Make a gift that teachers (and moms and aunts) will love! A sweet little cover for those purse packs of tissues!
You know how how that little packet of tissues keeps getting destroyed in your purse? I am going to date myself here, but it’s like Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner) on Saturday Night Live used to say about that piece of toilet paper that would get stuck on the bottom of your shoe in a restaurant. “It’s that little piece of paper and you keep walking around with it and it’s picking up lint and hair, and you just keep draggin it around…”
Well somehow the little tissues in your purse end up doing the same. They escape from the package and wreak havoc! Pretty soon there’s little pieces of stuff stuck to them and then they get stuck in the zipper and then there’s shards of them everywhere. Then, God forbid, someone asks you for a tissue and you hand them a disgusting, crumpled, torn, dirty thing that you assure them is ok to use. Right.
Happily, this little project solves all of that! Truly it does! I’ve had a cute one in my bag for about a year, and it works great. Mine is orange so I can easily find it in any outpost of my handbag. : )
You don’t even need a sewing machine for this, so it makes a wonderful thing for even the littlest well-wishers to make a super handmade gift! (And feel great about doing it!)
Here’s what you need:
- A pretty piece of felt. They often come in sheets of 9″ x 11″ and I prefer a wool or a wool/rayon blend for maximum durability.
- 7″ of ribbon trim
- 1 small piece of Craf-tex or heavyweight craft interfacing
- scissors, thread, needle, and/or sewing machine.
- boltandspool tissue pack pattern Can you believe it? Another lousy hand-drawn pdf file! New Year’s resolution: learn Adobe Illustrator/In-Design/Photoshop.
Cut out the pattern.
Cut the interfacing about 1/4″ smaller than the bottom piece as pictured.
Pin the ribbon to one Top Piece along the un-notched edge leaving just more than 1/4″ on each side. Fold these little tails over to the other side and stitch the ribbon in place. This is Sue Spargo’s “Tiny Birds” ribbon.
Pin the notches together matching A to A, B to B on each Top Piece. Stitch by hand or machine 1/8″ from the edge. (Personally, I think it looks better hand stitched.). Trim all threads so it looks tidy!
Pin Top Piece without the ribbon to the bottom piece matching up the corners and edges.
Pin Top Piece with the trim to the other half of the bottom so that the two overlap. Match all corners and edges.
Stitch all the way around by hand or machine. If sewing by machine, you need to pivot around the corners with your needle in the down position! Flip the gusset toward you as you approach the corner and then away from you once you pivot. You can use a zig zag or blanket stitch on your machine in a fun contrasting color. Use a matching thread if you are new to sewing as it is more forgiving.
Insert the Craft-tex and then a fresh new pack of purse tissues! And you’re done! Sniff, sniff. : (
The little penguin ribbon can be found here.