Fat Quarter Friday: Fabric Boxes

This week I made these cute little fabric boxes from The Sometimes Crafter. She shows you how to make this little square box, but I wanted to see if you could make some larger rectangular boxes as well, and as you can see, you can. I also came up with a way to stop the sides from bowing out.

 Materials: 
2 fat quarters per box
some interfacing or batting

Step 1: Cut out your fabric. I only show the pieces for the small box because all of the steps are exactly the same, just different sizes.
For the small square box:
Outside fabric: 15"x15"
Interfacing: 15"x15"
Lining fabric: 14 7/8"x14 7/8"
For the rectangular boxes:
Outside fabric: 17"x21"
Interfacing: 17"x21"
Lining fabric: 16 7/8"x20 7/8"

 Step 2: Cut the corners out of your squares. You can consolidate this step by folding you fabrics into fourths so you can cut out all four corners at once.
For the square box: cut out 4 1/2"x4 1/2" squares from each corner.
For the tall rectangular box: cut out 5"x5" squares from each corner.
For the short rectangular box: cut out 3.5"x3.5" squares from each corner.

 Step 3: Attach the interfacing to the wrong side of the outside fabric according to the product instructions. Next, fold the cut square (which now looks like a cross) so that the edges meet up like so (right sides together). Pin the two outside edges and sew along them making sure to backstitch.

Once you've sewn the two edges, fold the fabric to match up the other two sides. Pin and sew.

 Step 4: Now you should have some box-like shapes. Take the one that is going to be your outside fabric and turn it right side out.

 Smoosh it into the lining fabric box like shown.

 Pin around the top. Start with the corners and then pull two neighboring corners slightly before pinning the center edges.

 Step 5: Sew around the pinned top edge with a 1/4" seam. Leave a 2" opening and make sure to backstitch.

 Turn the fabrics right side out.

 Step 6: Shove the lining fabric down into the inside of the other box. Top stitch around the top of the boxes using a 1/8" seam. This will close up your opening that you used to turn the fabric.

 You can see that the box is not terribly boxy at this point. Iron the creases using steam or starch to stiffen them up.

Step 7: Here's a nifty trick I came up with. This step is optional, but I discovered that it helps keep the boxes even more boxy. See how the sides bow out?

 

 Take each corner and pinch it. Sew a 1/4" seam 1/2" long. Make sure to backstitch several times so that it is secure.

 

 Now your sides won't bow out!

 

 All done. Now you can fill them up with fabric scraps, small toys, binkies, chunky jewelry, thread...etc. The short rectangular one works great for ribbon and it totally beats the plastic bag I kept them in before!