Pencil tin

Craft: had a link to a great tutorial from Elsie Marley the other day — how to make a tin can cover — that I just couldn’t resist.

The concept (originally from a Japanese magazine called “Cotton Friend”) is simple, but seemed to waste the lining. It ends up against the tin and is barely seen! That won’t do at all in my book, so I came up with a variation that’s slightly more work but results in a fully lined tin.

Instead of cutting a separate piece of fabric to line the rim, I pieced together the fabric until it was a couple of inches longer than twice the length of the tin. The tin was still a little sticky from where the label came off so I used that to hold the fabric in place while I sewed it on (press the raw edges in first for a neat finish). Once that’s done, the interior fabric just folds into place. I didn’t sew the inside edges of the fabric together, but it wouldn’t be too hard to do.

To neaten everything up, I ran a running stitch close to the edge of the fabric at the bottom of the tin, pulled it tight and taped the thread to the bottom to hold it in place. Then I cut two circular pieces of card: one’s glued to the base of the tin to hide the raw edges, thread and tape, and the other to the bottom of the tin on the inside.

I have a feeling James might sneak this away to hold his pens and pencils at work…