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Home » Recycled Storage Solution: Craft Fabric Boxes

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Recycled Storage Solution: Craft Fabric Boxes

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Happy New Year, or Happy Hogmanay as we say in Scotland, to all of my readers and visitors. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed the family time as much as I did. We’ve had a wonderfully busy and crafty start to 2014 here at Thistle Dubh Ewe and between orders and new knitting projects, this is the first of me getting a chance to post. I thought I’d start you off with a wee storage project since no doubt spring cleaning will be on the horizon for many of us.

This project may seem a little obvious but it’s amazing how many people are still throwing away cardboard boxes. I get loads of these as packaging and if they’re too big for me to reuse when I send out my own orders to customers, then I like to find an alternative purpose.

I saw a wonderful post on Google + recently from one of the recycling groups I belong to where UsedEverywhere had shared their ideas on what do with those truly huge boxes. You can check it out here Cardboard Creativity. Meantime, here’s an idea for those smaller boxes. Fabric storage! I have fabric coming out of my ears at the moment as many crafters do and I tend to find the prices on shop bought storage are a bit crazy to get anything of decent quality. As ever, handmade items are the ideal way to resolve the problem because you can make them completely to your own taste.

I started with a box I received from Amazon when I ordered a book for a Christmas present back in December. The first job was to grab my trusty Mod Podge and a selection of backing papers. The ones I used are from Diecuts With A View, in the Retro Prints mini paper stack. They’re acid and lignin free and there are 144 sheets which is great value.

Trusty Mod Podge for gluing and sealing

Trusty Mod Podge for gluing and sealing

Diecuts with a View retro papers

Diecuts with a View retro papers

I tucked the four top flaps in rather than cutting them off as it gives a nice sturdy double wall to your box. Next I covered the outsides with my chosen papers and found it’s a good idea to let each piece dry for a couple of minutes before layering over it with the next bit otherwise your cardboard gets a little soggy. I didn’t like seeing the joins between the papers, so I covered them with some ingenious self adhesive fabric strips. They come in a lovely selection of patterns which makes it easy to co-ordinate with your papers.

Peel 'n' Stick Fabric Borders

Peel ‘n’ Stick Fabric Borders

The inside didn’t look too nice and I wanted to make sure my stored fabrics wouldn’t catch or snare on any corners. To prevent that, I picked a nice 12″ x 12″ blue card and measured it to fit each of the 4 sides before gluing it in place. There was a slight dip in the bottom of the box where the 2 side flaps were turned up and I cut out a smaller bit of spare cardboard to fill in the gap. I used a couple of pieces of double sided sticky tape to secure the flaps and the centre section into place and with a newly level bottom, I padded it with a rectangle of wadding which was then covered with pretty matching material.

Double sided sticky tape secures the base

Double sided sticky tape secures the flaps

Cutting some cardboard to size to level the bottom of the box

Cutting some cardboard to size to level the bottom of the box

A little wadding to provide a cushion

A little wadding to provide a cushion

Completed Interior

Matching material covers the wadding

With the inside all sorted, I felt the exterior needed a little extra to jazz it up and added a pretty blue lace trim around the top. I’m thinking ahead here as I want to co-ordinate all of my storage and accessories with my new craft room. (Hooray for kids leaving home!) More on that another day though.

The penultimate step was to cut some more card, plain white this time, and fix it to the base in order to cover up all the paper edges that had been folded under. These tend to catch on things no matter how well glued down and I wanted the box to slide on and off the shelf without too much trouble.

Paper edges glued under on the base

Paper edges glued under on the base

Plain card to cover the paper edges

Plain card to cover the paper edges

Final touch was adding a pretty self adhesive label to one side (I bought mine for 99 pence but there are loads of free printables available online or you could design your own in Word) and filling the box up with a mixture of fat quarters that had been lying around and needed organised.

Lace Trim

Co-ordinating fabric borders and lace trim

Fabric Craft Box 1

Completed Craft Fabric Storage

I was so pleased with it that I went ahead and made a second one. 🙂 This time I covered the box with plain brown wrapping paper (more recycling), covered the inside completely with fabric and let it drape over the tops and corners, then tied it round with a piece of brown satin ribbon left over from another project.

