Tutorial - Fabric Covered Boxes with Ribbon Ties - Part 1

I've been working on the tutorial for the fabric covered boxes and it's kind of involved. I originally planned to show you how to make one box but decided it would be more fun to show you how to make all three out of a regular old shipping box. I'm going to be posting the instructions in three parts. Here's part 1...

Fabric Covered Boxes with Ribbon Ties

Materials Needed:

• One shipping box (corrugated cardboard type... size doesn't really matter but I would imagine it would be tough to make these if your box is really small. The one I'm using for this tutorial measures 11 1/4"x 8 3/4" x 4")
• Mid to heavy weight home decor fabric to cover boxes (yardage kind of depends on the size of your original box. For mine, 1/2 yard for the big box and 1/4 yard each for the two smaller boxes seemed to be the right amount)
• One small jar of Mod Podge
• Paintbrush (I used a small foam one)
• Fabric scissors
• Regular scissors 
• Fray Check
• One small tube of Fabri-Tac or a regular old glue stick
• One spool of coordinating grosgrain ribbon
• Iron and ironing board
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Clothespins (16 if you have them, but you can get away with using as few as 8)
• Masking tape (I used blue painters tape but any kind will do)
• Sewing machine and matching thread (optional)

First, find one of these... (I've been known to dig them out of the neighbors' trash) :-)

Now we're going to disassemble our shipping box to make the insides of our three fabric covered boxes.

Box #1 (largest box)

Cut off the four top flaps and set them aside.

Now cut the sides of each flap as shown.

So you have something that looks like this.

Now cut off those extra flaps on the bottom of the box and set them aside as well.

Depending on how well the box was taped up to begin with, you may be done here. I felt that my box was a little flimsy so I added some masking tape to two sides.

Your box should now resemble a cross shape when lying flat. You're done with box #1. Set it aside and let's make the inside of box #2.

Box #2 (medium-sized box)

You should now have four small rectangles and two large rectangles. We'll make box #2 with the four smaller rectangles.

One rectangle will be the bottom of your box, two rectangles will be the long sides and you'll cut the last rectangle to make the two short sides.

I measured the short side of the rectangles and determined that they were 4 1/4" long (exactly half the length of one of the long rectangles). I drew a line at the 4 1/4" mark and cut. 

Now lay out all of your pieces and attach them with masking tape as shown.

When I pulled my box sides up, they were not all the same height. The two longer sides were about 1/4" too tall, so I drew a line and cut them to the height of the two smaller sides.

You're done with box #2. Set aside and grab your two long rectangles to make box #3.

Box #3 (the littlest box)

We'll make the small box out of the last two (longer) rectangles. 

Start by measuring the length. Mine was just slightly longer than 11". I thought it would be easier to work with a whole number so I drew a line at the 11" mark and cut that piece off.

I then measured two inches on each end, drew lines, then cut those pieces.

To make the sides, take your other rectangle and mark lines delineating two 2" pieces as shown.

Cut those pieces and assemble all four into the cross shape. Apply masking tape as you did with the two larger boxes.

That's it. You're done with the interior pieces of all three boxes.

I'll be back soon with Part 2 of the tutorial which involves cutting your fabric and maybe even a little mod podging.

As always - if you have any questions, leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.

* This project featured on Mod Podge Rocks here.

** Linked up to Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog here.