.

The sweaters belonged to my husband, so there’s a little additional connection there for my kids. I was able to use just the sleeves on both sweaters, using the ribbed cuffs for the top edge. The ribbing allowed plenty of stretch to get the empty water bottle nestled inside. The appliques came from scraps of felt I had. The moon design for my daughter came from the book. My son, now 21, has never outgrown Superman, so a quick Google search for the Superman logo yielded something I could copy for his present. I love it when a (last minute) plan comes together!

Sorry I don’t have better photos of the finished cozies, but I was too tired to take photos right after I made them, and the next day, right after we unwrapped our gifts, I only had a quick minute to snap a few shots before my kids both grabbed their cozies, filled them with hot water, and sauntered off to their rooms for a ceremonial nap. Teenagers: never too awake to sleep.

If you’d like to pull together one (or a few) of these quick cozies for yourself, feel free to download a very rudimentary pattern here or below. Hopefully, you can use a ribbing cuff or hem for the top edge, then that edge is finished for you. Use a 3/8″  seam on the other edges – a serged edge would be great, but a zig zag edge will do to cover the edges. If you have the time, first put the sweater through a hot water wash and a hot dryer to full (felt) it. Then the edges won’t ravel and it’s wonderfully cozy to cuddle with. I’ve made a habit of doing this before I add the sweater to my up-cycle stash. That way I’m ready for any last minute inspiration!

Get it HERE

Best Pattern Tracing Paper Ever

Let me just say it. I’m cheap. I love the thrill of finding a bargain. So when I discovered a cheap supply of pattern tracing paper (I trace/create a lot of patterns), I latched onto some.

Composition Notebook Cover – PDF Pattern

As promised, here’s the pattern for creating a cover for a standard composition notebook. I love the classic feel of the notebooks with their stiff covers and stitched binding, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t benefit from a little dressing up! Covers give you a nice way to keep pens and misc. notes together with the book. I have a whole stack of these notebooks filled with creative doodles and ideas- I try to keep at least one close at hand at all times.