Clam Shell Accessories Case Plus a Mini Letter Needle Book

In Wednesday’s post I mentioned that I had some small projects to share once I had them completely finished.

Last year, I took part in the Santa Sack Swap for the first time. One of the gifts I made for my swap partner Judith was this little Clam Shell Accessory Case.

It turned out so cute that I wanted to make one for myself as well. Now, when I bought the kit, I mistakenly thought that you could reuse the plastic templates that were included. But those are used when you make the clam shell case as that’s what gives the case the stiffness and bendability to open and snap back closed.

Unfortunately they don’t sell the plastic templates separately. If you want to make another one, you have to buy another kit.

Thinking I might be able to figure out a way around that, I traced around each of the two different sized templates before I made the one pictured above.

At first I tried making that second one using a very stiff interfacing. That did not work out at all. For many months, it sat in one of my project bags waiting for me to decide to fix it or pitch it.

Then one day a couple of months ago, I had gotten out the plastic container of one of those pre-mixed salads (we like the Spring Salad Blend) to make myself a salad for lunch when I realized that the plastic lid was about the same thickness as the clam shell templates had been.  Over the next several weeks, I saved all the lids from our salad containers and when I had collected enough, Dave volunteered to cut out six new templates for me.

The seam ripper was put to use to disassemble the sad looking first attempt, the new plastic templates were inserted and here is the final result:

I love it!!

It sits on my nightstand and it makes me smile every time I look at it!

Even when I pick it up and turn it over… the Sleepy Owl on bottom makes me smile too.

And that brings me to my second finish this week. Do you ever see something that is so sweet you want to make it immediately? Even if it’s something that you certainly don’t “need” another one of as you have one that was given to you and another that you made for yourself?

That’s what happened when I saw a pin for the Little Letter Needle Book. The pin itself led to a blog that is no longer available but after a bit of searching I found the pattern was still available here.

This is my version:

It finishes at about 3 3/4 inches wide by 2 3/4 inches high!

And this is the back with a teeny tiny button and thread closure:

I used this cool sewing accessories themed fabric for the inside:

I would be so pleased if you chose to share by clicking on one of the buttons below!