Keep your pens and pencils safe with this creative and colourful pouch

What you need...

• Fabric: Fancy Free, Riley Blake; plain, pink; white
  
• Wadding, quilt, lightweight
  
• Thread, embroidery, various colours
  
• Zip, 25cm
  
• Tailor's chalk

instructions

1. Cut 11 strips from different fabrics, 3cm x 12cm. Sew them together with a 5mm seam allowance and press to make a striped panel. Trim plain white, 6cm x 24cm, and stitch to the top edge of the panel. Mark triangles at the top of each stripe to represent pencil nibs using tailor's chalk. Zig zag stitch along the lines, before cutting away the excess white fabric to leave a row of points.
   
   
   
   
   

2. Trim pink fabric, 8cm x 24cm, and position behind the pencil tips. Pin and sew the tips to the background with straight stitch, 2mm from the edge. Press the appliqué and square up the panel to 18cm by 24cm. Pin to lightweight wadding and sew along the seam lines to quilt the design. Use three strands of coloured embroidery thread to sew satin stitch across the tip of each pencil.

3. Cut three pieces of fabric, 18cm x 24cm: two pink and one patterned. Trim two scraps, 3cm x 6cm, fold in half and tack over each end of the zip for a neat finish. Take one rectangle of pink fabric, lay the zip face-up along the top edge and place the appliqué panel face-down on this. Stitch along the top edge close to the zip before folding the fabric right side out.
   

4. Position the remaining pink lining piece and patterned outer in the same way on the other side of the zip and repeat, resulting in the zip and top raw edges all being hidden. Open the zip slightly and fold the two outer pieces right sides together. Sew around all three edges, including the raw ends of the zip end. Pin the liners together and sew around all three sides, leaving a 10cm gap along the bottom seam.

5. Place your hand inside the liner to open the zip completely and turn the entire case out through the gap. Fold in the raw edges and slip stitch closed, before popping the lining inside the appliqué outer and closing the zip.