Making A Pen Case

[Anne-Sophie]

It is really a beautiful piece, you outdid yourself Michael!

[my63]

Thanks Anne-Sophie

As always I appreciate your comments I am very proud of the black and yellow case it is one of my best cases yet.

[my63]

I am having some issues with my hands at the moment and am unable to work in the way I would like so I am messing around with some ideas that have formed in my head for sometime.

The black and yellow case was the first of these projects and is almost finished now the final thing is to get the edges to a point where I am happy with them as soon as I am able I will finish it.

 

I have looked around the market place and all of the cases look similar even my own are along familiar lines and to be honest quite masculine I am not going into detail as it is just my opinion

 

So I decided I wanted to make a handbag style pen case it is not going to be huge and will hold about 10 pens.

 

Please engage your imagination any questions please ask

 

Here is my first model the idea is to have a triangle shape inside with the pen slots either side and the bag shaped around that

 

DSC_0118[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

DSC_0120[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

I spent ages making the corners pointy but really didn't like it much at all. I started to think rounded corners would be better.

 

DSC_0128[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

All of the detail is on the blog but I started with some grey board there are two large pieces shaped which form the triangle for the pen slots

 

DSC_0129[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

DSC_0130[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

Here you can see the front and back have been added and the inside view gives an idea of where the pens would live.

 

DSC_0132[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

Thinking about this project this morning I realised I went off track (which does happen) and instead of following the triangle theme I reverted to a possible pouch style bag. This is much larger than I had planned I think I will pull this apart and modify the model to bring it back on track.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Michael

[scrivelry]

Very sorry to hear that your hands are bothering you, Micheal - wishing you healing from here!

 

It is always fascinating and a real privilege to see how your projects evolve. I am quite certain I am not understanding the triangle part of the whole business, and I enjoy knowing that it will all come clear to me in time as you work the idea out and document it pictorially as you do so well.

 

I'm sure I am not speaking only for myself when I say your photos and explanations are appreciated by your public, and that we are waiting to see what you do next. Thank you for all the trouble you take with the photographs and explanations which enable us to follow along.

[majolo]

I think this is a really great design idea, and look forward to seeing it realized. I am always impressed by your work.

[my63]

Hi Scrivelry

Thanks for your good wishes and your kind comments all appreciated.

I hope to make things clear in the coming posts.

@ Majolo the models in the previous posts were not what I was looking for at this time although I may come back to the larger one in the future.

 

Let me try to explain what I am looking for 60 mm wide at the bottom tapering equally on each side to about 10 mm at the very top where a zipper will provide closure. The top will be curved and there will be a handle on each side the handles will be quite long so when the bag is open the two sides will separate to show the cardboard triangle which supports the leather panels that hold the pen slots.

 

DSC_0138[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

DSC_0140[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

DSC_0135[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

I cut this down from the largest model and here it is sitting on its base my next issue is the rounded edges which are too round.

Rather than using this which I have another idea for (I will come back to that later)

 

DSC_0159[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

I hope that the above picture shows the triangular nature of the inner piece it will stand up on its own base and will be covered in leather to which to pen slots will be attached this base will then be attached to the base inside the bag.

 

The observant of you may have noticed that I have set the edges back by 10 mm to allow the leather to be folded over.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Michael

[my63]

Time to start making the leather pen slots that will cover the support piece. I cut a piece of leather wider than required and marked 10 mm down from the top and made four holes in which I put a piece of thread this will give me a line to work to once the slots are finished I will simply trim the edges and lose the thread.

 

DSC_0184[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

I glued the first edge but did not sew it I will do this before fitting which will allow me to fit the two edges last and get an even result.

 

DSC_0185[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

DSC_0190[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

As you might be able to tell it was daylight when I started and night time when I got to this point I am very slow at the moment.

 

I need to decide if I am going to add more slots on the other side or make a pocket for a notebook it will take a 7 x 5 inch notebook.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Michael

[my63]

I eventually decided to make another set of pen slots for the other side as this leather was too thick to wrap around the edges I decided to use the pink I used inside the phone pocket.

 

DSC_0218[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

After a little stretching and gentle persuasion I found out I only needed six slots.

