Linen Pencil Case

Raw edge applique & freestyle stitching

The end of the school year is now only two weeks away here in England and I am still busy sewing.  My latest creation is for a very talented Geography teacher who has just earned a much deserved promotion.

Personalised Linen Pencil Case

The cute pencil sharpener is my favourite part of the design on the front of the case.  

The back features a little globe as a fun nod towards her subject specialism. 

As usual, I had some help from bad jealous kitty. She's looking very guilty in this photo, as well she might....whilst up there she spends her whole time chasing my fingers and the thread as it spins off the spool.  Still at least when she's doing that she's not attempting to eat pins from their pot - A much more dangerous pass-time on her part!  My hair 'style' is courtesy of an old (clean) pair of tights used to tie it into a messy bun thus keeping it out of my way while I sew.  Do ya think it will catch on...?

Anyway, I free-motion stitched most of the applique details using my darning foot with the feed-dog lowered which gave the design that sketch like feel, however I then changed the foot for an open-toed applique foot and raised the feed dogs again.  You can see this foot in the following couple of pictures;

 I wanted to demonstrate that you can still get the 'freestyle effect' even if you do not have the confidence to lower the feed-dog and attempt freehand machine embroidery.  The applique foot simply has a large gap, the 'open-toe', which means you can see exactly where you are stitching.  Just reduce your stitch length and then sew around the applique pieces keeping your needle lowered and lifting the foot to pivot the fabric when you need to go around corners or curves.

Once I was happy with the design I inserted a zip and added a lining  

The whole thing was then squared up and the side seams were joined and voila....

All done!