Makin' It Monday-Child's Coloring Portfolio

I have seen different versions of coloring wallet/portfolios out in blog land and thought they were very cute.  I decided that my niece had to have one for her birthday.  So, I sat down and started thinking what I wanted this portfolio to look like. And here is what I came up with.

You will need:

2 coordinating fabrics

Wonder Under

Felt

elastic

button

I started by cutting my fabric.  I wanted this to be a tri-fold portfolio that held the paper, crayons, and a portfolio sleeve to hold finished projects.  I measured my paper tablet and then added and inch to come up with the height I needed to cut out.  To come up with the width to cut I took the width of my tablet and multiplied it by 3 and added 1 1/2-2 inches to that number.  So if your paper is 6x9 you need to cut your fabric to be 20x10.  You will need two pieces of fabric this length and width.  You will also need a piece of felt this size as well.  I didn't have a solid sheet of felt.  I laid my Wonder Under on top of 4 sheets of felt and fused the sheets together.

Then I fused my felt sheets to the wrong side of one of my pieces of fabric. 

Then I pinned my two pieces of fabric wrong sides together.

Sew all the way around, leaving an opening a couple inches long so that you can turn your fabric.

Flip your fabric so that the right sides are showing.  You will need to take a small pointed object and push out the corners so that they are nice and smooth.

Measure your crayons and then turn up the fabric so that the crayons will have the tips showing once your portfolio is finished.  Then fold the other side down to create the portfolio sleeve.  To check that your portfolio will fold up nicely place the tablet in the middle and fold over the crayon section and the portfolio section.  You should have a nice even rectangle.  If you need to now is the time to adjust the flaps.

Top stitch you opening closed from where you turned your fabric.  Sew down the top and bottom of the flaps that you made for the crayons and the portfolio sleeve.

Now that you have your crayon sleeve in place mark off the slots for the crayons to go.  I measured the width of my sleeve and then divided by the number of crayons I wanted to add to my roll.  Then I tested each width to make sure I could easily slide the crayons in and out.  Don't make these slots too small or the crayons won't go in. Sorry, I don't have exact measurements for you, but the slots need to be about 1/2 apart for normal size crayons.  If you use the jumbo fat crayons, then you will need to spread your seams out farther.

Take another piece of coordinating fabric and cut it.  Once again this depends on the size tablet you use.  For a 6x9 tablet you will need a piece of 7x5 inch piece of fabric.  I just used a piece of scrap fabric.  Turn the edges under 1/2 and sew all the way around the rectangle.

Pin the fabric in the middle of your two sleeves.  This is going to be where you slide the back of the tablet to keep it in place.  Once you have this pinned, then sew down the sided to the bottom of the portfolio.

Now you should have something that looks like this.  You are ready to all the crayons and paper.  But first we need to attach a button and elastic so that the portfolio will stay closed.

Sew a button on the front of the portfolio sleeve. Make sure you sew this on the top side only and not through the entire sleeve. If you sew through the sleeve, then it won't hold paper.

Next, attach a piece of elastic (mine is a hair band) to the back of the portfolio.  This is the back side of the little pocket we just sewed in place.  Once the elastic is secured I cut out a little square, hemmed it, and then sewed it on top of the elastic to cover the ends that I hand stitched down.

Your done!!  Fold up your portfolio and give to that budding artist in your family!

Happy Sewing!!

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