Do you need a quick, inexpensive, yet homemade gift for a child? Consider making one of these crayon pouches. Not only are they cute & practical, but also thrifty and thoughtful.

Supplies Needed: 2 felt squares of contrasting colors (usually 25 cents each), 1 pack of crayons (I bought mine during the back-to-school sales for 25 cents), DMC floss (usually 25 cents each and you could do this with one color strand if you want), scissors and a needle.

Did you add that up yet? It’s only 75 cents (plus tax) for you to make FOUR pouches with the same color scheme. Of course if you do multiple colors it will cost you more in supplies.

To make the pouches, cut three equal segments from the short side of the felt that are double the length of the crayons. There will be enough felt left at the end for you make one more pouch (cut in the opposite direction on the fabric). I used pinking shears to cut mine because I thought the zigzag edges added more novelty, but you could use regular scissors if that is what you have.

 To make the letter (I put a letter on the front that is the same letter as the child’s first name), I chose to free-hand the letter onto the felt using a fabric pencil. You could use some other sort of writing utensil or create a stencil for the letters by printing of letters with your computer & printer.

Make sure you hand stitch your letter on the front of the pouch before you stitch the sides closed because it will be much easier to stitch in that order.

 For the thread, I separated the DMC floss strand into 2 segments with 3 individual strands. The 3 strands together seemed to give it the right thickness to highlight the stitching. If you use less, it might not show very well and more could take over the letter.

Your final step is to stitch the sides closed. I chose to use a zigzag stitch with white thread on my machine, you could just as easily hand stitch it using your DMC floss.

Then insert the crayons. The pouch fits 8 crayons perfectly and a box is easily divided among the 4 pouches.

And you are finished with an easy, homemade gift just like that. It took me 1 hour to cut out 8 pouches (I just cut both colors right away, even though I was only making 4 right now, saves me a step if I want to make some more later), draw, cut, & hand stitch 4 letters, and machine stitch  the seams of 4 pouches.

Combine this with a coloring/activity book and you have a very thoughtful present. Two of them I made are for my kids and I am planning on having these be their crayons for in the car because it gives the something to store them in and it limits the amount of crayons they have available to use ( & lose) in the car.

I hope you are enjoying making some homemade presents this year with me. What other kinds of homemade presents have you made?