Containers Made of Fabric

In my last post, I wrote about trying to use up the fabric from containers — I have also been making containers from fabric, trying out different techniques I have seen on YouTube.

First, for myself —

Two containers from an old quilt.

I bought this double wedding ring quilt in the 1980s; it was labeled as a cutter quilt even back then!  So far I have made two containers from it.  For the one on the left, I used this video from Julie Stitches Vintage.  You start with a large square, and then cut away smaller squares from the corners.  This works great with this quilt, because the cut-away areas are just plain white, and the printed fabrics are showcased on the sides.

The one on the right is round, and I think it is even easier.  I followed a video from A Sewing Life. You just make a circular bottom, and then stitch a large rectangle to it, overlapping the ends.  I used half circles for the lining of the bottom, and then tucked a piece of Peltex in for stiffness.  I also slipped a rectangle of Peltex into the sides before stitching the opening closed, and I used some yo-yos to cover that seam.

I need these containers for my work flow.  When I start a project, I am so bad about pulling out tons of fabrics that I might possibly use, and then piling in cut pieces, scraps, etc. until it all becomes a big hodgepodge.  And then of course something happens that means I can’t get back to the project for days, and I forget what all my decisions were.  I need a system where I put the fabrics for each step in their own container — 1) possible fabrics, 2) fabrics I have actually used for the project, 3) scraps from the current project, and 4) fabrics to re-home.

Then, for my quilting group, I made a ton of these little berry-basket-type containers. I think the easiest technique for making them is found here at Crafting with Clementine.  She uses fusible fleece; I used craft-weight fusible interfacing.

Small fabric baskets in Christmas fabrics.

There are so many cute variations of these projects available — I am sure I will be making more!

Category : Quilting, Sewing
Tags : ,