regaining my brain for a project

with the boy starting school next year and me looking at re-joining the workforce once that happens, i decided to be prepared to organize my life by buying a planner. it runs concurrent with the school year so it was july '10 - june '11. i thought, 'how can i best sort out whose project is due when? what is my work schedule? who has a sockhop or other after-school event?'

so i bought a pack of 4 assorted color pens. each color represents a different family member.

now, how will i keep these pens with this planner so this whole brilliant plan doesn't go south if the pens inevitably get lost? keep in mind, this is not the planner she lost on 27 dresses. this is a vinyl-cover spiral number from day runner with no pockets or such.

so here's what i came up with:

my starting materials: fabric, planner, pens

i used a rotary blade and a straight edge to make it nice and straight since my raw edges will be exposed. 

i measure my strip of fabric using my planner as a guide and trim.

using the planner, i overlap the fabric with the right sides out.

hold snugly in place and pin.

sew along each edge with a zigzag stitch and contrast thread.

sew along the edge where the fabric meets underneath, not at the top.

i don't know why this is underlined... or blue

starting at the middle of the now built-in pocket, sew 3 lines to bottom of the 'pocket' to make 4 pen slots.

tada!! a tubular sleeve that fits nicely on my planner cover and holds all my color-coded pens.

'it's a good thing'