Corey's keychains

A new job for Corey meant the opportunity to get a company car!  For someone like my husband, getting to add to his fleet was like Christmas.  The funniest part was that he had to choose only from cars that had parts made by his company, and no one seemed to have a comprehensive list for him to peruse.  You would think H.R. would maintain a list of something like that, but apparently not.  It was hilarious how long it took him to get a lineup of the authorized vehicles.

He finally settled on a Lincoln MKZ, and he loves it to pieces.  It came with all sorts of fancy features like a push-button start -- the darn key just needs to be somewhere inside the car.  The key isn't even a traditional-looking key.  It's just the fob part.  And for someone who usually doesn't carry a whole ring full of keys, this fob might be pretty easy to lose.  He asked me to make something like my keychain, and I made these (one in brown and one in black):

Here is a side view:

Tutorial?  Pattern?  I didn't need no stinkin' tutorial or pattern.  I just took a three-inch wide and eight-inch long piece of pleather, folded it lengthwise in thirds, and triple-stitched along the edges and down the middle.  Easy peasy.  I did make sure I put masking tape on the underside of the foot, selected the "leather/vinyl" setting on the machine, and used a denim needle.  It went a lot smoother than I even imagined it would to be honest.

Next, I trimmed the ends a bit, folded it in half width-wise, and grabbed a Dritz Key Fob Hardware Set (it was $2.79 at Jo-Ann's, but I had a trillion coupons and probably got 40% off or something).  Once I located Corey's rubber mallet, I pounded that puppy closed.  I repeated the process with the other pleather, and then I had two cute keychains.  Took me about 10 minutes total to prep the machine, thread the bobbin, cut the pleathers, stitch, trim, and hammer.  Made me wonder why I had put the whole thing off for so long.

I just realized I never posted a photo of the keychain I made for my van.  I also have one of those funny keys that has no metal part, but this one you actually have to stick into the steering column like a key.  I made keychains like these for me and my friend, Kym, and they are a bit longer so they can go around your wrist if you like.  I chose the fabric so it would match my Michigan mitten keychain that my sister-in-law gave me last Christmas.