This is one of those projects that I started thinking up as I was trying to fall asleep, and then spent way too much of my precious rest time just lying there turning it over in my head. Now that it’s all done, I think there is a much better way to make the box… but it’s going to take some more mulling for me to figure it out (unless anyone wants to weigh-in with a suggestion?) The finished coasters are about 4 1/4″ square, and I think I’d make them a little smaller next time, too.
First, I cut the outside of the box from natural linen and pressed double 1/4″ seam allowances on all edges.
Next, I cut the box lining and pressed a 1/4″ seam allowance to the back side.
I fit the lining right-side out inside the outer box and sewed down the pressed edges.
Then I whip-stitched the corners.
The coasters were pieced together at 5 1/4″, for a finished size of 4 1/4″. The backing is wool felt.
I sewed the top to the backing with right sides facing, leaving a small hole for turning. Before turning, I layered a 4 1/4″ square of batting – I used the heat-proof batting that you can buy for making oven mitts – to the backing, so once turned it was easy to lay flat inside. Then I pressed and whip-stitched the opening closed.
Once sewn and pressed, I top-stitched each coaster about 1/4″ from the edge.
4 COMMENTS
eileen
14 years agoSuper cute! Thanks for sharing! P.S. I LOVE your mingle fabric!
Candied Fabrics
14 years agoThose are lovely! Simple and pretty. You did indeed pick a hard way to do them though! I love fabric containers of all kinds and have amassed some nice links to great tutorials. Here's a link to a very nice tute that shows how to machine sew those corners!
http://sometimescrafter.blogspot.com/2009/04/tutorial-fabric-scrap-basket.html
monaluna
14 years agoThanks, guys, and thanks for the link, Candy! Yes, that would have been a better way to do it. I had thought about doing it that way, but wasn't sure I'd get the edges to meet up right. The boxes in the link look just perfect, though.
Amy
14 years agoMy mom used to sell TONS of coasters that looked a lot like these when she did craft shows. She would sew in a layer of plastic so your drink condensation would never leak through!