Hello Friends!! We are almost to the weekend. I feel like this week flew by me and hold it.. only 8 days until Christmas. Where has December gone? I am on a pretty tight budget this year and I come from a family of 11, so it gives tight budgets a whole new meaning. Even though the Hubs and I agreed to keep Christmas at a minimal this year, I still wanted to bless the people I loved. With soooo many resources and crafty people out there, I knew I could find a way to give everyone GREAT gifts at a GREAT price.
If you follow me on Instagram you saw the cute little mugs I created. Here is another glimpse at their cuteness. I bought all the mugs at the Dollar Store. The paint is oil based sharpies that I got for $4 at Michaels with a coupon. You then Bake the mugs at 450 for 30 Minutes and VIOLA, you have $1 gifts that people will actually use and love.
Another easy and ahhhmazing DIY gift I did were these leather tool roll. You can also give it your mom, sister or friend one for their makeup brushes.
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I got the idea when I saw a 3lb pack of Remnant leather at Hobby Lobby for $8.99. Of course I have their app so I had a 40% off of one regular priced item. So the pack of leather was about $5.50. I then bought a size 18 needle with some heavy duty thread. I bought both of those from Joanns, again with a coupon. I got on Pinterest and looked up DIY leather wrap or leather roll and a few different things came up. I didn’t end up sticking with any one tutorial, but there are some great ones out there. I started by looking through the pack of random pieces of leather.
At first I was overwhelmed. I thought the pieces might be too small for the project I had in mind. So don’t worry.. the pieces are small but they totally work!! I found about 6 larger pieces of leather that I thought I could work with. I then found matching leather for each piece that I would use for the inside layer for pockets. You can also cut pieces to fit the way you want. The leather cut pretty easily.
I lined up the leather where I wanted it and sewed with a straight-line setting. I did as long as a stitch length as possible on the machine I used. After sewing the bottom and sides together, I placed some basic tools like a measuring tape, screwdriver, thick pencil, wrench, and you can use whatever other small tools you think would work. I also did one for my father in law who paints. For him, I used pencils and some of my paintbrushes to measure the area and width. You can draw small dots in a line where you want your stitch using a sharpie or pen. I did some extra back stitching to reinforce the edges and to give the pockets a little extra durability.
If you want to add a leather tie to the end, I did a top stitch along a long thin piece that came in the pack and then I trimmed the sides to make the width I desired. After I cut it, I laid it out flat, found the center of the tie and marked it with a small dot. I laid the tie out, placing the center in the middle of the edge of the outside of the wrap and sewed it. You could also hand sew this part if that makes you more comfortable.
People, I am no seamstress, in fact, I have sewed a total of 5 things in my entire life. This is sewing in a straight line, in fact most of my lines are not perfect, but hey it gives it a little DIY personality, right? I made a total of 5 leather tool {paint, makeup} rolls all for under $10. That means 5 gifts at $2 a piece. Holy Shmoly! The husband is very excited & I am excited about giving these as gifts. I know we only have a couple days left…but with these easy gift ideas, you are covered!!!
Happy DIYing!!!
~Taylor