A manly gift for your manly man

I think finding good gifts for guys is hard.  Making a gift for a guy is even harder!  I really like making gifts for people in my life, so I am always on the looks out for a fun gift to make.  For Christmas, I wanted to challenge myself to make something for Ryan's younger twin brothers. They are almost 16, which is a hard age to think of any gift, let alone a handmade one.  But, I had an epiphany one night while driving with Ryan! I thought it would be really fun to make them shaving kits.  Even as I type that is sounds kind of lame, but I feel like 16 is about the age where guys start shaving, plus the bag could double as a manly bag to take carry your toothbrush and razor in when they travel. 

I decided to make a simple box bag with a self fabric handle.  I found the fabric at IKEA for a really great price.  IKEA has really nice heavy weight fabric for really good price (like $8 a yard).  If you are ever there, you need to check it out.  Anyway, the fabric isn't too exciting, but I thought it looked pretty manly.

Since the fabric didn't have any pattern, I added seaming and contrasting top stitching to the bag to give it a little more interest.  I usually do exposed zippers on bags like this, but I decided to change it up and do a center lapped zipper instead.

I didn't want to do any lining in the bag, so to clean finish the seams I used contrasting binding.  It isn't perfectly sewn by any means, but like I liked the finished look.

We stuffed the bag with all the shaving essentials, shaving cream, razors, and a wash cloth.

I think this would be a really great present for any guy in your life.  It makes a great toiletries bag too. Way better than a plastic ziplock bag, which I know a lot of guys use.  Also, it's only a month away from Valentines day, if you are looking for that perfect gift!