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Shibori Trend – DIY Denim Heart Pencil Case

Who doesn’t love a new pencil case? As a child I used to love the ritual of shopping for stationary as part of the back to school routine. Today I am going to share this gorgeous heart pencil case tutorial – combining shibori, upcycling denim and my love of stationary!

I confess to spending far too much time on Pinterest – browsing many inspiring images often sparks ideas. I love the beautiful Shibori style dying images popping up. It’s time to have a go.

My original thoughts were to use denim (you may have noticed I love denim!) using an easily available household dye for light denim, with the plan to try bleaching darker denim another time.

I started with light denim, folding, scrunching, tying then dying in denim navy Dylon dye.

Here are my experiments:

Fabric folded in in half and then pleated as if a fan. This was wrapped round with string.

Fabric folded into squares. Each corner held with a bull dog clips.

Gathering the fabric into a ball, held with rubber bands.

Fabric gathered loosely with a running stitch, then held/ties with rubber bands.

Fabric bunched up and held with rubber bands.

Once dry I played with ideas for hand embroidery to complement the designs. Finally, I made a shibori style denim heart pencil case! I really should make myself a pencil case with the with words printed on Hands Off but it would make no difference, no doubt my pens will soon be borrowed!

Learn how to make upcycled denim pencil cases. The tutorial demonstrates Shibori dye techniques to dye the fabric hearts #DIYPencilcases #pencilcasepattern

If you want more shibori inspiration check out these posts!

How to make a shibori table runner and table mats

How to make a shibori scarf

Shibori Quilt

Shibori inspired denim large floor cushion

Are looking for further ideas for what to do with your old jeans? Check out my 25+ craft ideas for old jeans

I also have a detailed post how to tie dye

Shibori Pencil Case

You will need:

  • Dyed denim, one piece measuring 9 by 5″
  • Two denim pieces of fabric measuring 9 by 5″
  • Two pieces of fabric for lining the pencil case measuring 9 by 5″
  • A navy zip 9″
  • Bondaweb
  • Sharp scissors

To make:

Iron interfacing onto the wrong side of the denim pieces.

Cut out three heart shapes from your denim. I folded the denim in half so I could cut out both sides of the heart at once.

Apply bondaweb to the reverse of the denim, place wrong side of the denim on top of the shibori denim and iron in place.

Hand stitch to embellish the hearts, then machine stitch twice around the heart. This photograph shows a finished heart, a hand stitched heart and the heart as it starts.

Alternatively you can cut out three hearts, bondaweb on top of the main denim bag and embellish.

Now you have finished the decoration of the pencil case its time to sew the zip in.

Place one piece of lining right side up then place the zip long the top edge. Then place the right side down of the denim, edges aligning. Pin, then machine stitch (use a zipper foot) through the three layers.

Fold back and press. Top stitch, this stops the lining becoming caught up in the pencil case zip.

Repeat for the other side of the zip.

Unzip the zip by three quarters. Fold out so the right sides of the lining face each other, and the right sides of the bag face each other. Ensure the zip lies towards the lining.

Stitch round leaving a turning gap along the long edge of the lining.

Turn right sides out, then slip stitch the turning gap on the lining.

Learn how to make upcycled denim pencil cases. The tutorial demonstrates Shibori dye techniques to dye the fabric hearts #DIYPencilcases #pencilcasepattern

Learn how to make upcycled denim pencil cases. The tutorial demonstrates Shibori dye techniques to dye the fabric hearts #DIYPencilcases #pencilcasepattern

This post is linked up at All Free Sewing where you can find thousands of free sewing tutorials.

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Harry Kant

Thursday 30th of March 2017

Wow, very beautiful. You are very skilled. A great idea to re-use broken jean battles.

Harry Kant recently posted Nhan dinh bong da mien phi

June Rostad

Tuesday 7th of February 2017

These pencil cases are super awesome. I have such a hard time finding stuff to make out of my old denim. #Trash2Treasure I pinned & followed your site via RSS :)

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