Crafting Faux Leather Keychains: Simple & Fun Tutorial!

 

Green embroidered trim keychain 

Hello,

I've been a little bit under the weather in the past week. February weather is chilly and dry in here. This is the time when you feel warm and cold at the same time! 

I made a few keychains for orders a few weeks ago and took photos and videos as I go along. So this time let's learn making keychain using faux leather! 

If you're in India, you can purchase high quality faux leather from furnishing shop. There a few online too but in local shop, you might be able to purchase their sample pieces at a reduced price. 

Materials: 

- Faux Leather 2" x 12" 

- Embroidered lace 1" x 12" 

- Key fob - 1" wide 

- Pliers 

- Fabric glue (optional)

- Size 16 needle

- Teflon foot

Let's start:

1. Cut the faux leather and lace according to the measurement mentioned above. For keychain I would recommend a high grade sofa leather, because it's more durable! I have tried using cheaper one and not happy with the result. 

2.  Mark and draw a line at the center of the faux leather. Then fold the edges to the center and pin using wonder clips. DO NOT use pin. You can use alligator hair pins or paper clips too. 

3. Using a teflon foot, sew along the edges of the faux leather with 1/8" seam allowance from the center. 

It should look like this when finished and the width should be 1" wide.

4.  Now carefully place the embroidered lace in the sewn faux leather panel. The lace should be placed on the side where the raw edges are sewn. Secure with wonder clips and top stitch carefully along the sides. 

The front side

The back side should look like this. 

5. Put the short end together and sew with seam allowance of 1/8". Back stitch at the beginning and end. Then apply fabric glue (optional). I like to use the glue to add additional strength and it also work great to prevent the lace edge from reveling. 

6.  Install the key fob carefully and use key fob pliers to finish it. If you don't have key fob pliers, you can use any wide mouth pliers and cover the key fob with thickish fabric (flannel or scrap batting worked best!). I have key fob pliers but the rubber came off :D. 

Yay! Your keychain now is done and ready to use. 

Here are some keychains I recently made! They look so fancy, right? These keychains are available in my WEBSITE as well as in my ETSY SHOP. 

Faux leather keychain with embroidered lace

You can watch the short video tutorial on my YouTube Channel below: 

I hope  you enjoy the tutorial, until next time - Happy Crafting!

Elvira

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A Few Passport Wallets

Disney Passport Wallet

I just finished making this the cute Mickey Mouse family passport wallet. It's been on my WIP boxes for months waiting to be sewn and finally it's now ready and listed in the shop! The fabric is licensed Disney fabric I bought from my trip to Japan a couple of years ago. I bought a few Disney fabrics and my regret is I only bought half yard each! LOL. Come to think of it, I think I better start cutting and making something with those fabrics! 

Cute Family Travel Wallet

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I am trying to building my ready-to-ship stocks in the shop, especially for bigger and more complicated projects. I cut and prepped so many wallets and keep them in separate bins. And when I am done with my custom orders, I pick up one project and finish it. 

When I'm working on a custom order, I usually cut a few more of the same project. Sometimes, I cut 2 or even a dozen more, depending on how complex the project is. By cutting out extra projects, I will always have ready-to-sew projects available to quickly sew when I don't have a custom order.

Making wallets is time-consuming. However, if I prepare several projects at once, I can save a lot of time, energy, and money. I use a sublimation heat press to iron the interfacing, which makes preparing multiple projects efficient and practical. Cutting fabrics, interfacing, and ironing is sometimes a full-day job. My heat press was definitely worth the investment!

Here are a few passport wallets I made recently: 

Musical theme passport holder I recently sent to Canada. I hope it will reach in good time. I am worried because of Canada Postal service frequently have disruption. 

Musical theme family passport wallet

Lots of space for all travel documents

MORE FAMILY PASSPORTS HOLDER

These Safari Wallets was order from a friend here in India. She wanted to gift them to her son and her friend who is a travel buff! She chose the same fabrics but with different combo. I still have enough fabric to make more wallets, so I put them up for custom order in the shop now. 

Travel Passport Wallets

Spacious Travel Wallet

MORE SAFARI TRAVEL WALLETS

The Safari Passport Wallet is perfect for solo travelers. It's compact and can hold a lot of stuff. I personally love this when I travel solo. It has a lot of space for passports, cards, money, ID card, pen holder, and extra spaces for other travel documents. 

That's all for today, thank you for stopping by! 

Happy Sunday,

Elvira

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Here's the link to the patterns. 

Use coupon CVG 20 to get 20% OFF 

So many pouches

Trapeze Zipper Pouches

This week is all about pouches! Not your regular zipper pouches but the FUN nested pouches, the kind that you cannot make just one. At least for me! 

It's been a while since I make this trapeze zipper pouches. I usually make only one size, but this time I made more. 

First is the black and white set, it was a custom order and I decided to make 2 full set. The customer asked for only 3 sizes. For the whole 4 sets, I only need 1/3 yard of each exterior fabric, lining fabric, interfacing and batting. I used cotton batting here and of course zipper of your choice. I used metal zipper to give a rustic look. 

Trapeze Zipper Pouch 

Then I decided to make another set in this pretty leaf fabric. It's a digital cotton fabric I got from local shop a few months ago. I only bought 1 yard, maybe I will ask them if they still have a few yards in stock. I really love it. 

Trapeze Pouch 

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I really like using these trapeze zipper pouches to store things like pencils, crochet hooks, reading glasses, and wrist watches.  I think they’re super versatile and you can do so much with them. As much as I love my bags, I've also made them as gifts for friends and family. If you're looking for a quick and easy sewing project, I highly recommend making these. The pattern includes 2 video tutorials for making quilted pouch and faux leather pouch. 

