DIY Earring Holder

A little over a year ago we were all walking through the mall when A jumps up and down begging, "mom can I please get my ears pierced?"  I remember I chuckled to see the look on my sister's face.  A had been begging for a couple of years now to get it done and my sister finally relented that day and let her do it. 

Her eyes were sparkling with excitement as she picked out her first set of earrings.  She nervously sat down in the chair while the saleswoman and piercer extrodinaire got the equipment ready and prepped her ears with a swab of alcohol and a little blue dot in the center of the lobe.  As the woman approached her ear with the ear gun she seized up and flashing clear as daylight across her face was the message, "I've changed my mind, let me out, NOW."  But alas it was too late and a second later a horrible waling scream sang out across the mall courtyard.  By the sound you would have thought she was shot by a real gun, full metal jacket and all. 

At that point I wasn't sure the second one would get done at all, but the saleswoman, who must have had ample experience with this in the past, loaded the second earring right away and bam it was done within a second.  A didn't even have a chance to register the pain before that one was done.  I think she was still in shock from the first one.  As all things in life do, the pain subsided and in short order she was grinning from ear to ear and having everyone admire her new studs.  And gorgeous they were. 

Ever since it has been a never ending goal of hers to obtain as many different earrings as possible in every shape, size, and variety.  From little lady bugs to a set of pearls and yes even those cute little danglies mom just let her buy.  As the earrings pile up the question becomes, "where do we put them all?" 

Here is where I come into play with my Pinterest list that allows me to make all kinds of wonderful things. Just like the one pictured above.  Now I didn't realize, as I didn't with so many other things I pinned, that the link doesn't actually take you to a post with directions on how to make the object, but instead takes you to a website that sells the object pictured.  Wah wah total dud.  But instead of just deleting it I think, "hey it doesn't look that hard to make, I'll just look at the picture and wing it."  Yeah baby I'm a crafty making machine. :)

Turns out it wasn't so hard even though I did make a little construction mistake that detracts from the elegance of the exterior look, but you can learn from my mistake so that yours comes out fantastic.

DIY Earring Holder

Step 1:  Gather your materials. 

Felt or other material for book cut to the size you want your book to be when folded in half, 3 interior pages and 1 cover page (I used a fancy pattern for the outside cover and regular plain colored for the interior)
Sewing machine or needle and thread or hot glue gun
Scissors

See all the seam lines?

Here is where I went wrong.  I started by attaching the outside cover to the interior page first which in the end led to all my seams appearing on the spine of the book.  It turned out looking okay in the end, but in my directions here I will provide a way to construct the book so that these seam lines will be hidden.

Step 2:  You will need to assemble the interior pages first and attach them to the outside cover at the end.  Start by laying two interior pages one on top of the other.  Then pin them together to keep them from shifting and mark the midline.  Once the midline is found mark a line 1/4" away on each side of the midline.  These will be your first seam lines.  I then used my sewing machine to straight stitch down these lines.  You can also hand stitch or try hot gluing them together as well. 

Step 3:  Next attach the innermost page to the other two by stitching a seam down the midline of the felt pieces.  You should now have all three inner pages sewn together that when folded in half will be the size you want your earring book to be.

Step 4:  Last but not least attach the inside pages to the outside cover. Lay the inside pieces on top of the wrong side of your outside cover, making sure that the midline seam is facing up towards you. Pin the inside pages to the outside cover down the midline. Now you will need to sew a seam on either side of the midline about a 1/4" outside of the very first seam you made and only on the first interior page, not the one with the midline seam. This will mean folding the two innermost pages in half to get to that first interior page that you need to sew.

Once folded over sew the seam, then repeat on the other side of the midline seam.  Your book should now be all the way attached. 


 
 

Step 5:  As you can see in the photo, once attached some of the pages will be sticking out past the cover.  To fix this just trim up the edges with your scissors.

If you like you can add a thin piece of cardboard in the spine for added support, stitching a small seam along the top and bottom to hold it in.  I thought about this but as I put the book together a different way, there was no longer an area in the spine to allow for this.  As I was just using felt pieces there was no need for me to finish the edges, but you could finish the seams if you like.  I also didn't add holes as I think she could just punch the earrings through the felt easy enough. 



I plan on finishing it off later by adding her name on the spine, either embroidered or with iron on letters.  I think I might also add a clasp to help keep it closed.  Hope she likes it. 

Wish me luck.