Greetings! 

December 2, 2013 

Fabric Boxes with French Seams

I am going to attempt to post a tutorial on how I do my French Seams.

I originally learned to make Fabric Boxes from Tina at http://seaside-stitches.blogspot.com/2013/03/fabric-box-tutorial.html.

The following are the steps I did after making Tina's quilted square for the box.  

Follow Tina's instructions through the point of quilting the square.  

THEN, fold your quilted square with the inside fabric facing each other and mark your corners.  My square is 15" with 3" corners.  ( You might want to make smaller corners which will produce a shorter fabric box, example: 2" corner.)  Stitch the line.  

Measure 1/4" past your stitched line and draw a line with an erasable marker.  Next, cut between your stitching line and the marked line.  This will give you approximately an 1/8" seam allowance.  It is easier to do it this way since you are working with a lot of bulk.  

Repeat on the other corner.  Then, fold your box and do the remaining two corners.  This is how your box should look now.

Turn your box inside out.

OK, this will sound a little strange but run your finger on the inside of your box along the seam.  By running your finger along this seam you will be, in essence, finger pressing your seam open.  Next, pin along your seams as shown in the following photo.

Sew a 1/4" seam and secure your line of stitching at the beginning and at the end.  By sewing this 1/4" seam you will be encasing your 1/8" seams allowance on the other side!  Stitch the other seams and turn your box right side out.

Fold your corners over and slip stitch the corners to the outside of the box.

Add your embellishment and you are done!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  There are a lot of uses for these boxes and endless combinations with your fabrics.  At this point, I prefer sandwiching my fabrics with warm and natural.  However, I may try different batting also.