DIY Chapstick Holder From Quilting Scraps

My grandfather pieces quilts to keep himself busy. He makes log cabin and split rail layouts, then he sends them to someone else who quilts them. They are then sold to family and friends. In the above photos is a photo of one of his quilting squares.

With the tons of quilts that he makes, it results in lots of little scrap pieces. These pieces are very small and most of them are long and thin, making it a little tough to figure out what to do with them. He recently gifted us a bag of scraps, hoping we could use them.

In the bag were some beautiful material pieces. I especially loved a few pieces I found with a batik-type fabric (I wonder who got that quilt because I never saw it!). I was puzzling over what do with with the quilt pieces when I spotted a chapstick holder hanging on someone's purse. Bingo! The thin pieces were the perfect shape!

Obviously, you can make these out of whatever scraps you have on hand, but my scrap piece measured 2 3/4 inches wide and it was perfect for a regular sized chapstick tube. Your fabric will need to be about 10 inches long to complete the project.

1. Chapstick
2. Fabric. Your measurements should be around 2 3/4 inches wide and around 10 inches long
3. A clip with a ring on the end of it (lobster clasp, dog chain, whatever, it doesn't matter what style of clip)
4. A sewing machine
5. Sewing pins
6. Sewing scissors or just regular scissors

One one end of the fabric, fold the cut edge over itself by about a 1/4 of an inch. (fold over the short end, not the long side). You can tack this down with pins if you want to, then sew it down.

Place the chapstick down on the material. Fold up the end you sewed so that it makes a pocket over the chapstick. This is just to give an idea of what size your fabric needs to be. Bring the opposite end over the chapstick so you know where you want to cut the fabric. It should meet the pocket end and cover the chapstick completely.

Now, all along the long sides, fold the fabric over by about 1/8 inch and tack it down with pins. Make sure to fold the fabric so that both the seam lips are on the inside along with the lip of the last seam (see photos).

Sew that down.

Now you have a long piece of fabric that has been cleaned up a bit. No fuzzies.

Once again, place the chapstick tube down on the fabric and fold over the "pocket". Make it as tall as you want it, then line up the sides seams and put a pin in them at the top.

Take the chapstick out of the "pocket" and pin both sides of the pocket down, lining up the top edges of the fabric with the bottom edges.

Sew the pocket closed by lining up the sewing needle with the side seam you made in step 1 and sewing down the pocket, sealing the two layers of fabric together.

Trim all the thread fuzzies and you should have a pocket!

To add the key chain, scrunch up the fabric end that is opposite the pocket end and put it in the keychain ring, going under, in, and over the ring. The edge of the fabric fold should end up on the front side.

Using pins if you want, sew the edge of the fabric down right under the top edge of the pocket (peel back the pocket fabric so you don't catch it and accidentally sew the pocket shut). Once the fabric is let go back to its natural position, it should look like the above photos.

Now we need to complete the chapstick holder by firmly sewing down the edges of the pocket to the edges of the keyring fold. Simply sew along your former sewing lines and go over both the corner edges of the pocket and onto the edges of the keyring fold, tacking them both down (you don't need to sew all the way up to the key ring, just enough to make it look nice and keep the ring from sliding everywhere).

Congratulations! You have made something out of your quilting scraps that you will actually use!

That is a lot of my problem with little scraps. I could make something from them, but will I actually use it? This chapstick holder from quilt scraps is both cute and functional and you have to give it more than a glance to realize that someone made it at home and didn't purchase it.

The best part is, because it is on a keyring, it can clip to your purse or lanyard or whatever. You won't have to dig for your chapstick anymore!

I hope you enjoyed this instructable and I hope it was useful to you. Have a great day!