silly little project

So, no... this is not the very exciting project I promised to unveil to you. To be quite honest, that project isn't going so well at the moment. I'm hoping to work on it a bit more tonight and improve things before I share it. Or maybe I'll watch a movie and deal with it tomorrow. At any rate, I did complete a project a couple of days ago that kind of borders on ridiculous.

"Huh? What is that?" Well, you see, the little hook on my key remote thingy for Chris' car broke, which means that it can no longer hang on the key chain. So, I needed to make a little pouch in which to keep it with my keys.

See where it is broken? You know, at the risk of sounding like an 80 year-old man here, they just don't make things like they used to! I am very careful with my things, and they are breaking all the time. This is especially true of my Toyota things - the other night Chris poked his finger at the dash board of my car in order to wipe the dust away from the clock window, and he pushed the clock right into it! Now I have a hole in my dashboard where my clock used to be. It is not like Chris has some kind of bionic finger strength. Arghhh! Anyways, I digress. Back to the little pouch.

Okay, now here is the silliest part of this project: I actually made a tutorial of it. You know, in case this unfortunate incident ever happens to you and you are faced with either paying $40 (plus a programming fee) for a new remote or solving the problem yourself? Well, anyways, here goes the tutorial. First I cut two 3"x5" rectangles and two 3"x3.5" rectangles.

Then I took the 3"x5" rectangles (wrong sides together) and made two marks about 3/4" from each side.

Next I laid the 3"x3.5" pieces on top of the 3"x5" pieces, matching them up at the bottom and sides. At that 3/4" mark, I cut down 2" until I met the smaller rectangle piece, then cut over 3/4". I did the same for the other side. This made the closure of my pouch.

Next I stitched my pieces with the pouch enclosure together (right sides together) and stitched my small rectangle together (right sides together), leaving the bottom open. I used 1/3" seam allowance for all sewing.

When I turned them right-side-out, they looked like this.

I laid these two pieces with right sides together and sewed them at the bottom. Here I used about at 1/2" seam allowance, then later trimmed the seam for neatness.

I attached a small square of velcro to the top of the closure (on the "wrong" side or inside of the pouch).

Then I attached a matching square of velcro to the outside of the pouch, being careful to leave room for the remote to fit inside and the closure to loop over my key chain.

Finally, I sewed up the sides (with right sides together), and turned the pouch right-side-out.

The key remote fit right inside, all nice and snug.

And, now it hangs on my key hook, ready to be used. I don't have to look all over for this little sucker or dig around in the bottom of my bag for it anymore! I struggled with the velcro vs. button decision for a few minutes while making this little pouch. A velcro closure guarantees ease when retrieving the remote, whereas a button increases security of the pouch staying on the key chain. Hmmm... choices. In the end, I went for ease of use, which means I will probably end up loosing it (oh, well).

But, for now I saved myself 40+ bucks! And, now you have this lovely tutorial to make a keychain pouch for anything - bus pass, cash, lip balm, what-have-you!