Key Fob Keychain DIY: Great for beginners & using fabric scraps!

Hey friends! I’m back with another easy sewing tutorial today. Making this key fob keychain is so, so easy, and it’s a perfect gift idea. Remember the lip balm keychains I shared last week? I’m giving them and these fabric fob’s to my son’s teachers, as well as to his enrichment teachers (i.e. music, art, etc.) as little back to school gifts. I’m on a sewing kick with my new machine I guess, ha! But I’m telling you, they’re so easy to crank out, and since they’re only my third sewing project, I can guarantee they’re easy enough for beginning seamstresses!

Fabric Key Fob Keychain Supplies:

one 3″x6.5″ piece of fabric
one 3″x4.5″ piece of fabric in a coordinating color or design
key ring
1″x10″ piece of stiff felt
scissors or rotary cutter
iron
pins & other basic sewing supplies

Key fob keychain supplies: iron, pins, scissors, ruler, sewing machine, felt, and 2 coordinating fabrics.

Cut Fabric

First iron the fabric for the keychain. Measure and cut one piece of fabric to 3″x6.5″ and the coordinating fabric to 3″x4.5.” I’ve seen many tutorials for keyrings and most of them call for some type of interfacing. I tried iron-on like I used in my lip balm keychain, and it didn’t really give me the desired effect. I read about felt interfacing, and thought I’d try out regular felt. Worked like a charm! Not the really thin felt though, the thicker pieces that cost just a little bit more than the normal craft felt. If you have felt interfacing you can use it, but I thought I’d just throw that tid bit in there. Cut a 1″x10″ piece of the felt you like.

Key fob keychain fabric: a 3x6.5 piece, a 3x6.5 piece in a coordinating color, and a 1x10 piece of felt.

Attach the Pieces of Fabric

Line up the two 3″ pieces of fabric with the right sides facing each other and the wrong sides out.

Two pieces of fabric lined up at the top with the wrong sides facing out.

Sew the two pieces together with 1/4″ seam. Press the seam when finished.

Pressing the seam where the two coordinating fabrics are sewn together at the top with a 1/4" seam.

Fold the Fabric

Fold the fabric in half along the length and iron the fold.

Fabric and felt combined into a 1x10" column before sewing the ends together to form the key fob keychain.

Then place the felt on the bottom half of fabric up against the fold.

Piece of felt placed in the half fold of the two connected pieces of felt.

Fold the bottom edge of the fabric over the felt and iron it place.

Folding the edge of the 10.5" piece of fabric over the 1x10" felt.

Bring the top half down to meet the newly formed edge and fold the top side’s edge in to meet it. Hopefully taking pictures from several angles helps show you what I mean.

Fabric folded with black felt sandwiched in between.

Pin everything in place.

Place the Keyring on the Fabric Key Fob

Slide the keyring onto the length of fabric.

Sliding the keyring onto the length of fabric before attaching the two ends of the key fob keychain.

Open the two ends of the folded fabric and line the two raw ends up with the wrong sides of the fabric out. Be sure to fold the felt out of the way so it doesn’t get sewn with the fabric.

Raw ends of the fabric facing each other and pinned together forming the connected key fob keychain.

Sew the ends together with a 1/4″ seam. Keep the keyring and felt out of the way as you sew.

Sewing the two raw ends of the long piece of fabric together to complete the key fob.

Fold the seam out and crease with your fingernails or iron it.

Two raw ends of the fabric/ felt sewn together with 1/4" seam.

Fold the fabric back in place and trim the felt if it’s now overlapping.

Trimming the felt back to fit the newly sewn seam holding the two ends of the fabric together.

Pin the fabric and felt in place.

Fabric, felt, and keyring pinned in place to place the top stitches on the key fob keychain.

Topstitch the Key Fob Keychain

Finally top stitch at 1/8″ both sides of the fabric keychain so that you have along each side. If you need help sewing 1/8″ it helps to add a piece of masking tape 1/8″ from the needle. That will allow you to keep the fabric aligned as you sew.

Placing a piece of masking tape 1/8" from the needle to keep the fabric straight.

Begin to sew and then backstitch a few stitches before continuing straight. That will keep your thread from unraveling. Keep the fabric and keyring out of the way as you go. It’s actually really easy when you get started. Just keep the edge lined up with the tape. I started just before the two different fabrics meet so that when I backstitched it would reinforce the seam there, and it also allowed me to start sewing the other side in the same place.

Sewing the right side of the key fob fabric in place with a 1/8" seam.

Trim any excess thread. This is what you should have.

Cutting excess thread from the top stitched right side of the keychain.

Finally topstitch the other side. I flipped my fabric keychain so that I was sewing on the opposite side. That way both backstitching sections were in the same place on the same side (so they look the same).

Top stitching the second side of the key fob.

Cutting the threads off the second side of the keychain.

Stitch the Keyring in Place

Fold the key fob so that the two ends of the shorter section of fabric line up and move the keyring up to the middle of that fabric. I pressed mine so that it would stay in place.

Folding the key fob so that the two ends of the shorter section of fabric line up.

Ironing the key fob to keep the fabric creased, holding the keyring in place.

Topstitch the keyring in place. I placed my seam about 3/4″ from the top. You can adjust this if your keyring is thinner. My seam is as close as I could stitch to the ring. Place the start of this seam on one of the topstitches and stop on the other. Remember to backstitch it in place. Trim the excess thread, and ta da!

Your key fob keychain is ready to hold your keys!

That’s it! I told you it was easy, didn’t I? This, along with the chapstick holder keychain and the drawstring bag, is a great way to use fabric scraps. I’ve made four or five so far, and it’s a great way to practice my new hobby! One day I’ll move onto something that needs more than a fat quarter of fabric.

Three fabric key fob keychains in various black and white fabric combos

Key fob keychain in black and white fabric with keys on the keyring.

Like I mentioned, these are great back to school teachers’ gifts. Here’s a post with free printable gift tags. There’s a set for keychains and another for lip balm, whether it’s just lip balm alone or a lip balm holder.

Back to school teacher key gift tag pinnable image.

I hope that you get a ton of use out of this tutorial! These fabric keychains are great for all kinds of gifts, Mother’s Day, little gifts for friends, or stocking stuffers!

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