Crayon mania

I decided to make E a drawing case for an upcoming trip. I figured the novelty of it would keep her fairly occupied on the plane - hopefully for longer than 10 minutes. Being somewhat of a cheapskate, I decided to try and draft my own pattern rather than buy one, but then a friend ended up loaning me her pattern. Unfortunately, I'd already cut most of the pieces according to my own measurements, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover they actually weren't all that far off from those in the pattern. So after a few adjustments and a little bit of re-cutting, here's the finished product!

I have to say, while there were some good ideas in the store-bought pattern, I think that I could definitely improve on it. I'm definitely going to give it another try when I get back. The bad news was that I ended up wasting quite a bit of the pretty (and not cheap) butterfly print fabric. I did, however, manage to save enough to make a crayon roll.

The inside:

And while I was cutting the fabric for that one, I decided to go ahead and cut a whole bunch more. I have a ton of ladybug fabric leftover from the nap mat I made last year, so when I came across some fat quarters in the sale bin that had a coordinating red & black polka dot print, I knew they'd make super cute crayon rolls. I'm hoping to sell some to try and recoup some of my fabric purchases of late. These are actually quite fun to make once you have them all cut and ready to go (cutting has always been my least favorite step), not to mention a great way to use up leftover fabric.

I'll also note that while the original crayon roll I made for E was based on a couple of the tutorials I've found online, these are modified to be a bit more to my liking. I also made them padded by lining them with fusible fleece. It makes them a little bit bulkier, but they also feel sturdier. Get ready to be bombarded with lots of crayon rolls over the next month or so!