Sunday, January 20, 2008

Super Easy Kid Gift: Crayon Keeper




We had a birthday party today for the sweetest little girl named Valentine, who is turning three. The invite said "no gifts" and since that's contrary to my very nature, I had to come up with a gift that was so inexpensive and so easy, that it was sort of a non-gift. Does that make any sense? I think in my head if it's cheap and easy, it doesn't count.

Here's what I did. I took a box of 8 fatty crayons and laid the crayons out on a piece of neutral linen fabric. I left about 1 1/2 inches between each crayon to measure. Then, I measured about twice the height of the crayons and cut. I used this piece (roughly square) to cut another identical piece out of a vintage kid's fabric I had. Then, for the pocket, I cut a piece that was the same width as my first two pieces, but only half as tall.

To assemble it, I first folded over, pressed and sewed a nice seam on the top of my pocket fabric. Then, I took it and pinned it to the bottom half of my linen. Then, I measured and market the pockets. Each one was about 1 1/4 inch wide. I sewed the pocket to the linen starting at the middle pockets and working my way to the outside edges.

Once the pockets were sewn in, I took my vintage fabric and pinned it's right side to the pocket side of my linen/pocket piece. I also cut two ribbons and pinned them to the right side of the pocket/linen/vintage fabric sandwich and made sure that the ribbon was all tucked inside so it didn't get caught up as I sewed it all together. I made sure to place the ribbon towards the top of my pocket. Then, I sewed around the whole thing, leaving just a couple of inches to turn it right side out.

Before turning, I made sure to clip my corners. Then, I turned it right side out, and edge stitched all the way around. To make the flap, I just pressed it several times to make a crease.

I think it turned out rather cute! And it took me under an hour to make from start to finish.

2 comments:

KristenMary said...

That turned out great!! I bet she loved it. A non-gift birthday party for a 3 year old does seem counter intuitive, I think I would have done something like this too. :-)

Granny said...

These should be on etsy!