15 January 2013

Fabric Storage Boxes

A few months ago I came across this post for making fabric boxes to hold all those little odds and ends that need a home. I bookmarked the post, knowing exactly what I would make some from, and then promptly forgot about it.

Well, the something that I wanted to use, is actually bridal dress bags that have broken zippers. That's a whole story itself, so I'll try to be quick with that explanation. When I first started my sewing business, I bought a box of 50 bridal bags to give to clients who I make wedding dresses for. Of course I anticipated that these 50 bags would be all I would ever need, but (after the warranty ran out of course), the zippers started failing on them. Every now and then I will go through some of the remaining bags and test the zippers, and add more to the pile with broken zips.

The fabric cut out and ready to go
This week I started the process of taking apart the first of these bags.
I want to re-use as much of each bag as possible, but just taking them apart is rather time consuming. I have a couple of carry bags cut out ready to make (I'll be sure to share when that happens too), but what I really wanted to do was find out what I would have left after the bags to make some little boxes out of.

Edges sewn and corners trimmed and clipped



Following the tutorial over at Design Sponge, I made myself a template, ironed interfacing to the inside layer of fabric, added one of my labels on the outside, and voila! A completed box.


Topstitching in progress
Sewing the edges of the box together
The first completed box
I 'm hoping to make a few more in the near future, and thought that if I made some a little smaller they would make a perfect little box to put a tie in! What could you use these boxes for?


2 comments:

  1. Just so you know (on the off chance you've never discovered this) depending on what's broken on the zippers on your bags, they're pretty easy to fix! I work in an adventure sports store and we spend heaps of time fixing zips!
    Anyway, I love your little boxes :) they're so cute!

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    1. Thanks! The zip pulls are really poor quality, they keep snapping in various places. Those that don't snap have zippers that won't stay zipped (probably because of the dodgy zip pulls). Maybe if I contacted the manufacturer about them they would provide me with new zip pulls (and maybe they wouldn't), but either way, I really don't want to spend any more time or money fixing them. Especially when I get to make really cool things from the fabric! Stay tuned for my next post about these bridal bags, coming up soon.

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