We’ve all been there: we’re in a hotel room, we’ve unpacked our heels and steamed our dress, we’ve applied our winged eyeliner (and wiped it off and reapplied it), and it’s time for the finishing touch. The jewelry! We rummage through our bag and pull out a snarled mess of gold chains and dangly earrings and we curse the fact that we have to spend the whole cab ride trying to untangle microscopic knots. Not anymore, my friends. Today’s DIY jewelry roll is here to rescue you and it’s so easy to make.
DIY Jewelry Roll
The solution to these hotel room woes is this pretty little thing. A DIY jewelry roll designed to keep each delicate chain and drop earring and tiny ring from getting tangled or damaging on the go. Small loops are the perfect place to attach necklaces and earrings. A ribbon-shaped piece of faux leather can be used to hold earrings, and a neat row of little pockets are perfect for stowing everything else in a cute, safe way. In fact, this roll is so handy that I’ve started storing my jewelry at home like this, too. Don’t mess with a good thing, right?
Keep scrolling to get all the details on how to make this cute jewelry storage roll. Oh, and did I mention that it’s monogrammed?!
How To Make A Jewelry Roll Perfect For Traveling
What You Need
- scissors
- ruler
- needle & invisible thread
- paint brush
- paint
- stencil
- leather (I used this faux option, but leather or fabric work just as well)
- straw place mat
- leather cording
- tassels
- clamps
Directions
Start by trimming excess fringe from the top edge of your place mat and work your way around. This is purely an aesthetic choice, so do what feels right to you, but I opted to leave about 1/4″ of fringe around the perimeter of my place mat.
Next, fold the bottom of your place mat up 4″ and make a nice crease. If your fabric is giving you a hard time, feel free to use an iron to really get the fold to stay.
Thread your needle with clear thread and sew along the left side of the little pocket you’re forming. Use nice, small stitches to they aren’t too visible from the back side (since we’re going to be rolling this up, we want both the inside and outside to look nice and tidy). Once you’re done, repeat with the right side. Now we have our bottom pocket section.
The next step is to cut out all our leather detailing.
We need four square pockets sized 3″ by 3″ as well as four strips size 1″ by 5″. Finally, we’ll need the earring holder, which should be 2″ x 3″ with a tapered end. I always use a ruler and pen to trace out all my designs first, because I like the finished product to be neat and uniform, but if you’re looking to save time and don’t sweat the details, you can cut out one square and use it to trace the other three (same with the leather for the loops)!
Be sure to use nice, sharp fabric scissors since the leather is thicker than normal material and we want to get a really clean cut.
Lay out your four squares of leather along the bottom pocket and make sure they’re evenly spaced. Thread that needle again and get sewing! You’ll want to stitch along the sides and bottom of each square, so you’re left with four pockets.
Place the ribbon-shaped piece of leather on the center top of the jewelry roll and stitch along the top only, leaving it as a flap that you can use to store earrings.
For the loops, simply fold the leather strips in half and sew along the top, making sure they’re evenly spaced out as well.
Once you’ve finished sewing all the pockets in, roll up the place mat into a loose roll.
This will allow you to see where you’d like the placement of your monogram (so it’s perfectly centered when it’s rolled up). Locate the perfect spot and hold it with your finger or subtly mark it with a pen and unroll the place mat.
Place the stencil over the spot you’ve chosen, making sure it’s centered top to bottom. Hold the stencil firmly and stipple paint over the letter. You’ll want to tap some of the excess paint off before applying it to to the stencil. This will ensure that your paint doesn’t bleed outside the lines.
While that dries, work on putting together the tie.
Cut an 18″ length of leather cord (you just want it to be long enough to wrap around the jewelry roll a few times and tie in a nice bow). Thread one end through the loop on the tassel and fold the cord back on itself. Then, place a clamp over where the cord overlaps and squeeze both sides firmly so both wings of the clamp are securely locked over the cord. Also, repeat on the other side.
Finish by punching a small hole in the side of the roll and threading the cord through it. Now you’ll have a handy little DIY travel jewelry organizer to keep your baubles tangle free whether you’re at home or on the go.
If you have a trip coming up, try out this jewelry roll pattern and let me know how it goes. Also, don’t forget to put your own twist on it!
photography by Jojotastic, DIY by Hannah Cross.
Get more DIYs here!
