Coloured Pencil Roll

I’ve been trying to think of something I can make as a gift for my wee godson. I was perusing on Pinterest just last week and stumbled upon an awesome idea. Problem? I forgot to pin it! But the concept got lodged in my brain and I decided to give it a try anyway, taking what I could remember from the single snap I had seen on the site.

The idea? A coloured pencil roll. Such a neat idea, not only is it mess friendly for Mum (the little roll can easily slot into a drawer or onto a shelf with very minimal clutter) but it’s also great for a little ones dexterity and learning to put away toys we use.

I decided to give the whole thing a go. Keep in mind as you read on that I am absolutely not a sewer! But I made do, which means for you at home that if you are a sewer you’ll fly through and make a much neater job than I, and if you’re not, you can make it anyway!

What You’ll Need

About half a metre of 3 types of fabric, 2 thin cottons, 1 thick

some thick lining or stuffing (half a metre or so)

sewing basics:

cotton, scissors, pins

and coloured pencils!

Now, as a non-sewer I have made this as simple as possibly possible!
Step One – Cut a long rectangle of stuffing – tall enough to house your pencils with extra height at each end, and long enough to house 20 odd of them with a 2cmish gap between each pencil. I’m sure it could be more mathematical than that, but I did it that simply so let’s keep it that simple!

Step Two – Cut both your thick cotton (this one will make the inner) and one of your soft cottons (this ones the outside) to be about an inch wider than this all around (like a seam) – I did this by lying the mesh on top and cutting around it…

Step Three – After pinning my thickest fabric neatly to the stuffing, I hand-stitched a seam around the entire rectangle, securing the entire fabric down.

Step Four – With the stuffing still exposed on the back I decided to do all my messy work now (the backing could cover my messy ends). I cross-stitched my god-son’s name into the top right corner, along with a little bunny rabbit (part of his nickname )

Step Five – Ok, so now I took one of the two soft cottons (the other one is the big cut one that’s going to make the backing). I ironed it into a neat rectangle -this is going to house the pencils so I made it a cm shorter than the pencils. I doubled it up by folding it over (print is on both sides now) and folded the bottom three sides in, ironing them flat to stay in shape. So this is the left, bottom, and right that are folded in and pressed.

Like this, times three

Step Six – now I attached the ironed piece onto my front lining – positioned at the centre bottom. This is the pencil holder part! I stitched the left, bottom and right into place. Then I stitched a series of straight lines vertical on the fabric – this is what will separate the pencils, so make sure they’re wide enough for a pencil to slide in and out! Conveniently the print I chose had little silhouette children on it that happened to be spaced just far enough apart to house a pencil!
Keep in mind the top needs to be left open for the pencil to slip in and out!

Step Seven – with all the messy work now done, it’s time to add the backing. Now I imagine there are MUCH neater ways to do this, I just don’t know how! (Advice and tips very much welcome!). Because I was choosing to leave the original stitching exposed on the inner side, the stitching that secured the back was going to have to match/overlap. Unfortunately I had run out of my old cotton so I have a funny mix of blue gliding over grey…oops!

Step Eight – finishing touches now! Add the button, how you’ll tie the roll up once it’s done!

Step Nine – and the ribbon! This will loop onto the button to keep it all together! Mine was placed about 15cm south of the button but might change on the thickness of your pencils etc I worked it out simply by rolling it up and seeing what worked!

I found these great little tags at our local craft store Spotlight and just had to add them!

Ok, you’re almost there! Just pop in your coloured pencils.

That’s it! Your inner will look something like this (I chose to leave a pocket at the far right end for assorted sharpeners etc)

The outer will look something like this

Ok all set! There you have it, your own coloured pencil roll. I’m actually really happy with how it turned out. It’s definitely a bit rough around the edges, but it’s practical, cute, and made entirely with love for my little man!

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