Cute Gift: Handmade Sewing Kit

Here is a cute little sewing booklet you can whip up in an hour for any of your girlfriends. This would make a nice gift for a daughter attending a prom or a bride to be as well. You only need a few supplies to make this project:

Supplies

Canvas (natural 100% cotton duck)

Gesso: Pro Art *Note: I tinted the gesso with pink glimmer mist for the cover.

Stamps: Pink Persimmon (Vintage Girl & Cute as a Button sets)

Ink: Versafine (Onyx Black-Pigment)

Other: Button, velcro dots, scrap fabric, ink refill, paint brush, heat tool, iron, sewing machine, scissors, cardstock scrap, hot glue & glue gun, glue stick

Finished size: 3″x3.5″ (closed)

Directions: Paint several scraps of canvas (6″x8″) with gesso and let dry. You can tint the gesso with dye based reinkers if desired. I added pink ink to the cover but left the other gessoed canvas (for the pockets) white. The Gesso will make the canvas easier to stamp and make it more rigid and will reduce fraying. Cut 2 pieces of raw canvas 3″x5″ for the inner pages and set aside.

Once the canvas is dry cut a 3″x5″ scrap of cardstock and center it on the back side of the cover piece of gessoed canvas, tack it down with a glue stick. Lay a scrap of pretty fabric on top of the cardstock making a sandwich and tack that down as well. Iron the sandwich and straight stitch with your sewing machine along the edge (but not through) the cardstock. Use decorative fabric shears to trim 1/4″ from the stitching. this is the cover. Make a tab closure by sewing a tube of scrap fabric that is closed at one end (sew it right sides together) then turn it right side out, tuck under the raw edge and sew it.

Center the pages you cut earlier on the inside cover and straight stitch down the middle. Now you can stamp on the cover of the book and on any pages you wish. Be sure to heat set everything you stamp with a heat gun so the ink does not smudge!

To make pockets simply cut rectangles of gessoed canvas, stamp them and hot glue them on 3 sides to a page to make a pocket. Pin safety pins, sewing needles and straight pins to the un-gessoed (raw canvas) pages in the book. Hot glue in spare buttons, don’t worry, they can be pulled off if mending is needed! Add scissors, snaps, thread and any other sewing essentials. You can buy a sewing kit from the dollar store or repurpose a hotel sewing kit for this project.

To make the closure I used velcro dots on the tab and cover. I glued a button on the tab to make it look like it has a button closure, pretty tricky, huh.

To make this a special gift for a bride or a prom-goer add a bobbin of thread to match their gown. It will truly be a cherished keepsake! Here is a peek at the stamps I used on this project:

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!