Boxes Project Part 4

The last of my three thrifted boxes for my fabric journals proved to be a pain in the backside. After removing the smelly, stained flocked cardboard liner I also had to scrape out the sticky old glue, which was super nasty (a putty knife works best if you have to do this on wood.) Finally I got the interior almost down to the wood; a couple of paper patches refused to come out. I also didn't want to soak the box to try to remove them as it's made of composite wood, which can swell.

After another thorough cleaning I cut and fit some decorative cardstock to use as new lining.

I also cut a piece of cardboard to fill in the big hole in the underside of the lid.

Here's everything glued into place. I used hot glue to do this as ordinary glue might have made the cardstock wrinkle.

For the top of the box I decided to make a little quilt from some hand-painted velvet on an antique crazy quilt cutter piece I had on hand. I thought it would go well with the dark wood.

Here's the finished box. Although it gave me the most trouble out of the three, I really liked how it turned out. I was also quite happy to recycle that handpainted velvet patch and give it new life.

Recycling thrifted boxes isn't for everyone, I know, but you can have a lot of fun with a project like this. It's also an inexpensive way to create something memorable, and challenge yourself creatively. I probably wouldn't have had as much fun with tins, so I'm glad I opted for boxes. All of the materials I used were those I had on hand -- I didn't buy anything new to use for the project -- so the $11.97 that I paid for the boxes the whole project still came in well under my budget of $20.00.

Now to make some fabric journals to put in the boxes!

Comments

Maria Zannini said…

I really love the liner to that last box. It's perfect. Did you ever think to make one of the lids puffy so you can stick pins in it? Though I imagine you probably have all the pin cushions you'll ever need.

Really nice job upcycling.

August 16, 2022 at 12:59 PM

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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