Crayon Holder

Crayon Holder!
a tutorial

I love this project! It can be modified for so many different things. I've made it for knitting needles and paint brushes so far :) I wonder whether it would work for taking cutlery on a picnic... maybe double as a napkin? Hmm...


I found the most adorable fabric at JoAnn's! Crayons... on fabric! It's part of a "back to school" line... all of it is so cute it makes me glad I'm not teaching any more or I'd feel obligated to buy it all and find something to do with it ;)

ANYway...

You'll need two fabrics - one for the outside and an accent color for the inside. I tried using batting for one of the knitting needle carriers I made a while back but it was WAY too bulky. Don't do it... the two layers of fabric work just fine!

Cut two rectangles (one of each fabric). The rectangles will be a different size depending on what you're putting in them... you want the height to be a little more than twice the length of the crayon (or paint brush, etc.) and the width will depend on how many you want to be able to put in it. My rectangles were 22" by 8" so I was able to cut enough for two crayon holders out of the 44" wide fabric off the bolt. (Note: when I make this again I'll make it 12" by 22"... see final product and comments at the bottom of this post)



If you're going to do any embroidery, now's the time! First I embroidered the name on the crayon fabric but it was so busy that it blended right in... so I made a patch to put over the first attempt :) After embroidering the name, cut it out, iron the edges under, and stitch it (I used a zigzag stitch in the same color thread as the name) onto the fabric that will be the outer layer. Please fold the outer layer fabric the way you anticipate having it folded for the pocket later on to figure out where to line up your patch... the first time I did this the name ended up really off-center. Thankfully the recipient is 2 years old and doesn't care... but you can learn from my mistakes and avoid this one :)




Next, sew the right sides of the rectangles together, leaving about 2 inches open somewhere so you can turn it right side out. Include a hair band or piece of ribbon in the short end seam right next to the name. You'll use this to tie the whole thing together when it's all rolled up. The part that will go around the holder needs to be poking inside... just a little short section should poke out with the raw edges right now. Don't forget to back stitch over it to make sure it's secure.

Turn the holder right sides out.


Next, iron all the edges...

... tucking in the raw edges of the hole you used to turn it right side out and creasing well.


Fold up the bottom edge and iron across the full length of the holder. Check to make sure the depth of the pocket is correct for the item being put in... I made this one so it reached about half-way up the crayon (so that when the crayons get worn down they won't get stuck... at least for a while :)
Top stitch across the long side that will be the top edge of the pocket.

Top stitch around the perimeter of the rectangle (the bottom edge is 4 layers of fabric due to the fold). When you sew the short ends, be sure to strongly secure the corner of the pocket and back-stitch across the tie.

Use the crayons/paint brushes/knitting needles/etc. to determine how wide the pockets should be and PIN PIN PIN! Then sew from the bottom edge up to the edge of the pocket. I recommend back-stitching to reinforce the top of the pocket since there will be a lot of tugging going on while the crayons are being put in and taken out.

I made the pockets wide enough for the fat crayons that my nephew will use first (he's turning 1... happy birthday, Titus!), but I don't have any yet so here's a photo of what it looks like with regular crayons in it.
(Kat - they're in rainbow order for you ;)

Then roll up and secure with the hair band or ribbon!


(You'll notice that mine isn't quite tall enough... it's supposed to have enough fabric left at the top to fold down and hold the crayons in. When I did this for paint brushes the top flap folded all the way down and overlapped the bottom pocket by an inch, which was much more secure.)

Pinterest

Ok, I've jumped on the bandwagon. I joined Pinterest.

What is that, you say?


It's awesome.


And addicting.


And awesome.


Do you find all sorts of great ideas online, bookmark them, and then forget about them? Or can't remember what you titled the bookmark and spend more time clicking on 40 thousand bookmarks to try to find the one you want and then just give up and try googling the idea anyway?

Yep.

Then Pinterest is for you :)


It's an online pin board. When you find a great idea, you "pin" it to your pin board and it shows a picture of the awesome thing with a link to the original site. Crafty ideas, furniture ideas, new recipes, quotes, tutorials... anything :)

Now why didn't I think of this?


Not only that, but it allows you to see other people's pin boards so you can get even more awesome ideas! And you can follow your friends' boards (or other people's boards who you like most of their stuff so you'll probably like the stuff they pin in the future) too. Yea!


Like I said: addicting :)


Happy pinning!

How to Fold a Fitted Sheet

I used to think that figuring out how to fold a fitted sheet wasn't worth the time, hassle, brain cells, or aggravation. Then my brilliant Aunt Cathi showed me this trick and now my sheets no longer look like this in my laundry cabinet:
Step 1: Find two adjacent corners. Put your hand in one so it is pointing out. Put your hand inside the next so it is pointing inside out.

Step 2: Fit the second corner inside the first and smooth out the wrinkles. The elastic edges should line up with each other.

Step 3: Do steps 1 and 2 with the other two corners. You will end up with the sheet folded in half and to sets of corners folded inside each other.

Step 4: Invert one set of corners. They will point the same direction as the other corners.

Step 5: Insert corners 3 & 4 into corners 1 & 2. Now corners 2, 3 and 4 are inside corner 1... in other words, all four are together.


Step 6: Smooth out wrinkles. Fold the left edge (with the corners) in to the center and fold the right edge (with the end of the elastic and what is actually the middle of the sheet) in to the center so the edges meet and make a hot dog bun shape.

Step 7: Fold the sheet like a hot dog bun, along the center line where the edges meet, and smooth out wrinkles. Starting at each end, fold in toward center until it makes a hamburger bun.


If you're super organized and kind of fancy you can take a tip from this blog and store your sheets inside their coordinating pillowcases. Such a clever idea, I wish I would have thought of it myself.

Happy folding!