Making the World Cuter with Twelve Crafts till Christmas

I am on Maternity Leave from September 4th-October 12th: This post was contributed by Elizabeth at Twelve Crafts till Christmas.

Howdy! This is Elizabeth, over at twelve crafts till Christmas. In January I started working toward the super crazy goal of making ALL my girls' Christmas gifts for this coming Christmas. My little blog is mostly about this journey, but I throw in a few tutorials for other gifts as well. Mostly, I hope to inspire every person who reads my blog to make at least one homemade Christmas gift.

I'll get to the tutorial in a minute, but first here's the story behind the craft. I am really good at misplacing things . . . keys, papers, socks, the TV remote, my children. (Well, that's not true. I've never misplaced my children, but it's not for lack of trying.) If I had a tally for the most often misplaced item it would without a doubt be pens, pencils, highlighters, any sort of writing utensil. (My husband would agree overwhelmingly with this!) For me, the most frustrating moment to lose a pen is when I'm reading a book and need to underline a quote or passage that I'm going to want to reference later. This has been an annoying problem since college when I spent large amounts of time looking for pens and highlighters so that I could study.


This gift idea is the perfect solution to my problem. It's a cross between a page-holder/bookmark and a pen-holder. Check it out and make one for an avid reader, college student, friend or co-worker in your life who is always looking for a pen.


The best part about this project is that it uses supplies you probably already have on hand:

• 2 - 11 x 3.5 inch rectangles of fabric (You may want to vary the length depending on the size of book you are hoping to use this for. These measurements will work for a book from 7 to 10 inches in length.)


• 1 - 4 x 2 inch rectangle in a contrasting color


• 1 button or 2 if you want to try to make this for very different sized books


• 1 - 23 inch strip of thin elastic

1) Take 4 x 2 piece and fold in 1/8 inch so that wrong sides are touching on both long sides and one short side. Iron. Double fold remaining short side and iron.

2) Sew the edge of the double folded side.

3) Sew three sides of small piece on the top 11 x 3.5 piece leaving the double fold side open at the top. This is the pen holder.

4) Sew button on below pen holder.

5) Fold the elastic and sandwich it in between the two 11 x 3.5 right sides together. Sew around outside edge leaving an inch or two open to turn.

6) Clip corners and trim edges.


7) Turn so that right sides are facing out.


8) Fold in opening and sew around edge closing open as you go.


9) Grab a good book, your favorite pen and start reading.

Stop over at twelve crafts for more homemade gift inspiration and . . .


craft on!

Thanks Tiffany for letting me hang out here while you are on maternity leave!