I had hoped to be further along with the project I started last week, but I think it’s so annoying when life gets in the way of playtime! I like making fabric boxes and use them to hold all sorts of things, and I want to use this one to hold some of my sketching pencils because I’m always putting them down somewhere and losing them. So this box is going to be long and narrow.
This is as far as I’ve gotten with my fabric box. I’ve got the pieces cut out of Peltex stabilizer which is a heavyweight stabilizer and perfect for this type of project. You can read more about why I like to use Peltex here.
I wanted to use some lovely embroidered fabric for the top of the box but I didn’t have a long enough piece so I cut three sections, overlapped them and covered the edges using some ribbon.
This ribbon is lovely and soft with metallic threads running down the center.
I’ve started to add some embellishment to the box lid using small squares of silk velvet as an background applique with some embroidery and beading on top. I like the way it’s turning out.
The silk velvet is lovely to look at and it’s quite silky and soft which also makes it a bit challenging to work with. However adding some light to medium-weight fusible stabilizer to the back makes it easier to cut and also helps to prevent fraying.
The embroidery is made using simple straight stitches with a french knot at the end, with a cluster of bead soup in the corner.
I love using bead soup; it’s a very creative way to add beaded embellishments – simply dip your needle into the bead mix, pick up a bead and sew it on.
What results is a lovely cluster of different sizes and colors of beads. You can find out more about how to sew beads onto fabric here. Hopefully I can get the fabric box finished over the weekend.
If you’ve never made a fabric box before, this is a good book to get you started. It explains the basics and gives you some good basic shapes to work with. You can find it here on Amazon.com.
Alternatively if you want to get a bit fancy with your fabric boxes, try this book which is one of my favorites. This book includes lots of ideas for making unusual shaped boxes and embellishing them. Also available here on Amazon.com.
