The Board Marker Ball

Project: The Board Marker Ball

Goals: to try to make a zipper-based case for my board markers

Nikki has an amazing pencil case from an Australian stationary shop which is mainly a zipper with its edges sewn together to form the shape of it. I was inspired, so I decided to try to make one too. Unfortunately, I didn't find a zipper long enough for this project. That might be because I've only been to one sewing material shop and it's TINY. Anyway, I went yesterday morning and got a tape measure, some new thread (purple, for my dress refashion), and two zippers: one for this project, and one for putting in my giant TopShop bag (which I plan to start on tonight).

Here's the zipper I purchased for this project. Because it wasn't long enough to make up the whole pencil case, I needed some fabric to sew in to increase its dimensions.

I decided to go with the skirt I took the tiger lily petals from. I still had quite a bit left and it looked good with the zipper, color-wise.

I thought a good size for the base would be the same size as my Body Shop body butter, so I used it as a template to cut out the base and the top of the case, both of them two-ply to give them more strength.

Then I stitched the circles together.

After pinning the circles to the zipper,

I realized I'd need a patch to connect the base with the part of the zipper that raises up to start circling around, so I cut that out, "measured" it, and attached it to the base. Because I'm winging this project, I have no pattern to go on; I think I should make a pattern for this if I'm going to try it again.

Then I cut a strip of the skirt (two-ply again) to act as the lengthener for the body of the case. I sewed it closed as well.

It took several attempts at pinning it all together to get the shape I wanted (which was not this one).

This is what the strip looked like pinned to the zipper. I was very pleased with this.

Then I realized sewing in a circle is HARD WORK. This is what the base turned out like. Not pretty.

I then stitched the strip onto the zipper. Again, as with the tiger lily and the cardigan, my lack of planning came back to bite me in the ass. I kept making decisions while I was at the sewing machine, which does not go well with sewing a finished product. Here you can see where I went a little snip-happy.

Eventually the case started to take shape.

I liked how it looked from the inside.

The real challenge then came with putting the top on. I almost completely broke Ethel when I hit the plastic bit of the zipper with the needle; the bottom thread was refusing to load. I was heartbroken. But then I thought "What if I change the needle; maybe I broke it." I couldn't see any signs of trauma but thought it was worth a try. Then Ethel was working again! Hurray! I'm going to try with the old needle again next time I sew in case it was just knocked wonky when I hit the zip.

This is how the final product looks in one of the classrooms at Central School. It turned into a sort of ball, which is odd. It looks very much like an eight-year-old made it. Oh well. It does the job. My plan now is to plan and measure and cut and pin* all of the bits I'll need for my zipper-in-the-bag project (which I'll then sew in the morning because it's getting late here and Ethel can be a bit noisy), which I'm hoping will go smoother because it doesn't involve sewing in a circle. Fingers crossed.

* I lost my pin cushion. How, I don't know. Hopefully I'll find it.