A big part of my Christmas is making handmade presents. I love coming up with new things to make for my friends and family, but the men in my life can sometimes prove tricky. They like presents that are practical and focused on their specific hobbies. It seems that I’m not the only one who has to think really hard about what to make for boys, so I have put together a whole week of tutorials for presents that you can make for men!
The first tutorial this week is for a tool roll! It’s designed for putting a few essential tools in and popping in the car, but with a few adjustments to the pocket sizes it would also be perfect for paintbrushes for an artist or tees for a golfer. I think a photography roll would be fantastic for storing memory cards, leads and batteries too.
To make a tool roll you will need fabric, scissors, a fabric fading pen or chalk and 32 inches of cotton tape. I picked a hard wearing striped ticking for the main body and then a royal blue cotton as a contrasting colour for the larger pocket. From your fabric you will need :
Main body : 17″ x 13″ – cut two of these
Top flap : 17″ x 4″
Large pocket : 17″ x 12″
Small pocket : 17″ x 8″
The first step is to iron your top flap and pocket pieces in half. Place them on one of your main body pieces, which is right side up, with all of the folded edges pointing towards the middle. These will be the top edges of your finished pockets.
Pin your layers into place and then using your fabric fading pen, draw straight lines to mark out where you would like your pockets to be. I have varied the size of the pockets to suit different tools and they range from half an inch to 2 inches wide. Then simply stitch through all the layers to form your pockets.
Then take your other main body piece and place it right side up on the table. Find the centre of the fabric and the centre of your cotton tape. Pin and stitch it into place using a square through the middle. Then fold your tape over itself and pin into place. This is to keep your tape away from the edges so that it doesn’t get caught in your stitching later on!
Next you need to put all your pieces together. Lay the piece with your pockets on the table, right side up, then place your back piece on top, wrong side up. Pin the two together and sew all the way around the edge, leaving a gap at one side for turning. I left a gap of 3 inches because my fabric is quite bulky.
Trim off your corners before you turn it the right way out, this removes bulk and means that your corners will be nice and pointy! Turn your roll out the right way and use a pencil to push out your corners. Slip stitch your opening closed, using small stitches in a coordinating colour thread. The last finishing touch is to stitch the ends of your tape neatly.
Your tool roll is complete! I would love to know who you decide to make your roll for and what they plan to put in it. Tomorrow is the second tutorial in my series, I will show you how to stitch a simple bottle bag!
If you fancy making your own tool roll then you can buy some useful supplies from Amazon. If you purchase anything through the links in my post you are helping to support my blog as I get a small referral fee from Amazon. Thank you!
All about Sprout 
Probably needs to be in black… 🙂
Penny
x
This will also work well for makeup brushes!
I made one like this recently for my curling iron so as not to burn my luggage. So many uses.
Yes, it is a really versatile design!
Great idea…I know a couple of boys who would love this as a gift! They are always the hardest to buy pressies for, really hope I have the time to get making this year. Lovely blog x
Perfect – it only took me an hour or so, hopefully you can find a few precious hours 🙂