Reusable Holiday Fabric Gift Box Tutorial

Gift shopping & wrapping for the holidays getting challenging?  Want some packaging that will wow and also won't get tossed in the trash in a hot second?  Make my Holiday Fabric Gift Box! Today's tutorial shows how to use gorgeous holiday fabrics to make your gifts look amazing and keep wrapping easy.  Added bonus, they can be used year after year, so one box will last a long time!

It's also a much nicer presentation than a boring paper box or bag - the inside is just as pretty as the outside:

And my how-to makes a generous sized box.  No teeny-weeny, holds-next-to-nothing containers here!  This one's approximately 8 inches high by 10 inches around.  It's perfect for packaging clothing, toys, hard to wrap shapes or using for storing holiday items like ornaments or decorations:

I was lucky enough to get my hands on some lovely holiday fabric from modeS4u, a great Kawaii-themed online shop that specializes in beyond cute fabric, stationary & accessories. 

They have some seriously adorable items & ship worldwide, so I was thrilled when they asked me to pick out some Christmas fabrics to try out and design a project around them.  

And check out how cutely it came packaged - a present for me to make a present tutorial for you!!

Now, let's get to how to make your own fabric gift box:

Materials:

- 5/8yd each holiday quilting cotton for outer & lining mine can be found here & here

- 1 yd Extra Firm Sew-In Stabilizer

- 1 yd Medium Weight Fusible stabilizer 

- Spray Adhesive

- 1 package double fold bias tape

- Notions (iron, pinking shears, rotary cutter/shears, pins, heavy duty sewing needle)

Cut the following pieces:

- 8 inch high by 33 inch wide rectangle from outer + lining + fusible stabilizer

- 2 inch high by 33 inch wide strip from outer + lining + fusible stabilizer

- 10 1/2 inch diameter circle from outer + lining + fusible stabilizer

Also cut a 7 1/4 high by 32 inch wide rectangle and a 10 inch diameter circle from the Extra Firm sew-in stabilizer:

Start by fusing the medium-weight stabilizer to the wrong side of the lining pieces (base, side, lid top, lid edge strip).  Fold the side pieces of the outer fabric width-wise, with right sides facing, and stitch along the short side with a 1/2 inch seam allowance and repeat with lining piece.  Do the same with the lid strips, but use a 3/8 inch seam allowance (this will make the lid fit better later).

With right sides facing, pin the circular bottom to the box side piece and stitch together. 

Repeat this with the lid outer and lining pieces, again using a 3/8 inch seam allowance.  Trip all raw edges with pinking shears or clip around curves.

Now the lining half of the box & lid is set:

Personally, I hate trying to sew Extra Firm/Ultra Firm stabilizer into place on a curved item. It's hard to get on the machine, adds a lot of thickness to seams and tends to shift around when sewing.  Even a careful job, with an expert hand, can end up looking wobbly and lead to some profanity, mutterings about throwing the project out the window, etc.  So here's what I do to save my sanity on projects like this:  grab a can of spray adhesive and lightly coat the stabilizer (tip: do it outside or on scrap paper so you don't get sticky spray on everything around it).  This is where it's important to have cut the stabilizer smaller than the fabric pieces, as mentioned earlier, so it will fit together like a glove when the seam allowances are gone.

Smooth the circular pieces into place on the wrong sides of the box bottom and lid top.  If there are wrinkles or it's not centered, just peel it up and move.  That's what you can't do when sewing & it slides around (unless you want to unpick all the stitching and start over, which I rarely want to do).

Repeat with the side piece on the outer fabric.  It takes a little time, but I feel like it's much better than wrestling with it on the machine.  It helps to start pressing it on it's side and then sit the box up and smooth like this:  

No need to add it to the lid's edge, so one less thing to spray!  Once everything looks good, insert the lining into the outer box, smooth together, and pin along raw edge at the top. Repeat with the lid.