 

DSC_0229[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

I attached the pen slots and their support structure to one of the bases I had cut earlier the second base is inside the bottom section

 

DSC_0228[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

DSC_0195[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

The two identical bases are attached to the relevant sections and they will be fixed together when the outside pieces are attached to the base. that sounds very complex but it will become clear as we progress to that stage

 

DSC_0232[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

Thanks for looking

 

Michael

[my63]

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes my hands have improved over the last ten days I am going back to hospital tomorrow so I hope to have the splint off then which will be good.

 

If anyone is interested the black and yellow case will be finished by the weekend and will be advertised in the classifieds then.

The case is a one off and there are no plans to make another in that style.

 

Thanks again

 

Michael

[my63]

Here are the two outside pieces I have had to remake one of them as it was a little too small.

 

DSC_0237[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

I have just marked out the holes for the handles and the outer cover.

This is the inside of the outer cover if that makes sense

 

DSC_0240[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

The inner part of the cover will not go all of the way down as the lowest part has to fold over to join to the base so it needs to be quite thin. I will also be thinning all of the edges where the sides join together as there will be four pieces of leather.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Michael

[Anne-Sophie]

Very happy that you are feeling better Michael!

 

The new design is probably the most intricate yet, such talent!

[my63]

Thanks Anne-Sophie my left hand has improved.

 

In my last update I showed a trial fit of the inside of the outer cover at that point I realised that I was not happy with the edges of the cream leather met the pink leather. To improve this I have added some pink leather piping.

 

DSC_0245[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

The outer cover is made from four pieces of leather two inside and two outside they are joined together at the zip in the first instance I will glue them together eventually.

 

Here are all of the components together for the first time the zip is sewn in place as well as the handles.

 

DSC_0255[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

The phone pocket in detail

 

DSC_0256[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

Thanks for looking

 

Michael

[Anne-Sophie]

Beautiful!

 

I think the front of phone pocket is calling for a pink trim. Just an idea.

 

Thank you for sharing!

[my63]

Thanks Anne-Sophie what sort of trim were you thinking of ?

I think I might be about to remove the handles to add some pink to cover the joint on the inside of them, I could just glue it to the inside of the handles.

But that would be easy

[my63]

When I said there was something wrong with the handles this is what I was talking about when I folded the leather over to form the handle there were a couple of small areas where the two edges did not meet.

 

DSC_0253[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

In order to fix this I decided to cut the handles off and add some thin pink leather to the underside of the handles. I cut the strips and used a bone folder to pre crease the fold lines.

 

DSC_0258[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

After many hours of folding and gluing the first handle is now re attached and I am happy with it.

 

DSC_0260[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

Thanks for looking

 

Michael

[my63]

I could not leave the handles unfinished so I guess I am back to where I started this morning both handles sewn in place

 

DSC_0264[1] by my0771, on Flickr

[my63]

Once I was happy with the handles the next step was to fit the base to the bag to help with this and to cover the joins on the sides I made two small covers and sewed them in place. These covers acted as guides to the fitting of the base I used them to draw a line around the inside of the bag. I used this to mark out the stitching holes.

 

This picture shows the half way point.

 

DSC_0268[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

Stitching finished and excess trimmed off.

 

DSC_0271[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

The turning point literally. The inner piece of the outer cover does not go right to the bottom because the outer cover needs to fold over on itself so the thinner the better.

 

DSC_0273[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

If anyone ever tries anything like this please remember to open the zip before you finish sewing the base in place. DOH !! it took almost an hour to open the zip from the inside without access.

 

When I did get inside I pulled the base through the hole this was made easier by the fact that I had used thinner grey board and it was able to bend to get through the smaller hole,

 

DSC_0276[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

Now the bag was the right way around I glued and fitted the pen carrier in place.

 

DSC_0278[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

DSC_0282[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

Just a couple of edges to finish and it is done.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Michael

[my63]

I thought you might like to know the black and yellow case is listed in the classifieds section.

[my63]

This afternoon I spent a few hours cleaning some of my favourite pens I call them my "D" pens three Delta's and a Danitrio.

 

DSC_0291[1] by my0771, on Flickr

 

Do you think they look comfortable.

[Anne-Sophie]

Both cases are beautiful!

 

They will make great gifts!