Tool Time Tuesday...Needle Keep iTunes Card

Old, used up, empty gift cards. We have so many of them around our house, especially after the holidays. Our 2 teenage daughters always receive gift cards to different stores and itunes...lots of itunes. Such an easy gift to buy for them and they love them!!
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Well, I started saving the old ones. Of course I did, adding more to my ever growing stash of crap...garbage that turns into gold though! I've been thinking long and hard about this one and have come up with a few ideas. I'm hoping to post a couple of them throughout the week, but the first idea is a needle keep and it's for today's TTT.
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The cards come in different sizes and shapes, so this tutorial is just an example. You need to measure your gift card and then go from there. For this project I used 2 of the cards on the left.

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These little ones measure 3 inches long by...
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2 inches wide.

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For the needle keep, you will need 2 cards of the same size. To cut the fabric needed, I measured the length of the 2 cards and added 1 inch and the width I added 3/4 of an inch. To break that down for you, each of my cards is 3 inches long x 2 cards= 6" plus the extra inch. The width of my cards are 2 inches, so I added 3/4". The final measurement for the fabric is 7" x 2 3/4"

You will need 2 cards, 2 pieces of fabric cut to your measurements and 2 pieces of matching ribbon. I cut the ribbon about 7" long and then trimmed it later.

The first step is to fold one of the pieces of fabric length wise and just finger crease the fabric to find the center.

You only need to find the center of one piece of fabric.

Pin the 2 strips of ribbon over the center marks.

Ball up the ribbon and pin it to the middle so you don't catch it in your seam allowance.

Now take your second piece of fabric and with right sides together, pin it over the piece with the ribbons. Leave an opening big enough for the cards to fit through.

Sew with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, pivoting at the corners and back stitching at the beginning and the end.

Clip the corners.

Turn fabric right sides out and unpin the ribbons. There should be one piece of ribbon sticking out of each of the short ends. Press the seams, but don't let the iron touch your ribbon (don't ask)

Now insert one of the cards into the left side of the opening...

and snug it up into the corners.

Insert the second card into the right side and do the same thing.

See the 2 cards in there? There should be about a 1/4 space between them. Whip stitch this opening closed.

Lay the rectangle on the table and push the cards to either side. I placed 2 pins up against the ends to hold them in place.

Run a stitch down the middle.

I placed a little dab of hot glue on the back of the felt and then the bow to secure it. You can add or change the embellishments if you'd like.

and here you have it...a cute little needle keep made with old, used up gift cards. (oh my gosh...make sure they're used up or this will be the most expensive needle keep ever).

Isn't she adorable...I think I'll call them ikeeps when I use itunes cards or Victoria's Keeps when the girls use up their Victoria's Secret cards. The name possibilities are endless...

First, have fun shopping to use up all those gift cards and then have fun sewing and using up all the empty cards.

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~Karen~