Sunday, March 18, 2012

Pillow Case Box

I ditched school work today in favour of some crafting :)

Here is my creation; A fabric box made using an old pillow case and some cardboard!


I started with a plain white pillow case from the thrift store. We live in a tourist town, so lots of plain white hotel linens end up at the thrift store. Woo-hoo!


I trimmed off the band at the open end of the pillow case and later used it as a handle on the box.


I then sat the pillow case on the counter to create a flat base. I rolled down the top part so that I could see the corners. It's exactly how I made the tiny fabric box in this post.


I then marked straight lines across the corners...


Difficult to see the pencil marks, but they're there!


Then I sewed along the pencil lines.


The triangular flaps were long enough to sew together, so I did :)


Here you can see the box standing up, but it has no support.


Inside of the box...


(note: this is a great time to attach a handle to the box. The band I cut off at the beginning worked well - but I forgot to take photos of this step! I also should have ironed it, but didn't realize how crinkled the finished box would look.)

To give it some support, I used some cardboard I had lying around.


I made a box shape using the cardboard...

 

... Then stretched the pillow case around it...


... Then shoved the base to the bottom and hid all the rough edges.


I glued the excess pillow case (the raw edge from taking off the band) back up inside the box. I then glued the base of the box around the bottom edge to keep everything in place.


Here it is looking tidy-ish:


Ta-da!


The bottom of the box:


Inside the box:


I saw some similar boxes at Home Hardware for $7 each, but this one took me 25 minutes to make and cost me $1.50.

And because it is plain white, it's a blank canvas to decorate. Flowers, accent fabrics, labels... the possibilities are endless. How would you decorate it?

Happy crafting!

15 comments:

  1. This is a wonderful idea! I hope you'll stop over and share this creative project at Mix it up Monday:

    http://www.flourmewithlove.com/2012/03/mix-it-up-monday_18.html

    I hope to see you soon :)

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    1. Sounds great! I'll try to remember to stop by :)

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    2. I'm so happy that you got a chance to stop by! Thanks so much for sharing at Mix it up Monday :)

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  2. Shirley said:
    What a great idea. What was the dimension of the box?

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  3. Hi there!
    The finished product is 9" tall x 9" wide x 10.5" deep.
    I think the width of the pillowcase was 20", and with the birds-eye perimeter of the box being 39", it gives 1" leeway for stretching.
    The box could have been taller, but I wanted it to fit on some shelves with a height of 10".

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  4. Very clever.
    I've seen these at the Dollar General for a pretty small one (ON CLEARANCE EVEN)they were $3...holy cow, you saved yourself some moo-la!

    Pat

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  5. Hi Pat!
    You're right - I've seen very similar ones. The only down side is that this version is not easily collapsible. Although seeing as there is no rigid bottom to it, I am sure I could just squish the cardboard flat...

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  6. So cool! I really wish I had a sewing machine here! Thanks for linking up to A Pinteresting Party this week. :)

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  7. That is really, really clever! I am impressed!

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  8. Since my newest "thing" is white on white on white, I would leave it well.....white! Did I mention I LOVE this?

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  9. these are genius - i had a go at making one, he turned out a bit wonky so it'll be trying again - picture on my blog http://abimakes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/pillow-case-boxes.html

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  10. You could have even used another piece of cardboard covered with another pillow case at the bottom on the inside for more support ~ just a thought~

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