Craft Fabric Storage

Second Craft Fabric Storage

This is such a quick and easy project to do and provides you with really fun, pretty storage for a multitude of things. Here are a few other ideas:

– Fill a small one with a manicure kit and give it as a birthday present

– Create one that co-ordinates or contrasts with your bedroom decor and gather all your make up into it on your dressing table

– Add some self adhesive gems for a bit of glitz or draw cool cartoon monsters on the outside and use it for keeping your child’s pens, pencils and crayons together.

Related posts:

  1. Wovember, Movember, Craft Stash and Craft Fairs!
  2. Recycling Your Plastic Drink Bottles
  3. Cool Craft Trends: What’s Hot For Your Makes In 2014
  4. Craft Kit Review – Sheep Cushion
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Filed Under: Craft Projects, Recycled Crafts

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Louise at Thistle Dubh Ewe

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Louise Lockhart
Beautiful tartan on the cutting mat today, and not Beautiful tartan on the cutting mat today, and not just any tartan! Purple tartan! 😁 Pattern matching as best I can. I'll have 5 medium/sock size bags from this fabric, all going well, so a very limited run. #knittersofinstagram #britishknitters #tartanstyle #projectbags #knittingaccessories #etsyuk #sockknittingbag #knittingbags #igknitters
Last of the gnomes for now. They've been so popula Last of the gnomes for now. They've been so popular, thanks for all the orders folks! ☺️ This shawl bag is in a new colourway. A brighter blue on an ice blue background. Super winter-y. ❄️ It will be heading off to its forever home this weekend. Expect more spring appropriate fabrics in the coming weeks as I live in hope of warmer weather. 😁 #knittingbags #projectbag #knittingaccessories #knittersofinstagram #britishknitters #etsyselleruk #shoplocal
Another couple of custom bag orders that flew the Another couple of custom bag orders that flew the coop last weekend. 🥰😊 More gonks heading off to southern climes this weekend. Last posting date has now passed for this year but the Etsy shop will remain open (link in profile) through the holidays 🎄 for orders posting in January. #knittersofinstagram #knittingbags #knittingstorage #projectbag #gonksofinstagram #knittersofig #britishknitters  #shoplocaluk #etsyukseller
Latest custom order that went off to its new home Latest custom order that went off to its new home last week. 😍 A sweater size bag, perfect for those larger cold weather projects. #winterknitting #knittingaccessories #wipbags #projectbag #etsyukseller #smallbusinessuk #sweaterknitting #knittingstorage #gonks
It's a chilly night here in West Lothian, obviousl It's a chilly night here in West Lothian, obviously the perfect time for some therapeutic sock knitting. Especially since there's more sock yarn on the way! 😙 I started this beauty 3 years ago 😳 and have no idea why it's never been finished. The pattern is so easy to follow and I really like the contrasting colour and pattern in the panel below the cuff. Ruth, the designer behind the pattern, did a great job with this one. 👏🥰 I am going to have more actual pairs eventually. 😂 #socktawk #britishknitters #yarnink #womenwhomake #knitlife #socknittersofinstagram #mindfullymade
My lovely friend Lucy is hoping to re-open her LYS My lovely friend Lucy is hoping to re-open her LYS, Purl A Row, after a recent move from Cornwall to Lincolnshire. Under the current circumstances it's proving to be a bit of a struggle, so any and all support would be deeply appreciated. Even if it's just sharing the information with others! 😊
If you're looking for a knitty treat for yourself or even a gift for a knitting friend, do check out the luxury Christmas boxes that Lucy has available. Her Knit Lit box series has proven very popular, so you might also be interested in the new Woodland Box subscription boxes which start in January. 👏😉 All sign up links can be found on the website at the link below! #shoplocal #smallbusinessuk
Posted @withregram • @purl_a_row I'm so pleased to offer you all this luxury Christmas knit box. Numbers are limited and I will not be able to add more once they have sold. 
For all the exciting details follow the link or go to the website and sign up links page.
https://forms.gle/4MqJm7DggG4mTxEF7
#PURLAROW #LYS #WOOLSHOP #YARNSHOP #SUPPORTINGSMALLBUSINESSES #KNITBOX
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