It’s cold/flu season. (Hasn’t hit you yet? Come on over……we’ll share with you!)Â
It’s the time of year when you blow your nose for days, wondering how your body produces so much……uhhhh…….stuff. So, at our house, there’s a tissue boxes in every bedroom, in the kitchen, out in the car, atop end tables…….everywhere.   In fact, last week, I put one of those square boxes of tissues in my purse before leaving for church because my nose wouldn’t stop producing……..stuff. Ack! I didn’t have one of those small tissue packets because whenever I drop one of those in my purse, it ends up getting mangled and dirty and all the tissues fall out. But let me tell you……a huge box in my purse proved to be pretty annoying too.
So I fixed that right up!
And now my purse will always have some tissues ready for me, a child, or someone else in need……all wrapped up in a sturdy little mangle-proof case.
With the sweetest little heart cutouts…….which kinda make me excited to need a tissue!
And because you make this with leather (or faux leather, aka: vinyl), the sewing is very minimal.
If you skipped the cutouts, you would only need a seam at each end…….yep, pretty minimal. (But tough it out and cut some shapes/letters out. They are cuter than cute!)
And tissue retrieval is simple.
Buy a few packs of mini tissues…….and start placing them in your new holder before tossing them in your purse, glove box, or backpack.Â
No more mangled tissue packs!
Want to make one too??
These instructions were created to fit standard mini tissue packages, which are about 4 x 2 x 1 inches.
To make this tissue holder, you can use real leather or faux leather (which is actually vinyl). Both will work great!
Cut a piece of leather that is a 6.5 x 6.5 inch square.
Fold it around your tissue to be sure it fits around your tissue package.
Then use paper to cut out any shape you want (letters would be fun too!) and then place them on your leather, making sure they fit just how you’d like them. Keep the cutout placement more narrow than the actual width of the tissue package, so that they don’t get too close the sewn edge.
Then trace around your paper templates.
And then cut out your shapes.
Next, place a strip of fabric behind the cutouts, making sure that it’s at least a half inch or so larger, around all cutout edges. Sew around each of your cutouts, nice and close to the edges.
Then, trim off any excess fabric, about a 1/4 inch away from the sewn edges. Also, be sure that none of the fabric edges can be seen from the “right” side of the leather.
Next, fold the two edges of the leather square towards the center, meeting exactly in the middle. Then overlap the cutout edge over the other edge, by about 1/8 of an inch. (This will help the opening stay closed after the tissues are placed inside.) Sew the two ends closed, about 1/2 an inch from each end. (I added two seams right next to each other for strength and stability. The seam closer to the hearts is 1/2 an inch from the end, the other seam is about 1/8 of an inch from the first one.)
Cut the excess leather off both ends…
…then, insert your tissue package inside.
Ready for this sneezy weather!
Enjoy!
-Ashley
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