Birthday Season

I was pregnant with all three kids with big groups of women at church all due within a couple months of each other. It totally goes in spurts around here! There are so many buddies for both Malachi and Sapphira to play with at church and during spring and early summer we often are invited to a couple parties. A couple weeks ago, our entire family was invited to a fun party at an indoor play area for a sweet girl in Malachi's class. I texted her mamma ahead of time to ask what'd she like. I can't even tell you how excited I was when she responded "something from the dollar store or something you made.  She gets so much from family." I was digging through my stash when I remembered that I had picked up several boxes of crayons when they were on massive back-to-school sale last year and decided on a crayon roll. Yay!!

I used this pattern, but decided against using ric-rac so I wouldn't have to go to the craft store.  I have made this crayon roll before with a ribbon tie and the ribbon won't stay tied up and the kids can't tie it themselves so it kind of goes again the whole "quiet time" idea.  This time, I used a piece of elastic (hair ties are good for sooo many things!) and button.  I think this would have a better chance of being able to be used by a 5 year old.

I also modified the pattern to only hold 12 crayons since I had boxes of 24 and wanted to just split the boxes in half.  Also, having 16 crayons in the one I made seems to weigh it down and keep it from rolling up well.

To make the pocket seams nice and even, I took a piece of notebook paper, drew the 1 inch gaps along it, pinned it to the fabric and sewed right through it all.  Once you have sewn through the paper, the needle makes perforations and the paper rips away easily and cleanly.  Just a little tip from me to you! ;)

I was able to find these fun workbooks at the $1 bin at Target (I'm in love with those bins!!!) to round out this little gift.  Our sweet little friend seemed excited by our present, but I was more excited by the fact that this cost me $2.13 to put together!! (the fabric was all given to me, the button was an extra from a sweater, pink elastic from a package we were given, crayons were $.25 for a box of 24 and $1 for each workbook).  Now that's my kind of gift!!! ;)