Small Day Planner

Trying to come up with a gift for my dad is always a difficult challenge. He's one of those guys who really doesn't need anything, and he's seen more than his share of Christmas sweaters, ties, etc.

My dad doesn't have any of those typical guy hobbies like golf, etc. where I could get away with buying him just about any kind of golf related items.

So what do you get for the guy who has everything he needs? Well, the one thing I could think of that my dad & I share in common is a love for organization.

So after developing the large school agenda organizer for EJ, I decided to come up with a smaller, more travel size organizer for my dad.

It took a while to figure out what fabrics to use...turns out it's actually way more difficult than I thought to find masculine fabrics. And I went through a TON of different design ideas before finally settling on one I liked.

 

 

 

Nothing seemed quite right for all the uses I wanted this organizer to be able to do. Finally, I settled on a design and came up with this.

---Two large blue pockets on either side for storing a calendar, notepad of paper, important papers, receipts, coupons, checkbook, etc.

---Two smaller pockets for credit/debit cards, ID, etc.

---One larger striped pocket at the bottom for a calculator, cash, or whatever.

---One tall pocket to fit a couple of pens.

---And a magnetic snap closure.

Overall I was rather pleased with my final design, although next time I think I would make it a little bit larger because when storing the calendar on the left pocket it's a pretty snug fit.

All of the pockets are fully lined with fusible interfacing and I used a heavy weight lining for more durability, but the organizer wasn't quite as firm as I wanted it to be, so I think I would either use a very heavy weight peltex pellon lining or chipboard next time to make this organizer more sturdy.

I think this little travel organizer would make a great gift for students too, esp. those in high school or college to keep all this stuff handy.

It's also great for grocery shopping and having all your coupons, list, calculator, pens, etc. all in one spot.

My finished organizer was roughly 6 inches x 8 inches. After making this project I started working on a few journal designs, so maybe I'll get them finished soon.