DIY tutorial: make your own back-to-school kit

Summer is drawing to a close, but there’s good news: it's time to prepare your supplies for the start of the new school year. An essential back-to-school accessory is a pencil case, for keeping your pens, pencils, markers and highlighters organised in your school or office bag. Stand out from the crowd by making your own! Designing and sewing your own pencil case is a fun activity for children and adults alike. Follow the instructions below and use Caran d'Ache materials to make a school kit with a tricolour chequerboard design by artist and illustrator Steffie Brocoli.

DIY (Do It Yourself) is a trending hobby for creatingcustom objects in your own style through choice ofcolours, design and materials. Essential for organising office or school supplies, your pencil case accompanies you throughout the whole year. Before you begin to design your own pencil case, think about how you or your child will use it. Will it store coloured pencils? Pens? Other supplies? Based on your response, you can determine the right size.Next, choose an appropriate material. A lightweight, sturdy fabric is best. A pencil case needs to last over time, as it will be jostled in your bag and travel between home and classes or work.

A school kit can be customised in many different ways: from the materials and colours you choose to the embellishments you add. You can draw a design, paint a shape or embroider a motif. Use acrylic paints or colourful pins. Sewing, beading, colouring… the options are limitless.

To make a pencil kit in the bubbly and bold style of French artist Steffie Brocoli, you'll need:

Take your three tubes of acrylic paint and the light-coloured fabric. Starting from the top left corner of the fabric, paint green squares in a diagonal line. Leave a gap of empty (non-painted) squares and paint a diagonal line of red squares next to it, and then do the same with blue. Continue this pattern to the edges until the fabric is completely covered.

Once the outer fabric has been painted and dried, align it to the second rectangle of fabric that will line your kit. Place the two fabrics one on top of the other, edge to edge. Make small folds at the top and bottom of each piece (that is, on the short edges). Fold towards the inside as shown in the photo.

Use small pins to hold the folds in place and to keep the two pieces of fabric aligned.

Add the zipper you will use to open and close the kit. Position the ribbon part (called the ‘tape’) of your pre-cut zipper inside the top folds prepared in the previous steps. Attention! Make sure the zipper pull is facing the painted fabric. Pin it in place.

Starting from the interior face, use your needle and thread to sew the zipper into the fabric. Then close the zipper, if it’s not closed already.

Fold in the two short ends of the fabric to create the shape of the pouch, as pictured below. Position the other side of the zipper tape between the bottom folds in your fabric, and pin it in place. Unzip it and sew it to the fabric.

Next, you will sew the sides of the kit. Start by closing the zipper and turning the kit inside-out. Then sew across each raw edge (as shown in the second picture below).

Open the zipper and turn the pouch right-side-out. Your pencil case is ready to go into your schoolbag alongside your notebooks and diary!

It's time to try out your homemade pencil pouch! Fill it with your Neocolor® I pencils, Fibralo® felt-tip pens and Pablo® coloured pencils.