Make It! Monday: "Little Letter" Needle Book

I found a tutorial at KellyRachel.com (via Pinterest) for making a "Little Letter Needle Book" (it's a needle book that looks like a little envelope). I've been wanting to make myself a new needle book for awhile. The one I have is functional, but it's pretty plain and not really cute or pretty. (The outside is a "blah" navy-blue vinyl plastic with a piece of grey felt on the inside...I won't even bore you with a picture.)

This was the perfect project for me to use the sock monkey fabric I got from the thrift store!

I was most excited to use the sock monkey fabric for the "stamp". I would have liked the lines to be more evenly spaced (the fact that the top line is further up kind of bugs me a bit)...but, hey, this was my first attempt.

The back view of the envelope.

My pinking shears are kind of old and not the best for cutting fabric...so the edges of the "stamp" are a bit wonky.

I also used the sock monkey fabric to line the inside...

I used sew-on snaps for the closure, but you could also use velcro or even a button. I kind of wish I'd done a button closure...but I wasn't confident in my use of my sewing machine's button-hole function. I may practice a bit and re-do the closure with a button/button-hole later.

This is a great gift idea for anyone who sews! I'm looking forward to making more! Although I'd like to try making bigger ones. The template makes a pretty small "letter" (about 3 inches long), but if you wanted a bigger one, you could always open up a regular envelope and use that as a template. I want to experiment with making a bigger one that I can tuck a small pair of scissors into, or even one for crochet hooks (or a dual one for both needles and crochet hooks!).

I showed the one I made to my friends Tricia and Rachel on Saturday. They are the girls behind Primele and Fawnsberg and are into letters, letter-writing, and stationary. Rachel asked me to make one for her and gave me some fabric she wanted me to use. I'm using the same cream, canvas fabric for the outside...the green will be for the lining inside the envelope... and the orange flowered fabric is for the stamp. (I want to get some new pinking shears first though!)