Encase the edge in the bias tape and stitch along the tape edge, using a heavy duty needle. Repeat with the lid.

Now the box is ready to fill with all sorts of holiday goodies:

I love how both fabrics are bold and mid-sized designs, but they totally compliment one another.  Add a bow on top and be ready to wow this season!

I'm also sharing this project with my FAVE LINK PARTIES.

Click HERE to check them out!

I was not financially compensated for this post.  I received fabric from modeS4u, to review & use as I desired.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.   For my complete disclosure policy, click here. 

Craftastic Monday Link-up & Bloor West Fabrics Cyber Monday Deal

Ready to party Cyber Monday style?  It's a day of deals, the start of December AND the winter holidays are in full swing.  It's all coming at us so fast this year - are you scrambling to keep up like I am?  I feel like I need to stop sleeping to get caught up!!  I've got lots of great tutorial features this week to help with seasonal ideas:

And to start the Cyber Monday celebration, check out my newest advertiser, Bloor West Fabrics, who has a special today-only deal:  Spend $70+ and get half price shipping. It's ideal offer for us fans of unique fabrics.

Bloor West Fabrics is the place to find those rare & sought after European knits & ribbons. The fresh and colorful Hilco and lillestoff prints you see in places like Ottobre Design and in European clothing boutiques.  Really gorgeous designs that will make amazing sewn items that are super hard wearing too.

Like these beautiful, European organic cotton knits.  They would make fabulous shirts, pajamas, underwear or blankets.  They're extra nice because besides being totally adorable, these jersey knits are printed with reactive colors, so the printed designs break up don't show the when stretched. 

  
There are gorgeous jacquard ribbons too.  Ideal for hair bows, trimming projects & eye-catching gift packaging:

And ÖkoTex certified cotton poplins for creating some striking bags, shirts or housewares:

Usually finding these fabric brands and styles is a real challenge, so it's great to have found a shop that offers all those amazing European fabrics in one place.  Today's Cyber Monday offer makes it more reasonable too.  Being in the US, 1/2 price shipping from Germany is a big savings!  And you can follow Bloor West Fabrics on Pinterest and Facebook to keep up with all the latest arrivals.

Now let's see some super Craftastic picks..

The Keeper of the Cheerios knocked it out of the park with this cardboard gingerbread playhouse.  I totally want one of these for me (or maybe my kids if they're nice)!

Meeha Meeha shared this unique & fun igloo advent calendar how-to.  So cute!

Just A Little Creativity had this awesome tutorial for woodland place card holders that look even better than the pricey Pottery Barn version that inspired them:

A Spoonful of Crafts showed how to make these sweet heart pom poms:

Seasonal treats are a real perk of winter - check out these Hot Chocolate Cake Pops over at Pint Sized Baker (courtesy of D&D Sweets):

Use twinkle lights in a new way this winter - check out this Hikari light up dress tutorial from Sew Chibi:

If you're one of this week's features, be sure to grab my Featured On button over on the sidebar to let everyone know.  I also feature these projects & more party favorites on the Sew Can Do's Craftastic Picks board on Pinterest AND I share each of them on Twitter too.  Follow me there to see more great projects (and see if yours is one of them)!   

  

Ready to link up your crafty creations?

 

Party rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty, and made by you, it's Craftastic (no links to giveaways, shops, link parties or other people's work).  Add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog somewhere.  The code's on the sidebar -> 
• Check out some of the other fabulous links and share some crafty comment love.  We all love getting comments!!

I Made It! Using Tags & Labels To Show Your Handmade Pride

Do you sign your handmade items?  I don't mean actually sign them, but adding a label or tag to show it was made by hand.  If you put in effort, time & love, to make something, doesn't it deserves to get a shout out when finished?  Here are a bunch of great ways to share that handmade pride:

Go the twill tape label route.  These Zakka and Sweet Heart styles have multiple designs by the yard:

They can be used to tie up a handmade gift or cut apart to make separate labels like this:

Embellish It.  These Wooden Handmade tags come in a 10 piece assortment (I'd already used two on projects by the time I took this).  I like that you can just glue them in place or use the holes to stitch them on.  

