Cathartic Making

What does your back-to-school making look like? 

Mine looks like this:

So, the children have asked for pencil cases.

You know the mandatory "one 8 X 5 plastic pencil box" that's on the school supply list every year? This year, the children have decided to disregard that. They've convinced me that it isn't really mandatory, and that, since the dawn of time, all their friends have been using soft pencil cases because they don't crack, they contain much more stuff, and they're plain nicer to look at.

So they picked fabrics and designs and specific dimensions and I made them their pencil cases. If you'd counted, you might have come to the misconclusion that I have eight children, assuming there's one for each child.

Not so - part of the benefit of this PencilCase-On-Demand service is being able to order extra pencil cases for things like "home" markers and "precious mechanical pencils from Japan" and other collections not required in school. 

I didn't mind. They could've asked for backpacks, which would've taken a week. Or clothes, which would've taken so long that I might've given up halfway.

Sewing pouches, though, is extremely cathartic. You cut a fabric rectangle, find a random zipper and ta-da! Pencil case in under an hour. I made six of the eight cases in the photo over two days, and the remaining two earlier in the year. 
In case you don't recognize the various designs in the photo above, I'll list them for you with links to the posts where we discussed how to make them:

In the top row, left to right: #1, #2, #4 and #5 are darted pouches. #3 is a simple flat pouch.
In the bottom row, left to right: two simple flat pouches stacked on each other, and a simple flat pouch with a zippered pocket and grommets, similar to the inserts in this utility case.

Slightly related: I've also been collecting random pencil case designs from the internet in general, and online stores specifically. For instance, some of the japanese/chinese online stores have some really interesting morphing pencil cases that I want to make. I'll try them out on my kids first and if they are impressed, I shall share them here. 

P.S. Thank you for everyone's comments to the last post on the convertible summer bag. The masses have spoken, and deconstruction it is, then!