Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Sewing Contributor Jessica, from the blog “Life Sew Good”.  

One of the best things about having little kids is that I get to color pictures; it’s practically part of the mommy job description.  I love to color!  What I don’t love is hundreds of broken crayons lying in cracks and crevices around my house.

Next week, my daughter is going to start preschool and I thought it would be fun to make a color crayon roll for her!  I had seen these for colored pencils and I figured it should be easy enough to make.  For the quilters reading, this is going to be a breeze!  Plus, you will have an opportunity to use some of your fabric scraps lying around.  If you don’t have the patience to cut all these pieces or the fabric pile to draw from, I’ll give a second option for an even easier-to-make color crayon roll at the bottom of this post.

First, decide how many crayons you want your roll to hold.  I got a little ambitious and did a pack of 24.  You can easily adjust this to do a pack of 8 crayons!  Get your supplies and let’s get started!

You will need:

Self-healing cutting mat & rotary cutter (easier & faster!)
Scissors
Ruler
Thread
Fabric scraps—all different colors
2 pieces of ribbon:  12″ each
Approx. 7″ x 25″ piece of heavier fabric (ie, corduroy, denim)  Wait to cut until step 8.
24 crayons
Iron & ironing board

1. Pull out the crayons and your pile of fabric.  Match crayon colors to fabric with similar colors.  If you organize your fabric in the order that you want to sew each piece together, this will be helpful later.

2. Cut each piece of fabric:  1 piece 2″ x 7″ and 2″ x 3″.  After cutting each piece, put the small pieces in one pile, in order that you want to sew them, and the large pieces in another pile, in the same order.

3. Begin to sew the 2″ x 7″ pieces together by placing the first piece on top, the second piece on bottom, right sides together, sewing a ½” seam on the right hand side (lengthwise).  Open the pieces, and add the third piece to the second piece, right sides together, sewing a ½” seam on the right side.  Continue this process until you have all the pieces sewn together.  Don’t worry about back-tacking.  Just sew straight on down, top to bottom without stopping, then move on to the next piece. 

4. Repeat same process with the 2″ x 3″ pieces, making sure that you sew these pieces in the same order you sewed the longer pieces.

5. Now, press seams open on both pieces of material.

6. Take 2″ x 3″ pieces and press the top down ¼” and again ½” and sew a seam straight across the top.

7. Lay the wrong side of 3″ strip fabric on top of the bottom of the right side of 7″ strip fabric, so that the color strips of fabric line up properly.  Each seam should be about 1″ apart now since we used ½” seam allowances.  Starting just above the 3″ strips, sew along each seam, attaching it to the 7″ strips.  Back tack at the top of each seam, but you do not have to back-tack at the bottom.

8. Now, take your crayon “pouch” and your heavier fabric.  Lie the pouch on your heavy fabric and cut a piece the same size.  Theoretically, it should be 7″ x 24″!! 

9. It’s time to put it all together.  First, lay your heavy fabric, right side facing up, with long sides on the top and bottom, short sides on the right and left.  Next, put your two pieces on ribbon, one stacked on top of the other in the halfway down on the RIGHT side of your heavy fabric (see picture.)  Fold the ribbon so that it stays in the middle of the fabric.  Last, lay your colorful crayon pouch, right side facing down, on the ribbon and heavy fabric.  Pin in place.

10. Sew ½” seam around, leaving about a 3” gap for turning.  Trim edges and corners and turn right side out. 

11. Press and top stitch ¼” all the way around, making sure to close the turning gap. 

12. Insert crayons & you’re done!!!