Pencil Holder Tutorial

The pencil holder is a perfect gift for any child who loves to draw, and it has been one of the long time staples in our family. Each of my kids has one. It’s great for keeping the little one busy in the car or airplane, or while waiting at the office. It fits easily inside a purse or a diaper bag, so it will be ready when you need it.

Use thick 100% wool felt made from sheep’s wool to make the pencil holder extra durable.
You need 2 rectangles: one 15″X9″ and one 15″X3.5″ for the pencil pockets, plus any necessary wool felt for applique.

If you want the outside of your holder to have any applique make it now on your big piece. Cut out the paper design and pin the pattern to the wool felt. Cut out the felt in the pattern design by following the edge of the pattern.

Place the applique on the lower right side of your big piece and blanket stitch with a cotton thread around the applique shape. I used a matching white cotton thread.

You can add some ornaments for more holiday glitz using tiny running stitches with a contrasting thread.

When you’re done with the applique, take the small rectangle and place it on top of the wrong side of the big piece.  Pin them together to keep in place. Blanket stitch with a contrasting thread all the way around the outside 1/8″ from the edge. Fold in half a 24″ piece of ribbon and insert 1/2 ” of a folded end on the right edge between two layers of wool felt. You can make a button and a loop instead of the ribbon if you’d like.

Divide the length by how many pockets you’ll need for the pencils. I made 10 pockets, each for two pencils.

Find the midpoint of the pocket rectangle at 7.5″ and mark the middle line. Then make a line  every 1.5″, until you draw all 9 lines. Sew nice straight lines from the top of pocket to edge of fabric using a backstitch. If you’re using a thick wool felt, you can easily avoid harming the applique on the other side by going through only half of the thickness with your needle. Remember to do a couple of extra back stitches at the beginning of each row to reinforce.

Finally it is ready for the pencils!