Colored Pencil Holder

Since I have just finished a big project, I need to just work on quick projects here and there before I get into another intense project.  I plan to get to work on my sheep project soon.  In the mean time I decided to do a small sewing project.  It was a diversion for an afternoon.

I have recently joined an adult coloring book group in order to have some socialization time.  I enjoyed coloring books when I was a child.  It seems that other people in my age group are also fond of them.  Adult coloring books are a fad that are not only sweeping the nation, but overseas as well.  Coloring the pictures is a simple project.  There are coloring books with various levels of complexity.  Everyone can choose projects according to the amount of effort you want to put into a picture.

Every hobby has some sort of tools specific to it.  Along with a coloring book, you will also need something to color with:  crayons, markers, pens, or colored pencils.  Some people choose crayons for the array of colors and the connection with childhood coloring.  Other people choose markers for the intense color.  I prefer colored pencils because they can be sharpened to keep a fine point and they don't bleed on the fabric as some markers will.  The fine point is very helpful if your pictures have small areas to color.  Also, some craft stores and online vendors will sell individual pencils.  You don't need to buy a whole set if you run out of a color.

The one complaint I had about colored pencils is that they were hard to see the colors if you kept them in their box.  (This may not be a problem if you buy an expensive set that comes in trays.)  If you take the pencils out of the box for ease of spotting the color they are a nuisance to put back in the box.  When out of the box, the colors rarely stay in their color groupings for long.  I like having all my colors sorted so that all the reds, blues, yellows, etc. are all grouped together so I can make choices on which shade of that color I think will work best.  It is easier to do this when similar colors are all in one spot. 

I decided to make a fabric pencil holder for the colored pencils.  I would be able to see all the pencils at once.  The pencils could be kept in some color order.  Only one pencil (or a few) would be out at any one time.  When it was time to go, the pencil(s) could be inserted back into their slot and the holder quickly rolled up and put away. 

I will note that there are commercial pencil holders available.  For the most part, it would be less expensive to buy one than to make one unless you happen to have scrap material around.  Because commercial ventures are buying their materials in bulk, they are purchasing at a much lower price and can sell the products for less than it would cost to buy this materials as an individual.  When you factor in the production time involved and that the product is shipped here from another country, you wonder how the the pencil holders can be sold so inexpensively.  You can not compete with an economy of scale.

Since I quilt and sew, I tend to have a lot of material around.  I also had some scrap pieces of batting.  It was worth it for me to make one rather than buy one as long as I am counting the time as amusement rather than figuring it into the cost.  I set out to make a prototype.  As usual, there is a learning curve when trying to figure out how to make something.

I had seen a colored pencil holder where the pencils fitted through slots made from elastic.  The owner of that particular style of holder said that she did not like it because the fabric tended to bunch up when she tried to roll it up.  It seemed to me that it was also possible that if a pencil came out of the slot that it could fall out if the case was rolled up too loosely.  Also, elastic tends to lose its stretch over time.  I decided to make a pencil holder with long slots sewn into the fabric to hold the pencils in place.  This is not a new design.  This type of roll up case is used for everything from artist's brushes to mechanics wrenches.  Still, there were a few things that needed to be worked out for the pencil case to work effectively.

I started out by placing the green fabric face up.  The green fabric was covered with a piece of muslin.  The muslin was topped by a piece of batting.  The batting was a cotton/poly blend.  It was what I had available.  The fabrics were pinned then cut to size all at once.  I am not putting the size on here because as it turned out I messed up on that.  I will tell you how to determine the size you need to cut the fabric so you can figure it correctly for your project.  The reason I messed up on my initial fabric length is because I underestimated the depth and width of the slots.  I measured my colored pencils, but found that the measurement did not allow enough give to take the pencils in and out with ease.  I could get them in and out, but I had to work at it.  I had to allow more room so the fabric would give enough for the pencils to sit firmly but go in and out easily.  I had to increase the allowance for each slot. 

