crayon caddy: a semi-tutorial

 I saw these at Parts and Labour in Austin over the weekend. I had one of those "I can make that!" moments. So last night, using fabric and materials I already had, I made a prototype. I cut three rectangles that were 16 inches by 8.5 inches. Two different prints, plus one piece of medium weight interfacing (I had some left over from when I made a fabric bucket for Katy). I figured I could make one piece, fold it up and sew, kind of like how Martha makes aprons and tote bags. 

 So after my prototype success, I cut three sets for three caddies. Fabric fronts facing each other, with interfacing at the bottom, all pinned up. I sewed around three sides, turned right side out, and ironed. I folded under the open side and ironed it in place. 

 Here are my three sets folded up and pinned. One of the sides is still open from turning right side out (are you with me?). I tucked some ribbon into the open side and sewed the side shut and attached the ribbon in the process. I used about two 10 inch pieces of ribbon. Not all of them are exactly 10 inches, considering I only had so much ribbon to work with. If I make more, I might use elastic or velcro instead of ribbon.

 After I sewed the sides up, I laid my caddy across my cutting mat ruler and placed a pin every inch. I had 14 slots on my prototype and these ended up having 13, oops! I don't know. Kids really don't need more than 13 crayons in one sitting anyway, right? I sewed a line where each pin was, saving string trimming for the very end. When I trimmed it all up, I put crayons (13 of them) in each slot. 

 I bought two giant boxes of crayons. So each caddy has different colors. I made sure to have some version of the rainbow in each one. Some lucky kid will get the brick red and the midnight blue (my two favorite crayon colors).

Here they are all rolled up and ready for the market! I enjoyed this project because I had to figure it out as I went along, and I got to use some scraps and match fabric together.