I stitched one onto my favorite bag (from my original free Off To Market pattern).  Even though it's been 2 years since I made it, I still hear compliments on it when I'm carrying it, so it feels good being able to add a handmade tag for a little extra polish.  

And there's the added bonus that the bird version was a perfect match to the fabric design:

Sassy Stitched Labels.  If you're feeling more cheeky, these fabulous labels from Sublime Stitching express the true sentiment behind some of those more pain-in-the-backside projects:

Metal Accents.  Go all sleek with some metal handmade tags & zipper pulls for a more upmarket finish:

There are even functional ways to add the handmade message, like this handmade snap fastener:

The custom label route is always an option too, but it can get pretty expensive per piece or require a lot bigger quantities than these options.  In my personal crafting I like to use different labels on a pair of kid's pajamas than I would on a swanky handbag or a gift to a sassy friend, so it's nice to have a lot of options that are budget friendly so I can keep a bunch of styles in my stash.

An artist wouldn't leave a painting unsigned to get lumped in with machine made prints, so why shouldn't a crafter add a little handmade flourish too?

I was not financially compensated for this post.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experiences.   I selected several items from my Sponsor, Wholeport, to review and am also sharing information on products from other sources I happen to like.  For my complete disclosure policy, click here. 

Thanksgiving Craftastic Monday Link Party & Double Feature Time!

Can you believe Thanksgiving is just a few days away?  Fall really flew by and with the weather turning down quick, winter coming just got pretty real over here!  And with a little holiday break coming it means time to relax and do fun fun projects.  

And speaking of fun projects, I have extra featured projects to share this week.  There were SO many great ideas - they could't be contained!!

It's also time to announce the winner of the Terra's Treasures Pattern Trio Giveaway:

Congratulations Suzanne & have fun picking out your new patterns.  A huge thank you to Terra's Treasures for providing this wonderful sewing prize.

Now for a double dose of Craftastic picks..

Creative Southern Home shared these cute peanut butter pumpkin cookies.  Easy to make and ideal for this week's big dinner dessert plans:

Mad Town Macs decorated a festive fairy door and window.   I'm seriously enchanted and want these in my house:

Ode To Inspiration shared a way to use all those colorful paper straws - snowflake decorations!!

My middle son is a huge nutcracker fan, so this gorgeous nutcracker holiday display from Penny's Vintage Home is beyond beautiful to check out.  She could seriously sell tickets to check out her decorations!

And for some no-sew holiday magic, check out the DIY Dreamer's how-to for making this ruffled tree skirt.  I love the unusual color scheme too:

The Partiologist wowed me with these amazing gumdrop Mason jar cookies. There are also tutorials in the same post for making peanut butter filled chocolate gum drops AND gum drop cake pops.  A trifecta of gum drop goodness!

Pretty Providence showed how to make a fun magnetic nativity set:

Check out this transformation from Sum of Their Stories - this was a plastic detergent tub.  Now it's a cute planter!

If you're one of this week's features, be sure to grab my Featured On button over on the sidebar to let everyone know.  I also feature these projects & more party favorites on the Sew Can Do's Craftastic Picks board on Pinterest AND I share each of them on Twitter too.  Follow me there to see more great projects (and see if yours is one of them)!   

  

Ready to link up your crafty creations?

 

Party rules are simple:

• As long as it's crafty, and made by you, it's Craftastic (no links to giveaways, shops, link parties or other people's work).  Add the link to your specific post (not the main page of your blog).
• Grab my party button & put it on your post or blog somewhere.  The code's on the sidebar -> 
• Check out some of the other fabulous links and share some crafty comment love.  We all love getting comments!!