roll-up pencil case

I hate things that are designed poorly. I guess that comes with my major, but really, I've always hated that. Even simple things like the hooks on the back of bathroom-stall doors. I hate that they frequently can't hold a purse or jacket like they're meant to, all because they're designed badly.

One thing I really don't like are pencil cases. I hate them. I bought a hard plastic one last year, and within 2 months it was breaking. I hate the fabric ones because the zipper won't open far enough for me to dig around and find the pen I need, so I end up dumping everything out on the desk, and then my pens are taking up the whole desk and I have to put all but the one I need back away before I can get to sketching.

I'm just anal and irritable. I know.

But with school starting, I need to be organized so I don't lose my mind with everything I have to do in the next few weeks and throughout the semester. So I came home from school yesterday and made my own pencil case.

It's perfect.

Here's my favorite picture I took of it.

I was searching through my fabric, and picked a color scheme. I originally decided on the brown and green, and then as I was looking at all my ribbon I found this cute and colorful tree ribbon. So I went with it and made the outside of the case match the ribbon print.

And I love it! It only took a couple of hours from start to finish. It's 22 inches long by 9 inches wide. It holds 20 pens/pencils, plus 6 little containers of pencil led (I use different hardnesses and colors of led, so they're nice to have handy). There is batting between the inside and outside layers for padding and to protect the led from breaking if dropped.

I think I'll make one for my paintbrushes too.
What else can this kind of thing be used for? I'm thinking about Christmas gifts now... Hey Lauren, how many crochet needles do you have? ;)