Travelin’ Crayon Case {Tutorial}

We’ll be traveling by car to a few different places this summer and I like to keep my children busy because quiet children equals happy Momma.  They have lots of electronic gadgets but what seems to keep them occupied the longest are good old crayons and paper.  And because I like to sew and my kids love all types of handmade goodness I decided to create “Travelin’ Crayon Cases”.

They were super easy to make. I promise.

First gather your materials.  You will need 3 pieces of cotton (one for the interior, one for the exterior, and one for the pocket) each measuring 15 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches, one piece of 15 1/2 inch by 7 1/2 inch fusible fleece, one 12 inch piece of ribbon and one 17 inch piece of ribbon. And of course the regular sewing basics.

Lay the fusible fleece fusible side up and then the exterior cotton piece right side up on top of the fleece and iron them together.

Put the fused fleece and cotton aside.  Then take your pocket piece of cotton and iron it in half lengthwise.

Top stitch along the fold of the pocket.

Next place the fused fleece and cotton right side up and place the stitched pocket piece on top.  The raw bottoms should line up.  Place the 17 inch ribbon across the fabric lengthwise and
then the 12 inch ribbon.  (It doesn’t show in the picture but I actually have the ribbon overhang on the right side about a half inch to make sure it gets caught in the stitching.)

Place your remaining cotton piece face down on the already assembled pieces and tuck in the ribbon that is poking out of the left side of your fabric.

Pin it all in place and then sew all around the case leaving a two inch opening on the left side (opposite where the ribbon is stitched into place).

Trim the excess ribbon on right side and clip the corners.

Turn the case inside out. I then use a chop stick to push out all the corners.

Iron, making sure to iron the opening flat.

Top stitch all around the case making sure to close up the opening.

The next step is to create the center pocket for the pad of paper. Fold over the left side 1/3 of the way and iron the crease.

Then fold over the other 1/3 creating a tri-fold and iron that crease.

Stitch up the creases. This creates the middle pocket.

The last step is to create the crayon pockets. I am sure there is a more precise way to do this but I just inserted the crayons into the side pockets and then made a mark with washable marker between each crayon. I then used that mark to guide where I needed to stitch for each crayon pocket. It is hard to see but I used a blue washable marker and made just a very small dot.  (Oh and I removed the crayons before I made my crayon pockets.) 

Trim all your hanging threads. Fill with a 4 x 6 inch pad and 12 crayons, fold it up, and tie it closed.

My kids were thrilled when I gave these to them! They started using them right away.

I am going to make a few more for my nephews and I hope they like them just as much!