I had initially measured for three-eighths inch for each pencil slot.  That was too little.  I tried a half inch but that was also very tight.  On this project I finally settled on five-eighths of an inch for each pencil slot.  However, I have decided that I will give a full three-quarters of an inch for each slot on future projects.  The increased slot size reduced the number of slots in the row.  I had originally planned to put a different set of colored pencils in this pencil holder.  Now that there were less slots, there were not enough slots for the set of pencils.  That was not a big problem as I had two smaller sets of pencils.  Now there are some extra slots.  I will know better next time.  (The only down side to putting that set in is that the pencil only shows color at the tip and butt of the pencil.  It makes it a little more difficult to determine the color.  My other sets have the color painted the length of the pencils which makes it easier to spot the color,)

 To get the first measurement for your pencil holder figure the figure the number of pencils multiplied by 3/4 of an inch.  Add one inch to that figure for seam allowances and you will have your measurement.  Example 24 pencils time 0.75 inches = 18   18 + 1 = 19

Your pencils will be lying crosswise on the fabric.  To get the other measurement you will have to determine how deep you want each pocket to be.  On my prototype I used three and a half inches for the pocket size.  Ultimately I found that this measurement was too deep.  Although the pocket allowed for plenty of the pencil to be visible I could see that it might be problematic once the pencils had been sharpened a number of times.  Although I would definitely have been looking for a replacement pencil by the time it reached that point.  I decided that for my next pencil holder I will use the measurement of two and a half inches for the pocket depth.  Since the top stitching will be holding the fabrics together there will be no need for a hem when folding up the fabric to make a pocket.  You will need to allow an equal amount of fabric for the fold on the other side.  That fold will not be sewn down.  It is just a flap to prevent any pencils from escaping if they should come out of a pocket.  Your measurement for this is the length of the pencil plus an extra inch to make sure that the fold is not too tight against the pencil tip plus five inches for the folds.  Example:  pencil length is eight inches.  8 + 1 + 2.5 + 2.5 = 14 

Using this example for a 24 pencil set the fabric measurements would be 19 x 14 inches.  This is a manageable size to open up in at a table full of people.  If you have larger sets of 48 or more the holder may be too long to be useful in a group.  I have a different plan for larger sets but I will show that type of holder some other time.

When it is time to pin the fabrics, mark a five inch opening that will be left open for turning the fabric once it is sewn.  Begin at one of the marked places and sew all the way around the fabric until you reach the other marked opening allowing a quarter inch seam allowance.  After sewing, clip the corners and trim the seam allowance to an eighth of an inch.  After that, turn the fabric rectangle inside out.  Your print fabric will now be facing right side out.  Insert the fabric ties and topstitch the opening closed.  Continue topstitching  all the way around the rectangle. 

Once the topstitching is done, fold up one long side to the desired depth of your pockets.  Pin and stitch on each edge.  Next it is time to sew the pockets.  For the first pocket, measure from the topstitching seam, not the edge of the fabric.  Mark the stitching line on the fabric.  Sew from the bottom edge to the top of the pocket.  Make sure that this line is straight.  A variance here will affect the rest of your stitching lines.  (Learn from my fail on this.  My pencils pockets end up being slightly slanted.  For the purpose of this project it does not affect the pencils so I did not go back and rip out the stitching.  It is just not as aesthetically pleasing.)  Anyway, you continue stitching until all your pockets are completed.  I found it useful to use the walking foot with the attachment that allows you to make lines parallel to a previous line.  If you don't have a walking foot, a regular foot will do but you may have to measure for each line.  In that case you might want to make a cardboard template to help you mark the lines so you don't have to measure each time. 

After that, the pencils are inserted in their pockets.  The opposite side is folded down over the pencils so they will catch any that come out of the pockets.  Roll up the holder firmly, tie it off and you are done. 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  It was so much easier to put up three pictures rather than write step by step about how to make this project.  I am sure that most people could figure it out in no time from the pictures.  Writing this explanation took a long time.  The morning is pretty well shot. 

Next blog post will be about my latest sphere project.  I will be blogging about that next time.  Then I will be working on the sheep I think.  Check back on Thursday for the sphere post.