 

Cute Lipstick Holder

Specs Case

Extra Large Pouch 

Crochet Hook Holder

And look, I got new heat transfer label!! I've been looking for this kind of label. You can find all sorts of fancy labels, even in small quantities these days. Sometimes they’re expensive, but if you’re like me, then anything is better than nothing! I ordered some multicolor ones and I think I'll get black and white later on. They stick great, and all I have to do is iron them. A decade ago I have to order from Indonesia for my labels in a small quantity. I even tried making my own label like in HERE and HERE (this is like 15 years ago!!)

New Label!! What do you think? 

These handmade pouches are now available in my Etsy Shop and also my Webshop. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Happy Sewing!

Elvira

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Quilted pencil pouches and more

Custom made quilted pencil bags

Finally these pencil pouches are done and delivered! I love to gift handmade stuff to family and friends. Few weeks ago I gifted a quilted pencil pouch to my friend's daughter and she called up a few days later placing order for 5 pencil pouches. Apparently her daughter's friends wanted one too. Alhamdulillah! 

She leaves it up to me for the fabric choice, so I went ahead and made 7 pouches. Actually I started with 8 pouches but I cut one a little but wonky so I cut and made a small coin pouch with it! 

These pencil cases measured about 8" W x 4" H. It's perfect size for pencils and other stuff too, like crochet hooks and spectacles! It's multi purpose. It's fun and easy projects to make. I made a work flow video HERE when I was making the previous pencil pouches. 

To make this pencil quilted pouch, here's what you need:

Exterior fabric - 9" x 5" - cut 2 

Lining Fabric - 8.5" x 4.5" - cut 2

Batting - 9" x 5" - cut 2 

Lightweight fusible interfacing 9" x 5" (only if you are using lightweight fabrics- optional)

9" long all purpose (size 3) zipper. 

If you want to make Non quilted version, you can skip the batting and use all purpose fusible woven interfacing instead. 

For the construction, please refer to THIS VIDEO of making coin purse. Well, quilted pouch takes a little bit of time to make but I find the result is better. 

Quilted Zipper Pouches

I will put these zipper pouches in my Website as well as Etsy for custom order. These pouches make a great birthday party favors too, don't you think? 

Last week of January highlights: 

Made linen Kodomo wallet for a repeat customer early this week. 

Alice in Wonderland Wallet

And with the leftovers I made simple coin purses.

Coin Purses

Received a wonderful feedback for the mini keychain wallets
 

Finally added a few hand woven (handloom) cotton fabrics in the shop!

That's all for today, thank you for stopping by!

Happy sewing,

Elvira

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Indigo Patchwork Table Runner

 

Indigo Patchwork Table Runner

This table runner took a bit longer to complete than expected. It's sidetracked so many times because I have to complete other works first and sometimes the mood to quilt is taking vacation! 

Actually I was inspired to make this table runner after cutting fabric bundles for the shop. The bundles are sold out now but I have a few more indigo blue bundles in the shop. For the backing I am using this pretty indigo fabric with white floral. It's just a perfect match. 

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE TABLE RUNNERS

Since the fabrics are hand block printed and some of them are screen printed, I pre washed the patchwork top and the backing before quilting it to get rid of the excess dyes. I used mild detergent and added color catcher too.

The quilting is my all time fave serpentine stitch just like the green patchwork runner in my previous post.  I think serpentine stitch is the most effortless good looking stitch! It's my go to stitch. I am using cotton batting for this table runner too. 

I personally love how this table runner turned out. Especially love the mix of Indian floral and geometric pattern. When arranging the pieces, I try my best to balance dark, medium and light. A friend of mine suggested long ago, to take photos after arranging the pieces and set the photo in black and white to see the color balance. This trick always worked for me. 

Here's a short video of making this table runner. I hope you enjoy it!

I have a few more table runners to quilt. They are all basted and ready, hopefully I will have time (and mood) to quilt at least one next week, if I am not tempted to do other stuff ! 

That's all for today. Thank you for stopping by! 

Happy Sewing and have a nice day!

Elvira

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Video Tutorial for Patchwork Drawstring Bag

Hello,

Finally, the video for making patchwork drawstring bag is up on my YouTube Channel. I just recently realized that I have not make a proper video tutorial for this bag. 

I made and sold a few bags in the past and I always wanted to make more. I have one bag that I always carry whenever I go out. Although it's small but it's pretty spacious to store my basic makeups, and other necessary items. And sometimes, I can just carry it when I run an errand. 

 

After reading Viridan's Blog I was so inspired and decided to sort out my 2.5" scrap bins (I have 2 bins!). Then I found a few 16 patches I made in the past. I am not sure if I wrote about it in this blog, but that got me inspired. The plan was to make scrappy 16 patch every week, but somehow it stopped. I made around 9 blocks and this year Insha Allah I plan to continue. 

I managed to sort it out by color. I kinda like this bins with divider. It's just perfect for the small scraps! 

Here some blocks I made in the past

Finding UFO blocks in your PHD bags is like finding a new treasures and got me excited that I want to complete something small. I was thinking to make placemats or mug rugs, you know something quick, also I want to make video tutorial for my channel. So I decided to make drawstring bag. Well, I ended up making 6 bags!! But instead of using that 16 patches I have already made, I decided to make from scratch, because I want more color-coordinated scraps! 

I also edited the tutorial that I wrote for this bag to make it clearer and added tutorial how to make boxed bottom/square bottom bag. It's easy, fun quick projects to make one afternoon and with small pieces, the bags looks really nice! Here are some more photos I took! 

If you prefer watching video, here's the video tutorial: 

That's all for today. I am so excited to make more happy scrappy stuff this year! What about you? What are you sewing this week? 

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Happy Sewing,

Elvira

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