Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Scrappy Organizer Boxes & Tutorial


I've decided to take a quick breath before I gear up to push through and enlarge both of my quilts in progess. After much debate, back and forth, and some wonderful encouragement to see it through, I've decided to do it! I can't help it that in my head I've already jumped onto the next quilt, but surprisingly I've found some way to pull in the reigns and hold myself back. I have my eye on a really scrappy quilt as the next big project, but I needed to do some serious scrap sorting and editing, and found it to be the perfect in between distraction project. 


Of course I knew before I started that my scraps would be heavy on the pinks and greens, but what I did not expect was how many turquoise scraps and how few purples were in my stash. (mind you, my mother-in-law has believed for the last nine years that purple IS my favortie color... it's actually green) So, in an effort to find a way to keep my scraps organized, I decided it would be fun to give my boring storage boxes a little pop of color.


... and of course, share with you this quick little how-to:

Measure front side of your box. (I used the Skubb boxes from Ikea) Sew random fabric scraps together. Finished pieces should be at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) larger on each side to allow for trimming later. For final cutting size calculation add 5/8" (ca. 1.5 cm) to your box measurements. (That's ca. 1/4 inch to each side) Once your piece is cut to size, apply interfacing to back side and trim. I used Vlieseline G700 (Pellon Shape Flex101)


Fold side edges under (towards the back) approximately 1/4 inch (ca. 6.5 mm) for the side pieces and iron in place. On the front side, edge stitch in place.



Once the side edges have been turned and stitched, turn the bottom and top edges under 1/4 inch (ca. 6.5 mm) and iron in place. Make sure that your corners are lined up and tucked under the first stitched seam.


Once fabric piece is finished, line it up on the box and used a hot glue gun to glue in place. Press and secure the piece in place.



Now you're ready to fill up your boxes with your favorite color scraps! And this pretty little stitching lady just had to have her own box... quite fitting, don't you think?



How do you organize your scraps? By color, by cut size, or some other fun way? Which color has your scrap bins full?

P.S. Just so you know, my fabrics don't always look this orderly - only about once a year when I do a whole office redo... in general I fall under the "messy, creative" category.

Linking up to Scraptastic Tuesday & Stoffreste Linkparty.

12 comments :

  1. Wow, Allison, das sieht so toll aus! Ich könnte noch eine halbe Stunde in Deine Regale blicken. Die Idee, die Scraps direkt neben dem Stoffstapel zu platzieren finde ich superpraktisch! Ich habe sie getrennt und vergesse dann immer die Scraps und schneide wieder neuen Stoff an.

    Ganz ganz toll!
    Liebe Grüße
    Barbara

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  2. Well, Barbara, you know that the offer always stands to actually do that in person. Perhaps your next HH visit we can catch up!

    LG, Allison

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  3. I think your fabric room is the cleanest I have every seen!

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  4. Well, Kelleyn, like I said, it looks this clean once a year (not to mention the partial shot)... the other 364 days of the year the word "bomb explosion" comes to mind.

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  5. These boxes are so cute! What a great idea! Right now my scraps are in a big pile, all mussed together. I need some serious lessons on sorting scraps---by color? size? do you pre-trim scraps, or just leave whatever awkward off-cuts remain? I aspire to create one-hour-baskets in each color in which to store scraps, but for right now, a pile (overflowing from a Ball jar) is my "organization".

    Your tutorial is great, too! Have you see the Tips & Tutorials Linky party at Late Night Quilter's blog? You should link up! (Late Night Quilter is written by my dear friends Stephanie and Michelle, who I only met through the coincidental nearly-identical blog titles!)

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  6. Kitty, my scrap boxes were so totally out-of-control, and I'm really not saying that lightly! Since I'm not as far that I am turning out quilt after quilt at lightning speed, I don't really have large piles of pre-trimmed scraps. Right now it's the awkward cut-offs in the boxes, and since I do a lot of other non-quilting projects, I can still use odd pieces.

    Thanks for the tip... I linked up! I guess I do a good amount of tutorials, and it's fun to share!

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  7. Great way to use pretty scraps! My favourite colour is green and I'm also on the messy creative side! Thanks for linking your tute up to #scraptastictuesday

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  8. Very smart idea to use scraps and have beautiful boxes. Thank you for the tutorial.
    Greetings,
    Sylvia

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  9. Cute organizing idea! Your shelves look so very organized. I need to do something with mine. Thanks for the idea.

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  10. Clever and very beautiful idea for storage and showing off pretty scraps. Love, love, love it! ;o)

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  11. Such a cute idea for the boxes. (Fun to make too). Yeah, maybe, just maybe I ought to try organizing my stuff again. It's been a couple years and things are getting out of hand. Seeing yours make me a bit envious and a bit motivated.

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  12. OMGoodness! I was just looking yesterday for boxes or baskets or SOMETHING to organize my scraps. IKEA is about 30 mins from me...but I want to go RIGHT NOW! HA! I think I will start piecing scrappy fronts and plan a trip next week. Ya know, I CAN organize in zip locks till I get some of those boxes. (that is NOT what I want to do right now! lolol)

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