Make It Myself Monday: Crayon Rolls

My project for this week was to create Crayon Rolls as stocking stuffers for my three kiddos for Christmas presents.  I was inspired by THIS tutorial, found at Chocolate on my Cranium.

I had some fabric scraps that would work for part of the 3 Crayon Rolls that I had to make, but I needed to go out and purchase some coordinating odds & ends scraps to be set.  Also, as a newbie, I had never worked with fuseable interfacing...so I picked up some of that as well.  Finally, even though we have a ton of broken crayons with half-torn-off wrappers; since this was a Christmas gift, I decided to buy some new ones.  I found some cute boxes of 32 at Michael's Craft Store for only $1.00 in various character boxes wrappers (I got Cars, Tinkerbell and Disney Princesses).


Supplies Needed: 

3 pieces of coordinating 13x5 strips of fabric, cut and pressed
1 piece of 13x5 fuseable interfacing
1 piece of coordinating ribbon (24" long)
Sewing machine
Coordinating Thread
Iron
Scissors
Measuring Tape/Ruler
Marking Pencil

1.  Measure and cut out the 3 strips of fabric and the coordinating ribbon.  Also measure and cut out the fuseable interfacing.  In retrospect it would have been wiser to measure and cut out a cardboard pattern to use for the fabric pieces and interfacing to save time and ensure better accuracy.  I plan to do that for the other two rolls I'll finish this week for the girls.

2.  Iron all 3 pieces of fabric.  Iron the rough side of the fuseable interfacing to the wrong side of the piece of fabric you plan to sew the crayon pocket to.  Make sure not to slide the iron, but rather press in sections for 10-15 seconds at a time.

3.  Fold the pocket fabric in half and press.  Situate the pocket onto the right side of the fabric that has had the interfacing ironed to it so that the folded edge hits the middle of the background fabric and the bottom and sides line up with the bottom and sides of the background fabric.

4.  Using the marking pencil (or whatever you use to mark), measure out lines for the crayon slots.  The first measurement from one side should be 1 and 1/4 inch.  Every measurement thereafter should be 3/4 inch until the final measurement, which would once again be 1 and 1/4 inch.  This should leave you with 15 lines (and thus 16 crayon slots).

5.  Stitch each line, being sure to backstitch at both the top and bottom of the line  The measuring, marking and stitching of these slots are what I found to be the most tedious and time consuming.

6.  Once all the lines have been stitched, fold the ribbon in half and stitch it to one side of the roll.  Make sure to then fold the ribbon so that it lays against the right side of the background fabric.  I did not do this and later stitched the ribbon incorrectly while the fabric was inside out...causing me the need to cut the ribbon and improvise a new placement.

7.  Place the right side of the stitched fabric to the right side of the backside fabric so that only the wrong sides are showing.  Make sure the ribbon is tucked inside and not showing either (unlike the picture...).

 
8.  Stitch at 1/4 inch all the way around the edges, making sure to the leave the side without the ribbon stitched in it open so that the item can be turned right side out again.  When it has been stitched all the way, clip the corners and then turn it right side out again.

9.  Press the item again to ensure front, back and pocket are laying straight.

10.  Topstitch all around the item again on the right sides of the fabric at 1/8 inch from edge - making sure to cleanly close the still-open side.  (note - this is where I place the ribbon that I had messed up earlier, and it worked perfectly).

11.  Once it is entirely completed, press it one more time.  Then insert crayons, roll up and secure with the ribbon tie.

I feel I was successful at this Make It Myself Monday challenge...however when you look at seams closely it is easy to see that they aren't as straight as they could be, nor was the spacing for the crayon slots completely accurate, which is precisely why this roll can only hold 14 crayons instead of 16!

 

It took me about an hour and 15 minutes to complete all 10 steps above to complete this project.  I was certainly slowed down by the need to check directions frequently.  I do anticipate I can do the other two crayon rolls in less time...likely more like 45 minutes.  I did find this project more time consuming and slightly more challenging than the pillow challenge from last week.  That surprised me!  However I enjoyed the challenge and my kiddos won't care much about slightly crooked seams or 14 crayon slots vs. 16 crayon slots.  These will make great travel companions along with a fun coloring book!


Stay tuned for Make It Myself Monday next week when my completed project will let you know what I used this shape for:

Did you make something yourself recently?  Did you write a blog post about it?  Leave a comment with a link to your post - I would LOVE to read about it!