Crayon Batik Pencil Case

In my home I have jars and jars of left-over fabric dye I prepared for tie-dyeing. So whenever I see the chance to use up some of them I take it 😉 I also love experimenting with different mediums and techniques so when I heard about crayon batik I knew I had to try it. It turned out pretty well and it was a really fun project to do.

• Zipper
• White cotton
• Lining fabric (I used some leftover printed cotton)
• Needle and thread
• Sewing machine (optional)
• Crayons
• Fabric dye in liquid form (I used some left-over aniline dye from tie dying)
• Metal tin and aluminium foil
• Small painting brush
• Pencil
• Scissors

Cut out 4 identical fabric rectangles slightly wider than the length of the zipper: 2 from the white cotton fabric and 2 from the lining fabric.

For every color shape a small bowl out of foil and place them all so they fit smugly in a metal tin (ideally you would just use as many small tins as you have colors, but if you don’t have those the method with foil bowls will work just fine). Break the crayons into pieces an place them in the designated bowls or tins.

On the white fabric, draw out your design with a pencil. Put the tin with crayon pieces on the stove on low heat. Once the crayons melt, start painting on your design, cleaning the brush between colors. Paint quite thinly, then allow to cool down

Crumple the fabric. Wet it with cold water, then place in cold fabric dye. Once happy with the color remove and rinse out with cold water. Hang to dry. Optional: I sprayed the front part of the fabric with some fixative to limit flaking. It seemed to help.

Place the batik piece of fabric right side up. Place the zipper wrong side up along the top of the fabric piece. Place the lining fabric piece on top wrong side up. You should have the zipper sandwiched between the batik fabric and lining, both pieces wrong sides facing out. Sew along the top edge. Fold back. Then repeat the same process with the other side of the zipper. Fold back.

Now fold the fabric in such a way that both the lining pieces face each other right sides in as well as the batik pieces facing each other. Sew along the perimeter leaving a gap for turning inside out.

Turn inside out. You’ll have to turn the lining undo the zipper and then turn the batik part. Sew up the gap using an invisible stich as shown. Place the lining part within the batik pouch. And you're done 😃