I am beyond thrilled to be posting a project. Sometimes I feel I get so caught up job hunting and keeping a clean house that I lose a bit of my creative juices. I've always wanted to be a little homemaker, and I do a pretty good job. But I need a little 'Janette' spoiling, ya know?
My husband and I are getting ready to go on a quick little trip, and if there is one thing I hate about packing, it is packing makeup. Seriously, can't we just lather on the war paint enough for a few days? No? Well, okay, party poopers.
The reason I love this traveling case is because it lies pretty flat. So it isn't a huge chunky bag taking up valuable space. I used buttons to close the bag on the left, and buttons to close the case all together, and if you would rather use something else, go right ahead. I say this is a win-win project.
Supplies:
1/2 yard of outside fabric, and inside fabric.
1/2 yard fabric for pockets and brush holder (you probably won't use it all, but its better to have extra, ya know?)
6 buttons
2 pieces of 8 X 10 inch felt. I just used two random pieces from my craft stash.
Matching thread
Needles (if you don't know how to make a button hole on your machine, that makes two of us. I made mine by hand.)
Tutorial:
Step 1: Take your felt, and lay it on the fabric you will be using for the inside. Cut fabric surrounding the felt, leaving about 1/2 inch- 1 inch. Press the fabric.
Step 2: Press the edges over the felt, as seen below, and pin in place. Make sure you press all the edges flat. Mine look lumpy because of my pins. Repeat on the second piece of felt.
Step 3: After you have pinned the fabric to the felt, I placed them on my outer fabric, just to get a feel for how it will look. You can skip this step if you so desire.
Step 4: I went around on each corner and marked little point where I would sew, and then pivot.
Step 5: Sew your fabric to your felt. I followed the inner prong arm, as you can see below, pivoting at all the pencil marks.
Step 6: This is what it should look like when you are finished. Mine is lumpy. That's why earlier in Step 2 I said press. What I need to make clear is that you should pull and press, making sure the fabric has no 'saggy' parts.
Step 7: Take your 'pocket' fabric, and one of the long edges over twice, and press flat. Then follow Step 2, pressing the fabric over the edges, and pinning it in place. See the large white pin in the middle? On that side (with the nice rolled hem) do NOT sew it to the felt. Otherwise you will have to unpick it, and no one needs that in their life. Sew just as you did with the original fabric, using the inner prong as your guide.
Step 8: I gathered all the things I thought would fit better in little 'sleeves', and lined them up as so. Then I pinned places where I thought they would fit. *Note: The mascara tubes were a no-go. You'll see why. I have empty 'sleeves' now, and I don't mind.
Step 9: Sew straight down from the top of your hem, to the bottom seam line. They don't need to be totally perfect, because when you put things in them, it just puffs up. My mascara tubes didn't fit. No big deal, they'll go somewhere else.
Step 10: On the right side of my case, I have a large pocket. I estimated how much material I needed, and pressed my white fabric. I also rolled one of the short edges over twice, making sure that my finished hem was 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches wide, and pressed that as well.
Step 11: I used the opposite inner prong to makes the edges on this hem. I also used the brown thread instead of the white, just to give it a little more detail. You can skip that part if you like. After that edge was sewn, I did it on the top of the hem, as you can see below.
Step 12: Both inside pieces should look like this.
Step 13: Pick three of your buttons, and lay them out in the thick hem. Decide how far apart you want them, and mark it.
Step 14: I can't do a button hole on my machine. Mainly because I don't have the right 'feet'. I lost them in the move, so I decided to just wing it, and make them by hand. That pretty much means I cut holes, slightly bigger, and I mean slightly, bigger than my buttons, and hand sewed the loose ends. You can see in the picture on the right just what I mean. It probably isn't as pretty as a machine, but as long as it keeps the stuff from falling out, I'm okay with it. After you have completed your button holes, sew on your buttons.
(Below you can see how I hand stitched them.)
(Now they look like this)
Step 15: After I laid my two pieces down on the outer fabric, I rolled the fabric over (longest sides) and pinned it to the inner pieces. Make sure you press it flat.
Step 16: Now your inner pieces are attached to your outer fabric, the felt pieces move around a bit. I went along the edges of each inner piece, and sewed along the edge, about 3-4 inches long. That keeps it in place.
Step 17: Fold over the extra edge, closest to the buttons. Press the fold. (When you fold the case in half, the ends don't line up evenly, because you just folded one in half.)
Step 18: Take your last three buttons, figure out where you wish to place them, and sew them to the piece we just folded, as shown below.
Step 19: Make three button holes, by machine, or by hand, and you are done! A nice little traveling case for those quick trips. You could also adapt this to your own liking as a jewelry carrier, or anything else you prefer. The possibilities are endless!
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