In this Instructable I will show you how I made a pencil case from an old pair of jeans and give tips as to how you can make you own and ideas of how to further personalize your pencil case.

Step 1: Items Needed

The following items are needed:

-Old pair of jeans (or other old piece of clothing, doesn't need to be jeans)
-Scissors
-Sewing needle or sewing machine (I used a needle but I would recommend using a sewing machine)
-Some kind of fastener (zipper, velcro, buttons or presstuds)

The following items are not needed but may be useful:

-Tape measure
-Pen or pencil
-More material (this could be used to make a patch to personalize your case or add an inside lining)
-Rubber stamp and ink
-Screen printing supplies
-Fabric glue
-De-stitching tool

Step 2: Cut Your Material

Measure the length of the longest item in your pencil case and add about 1-2 inches depending on what fastener you're going to use. Try to cut your pieces as even as possible, you only need two for now.
They don't have to be the same size because after you have sewn them together they can be trimmed.

Step 3: Personalizing Your Case and Sew Your Material

Before you progress any further you need to make some decisions, what fastener am I going to use? Am I going to personlise my case and how? Making these decisions now will make things easier than if you sewed up your case first, example, if you wanted to screen print an image onto your material.

I originally planned to use an old T-shirt and make a patch to sew onto the case but then I decided to use the patch off of the back of the jeans.

Choosing a fastener
advantages and disadvantages

zipper - completely seals your case, not easy to sew onto your case, if your pencil case is overloaded it may be difficult to close your case but it will stay shut.

presstuds - hold strong but will pop open when strain is too much from an overloaded case, easy to sew on (if you choose presstuds I recommend you sew them to the outside of the case then fold the edge over and sewn down to hide the messy stitching).

buttons - easy to sew, difficult to close when the case is overloaded but should stay shut unless the stitching isn't very strong, stitching may look messy.

velcro - easy to sew, doesn't hold strong when case is overloaded if your stitching skills are good then the stitching shouldn't look messy but if like me your stitching does look messy you can do what I did and make a flap (this will be shown later in this Instructable) the stitching will only be visible on the outside of the flap but can be covered with a patch. this flap method will also work for the buttons.

Now it's time to stitch the rest of case, make sure you stitching the case inside out then turn it back in on itself this will hide the stitching and the frayed edges.