Something to Make in April – Standish Quilters website join us and explore quilting

This month’s suggestion for something to make for our future sales table, is a reversible tissue box cover.

There are 2 samples to show how a square or oblong box cover is prepared. It is a nice way to compliment your room décor.

Requirements (for one cover)

Box of Tissues
Paper to make a pattern (roughly 16″ square), depending on your size of box
2 Fat Quarters
Piece of fusible interfacing. (I used Vlieseline F220 which takes 8 seconds to fuse) at approximately 16″ square
2 x 6″ pieces of elastic (any width)
Matching machine thread
1/4″ foot
Pins
Water soluble Marker Pen or Taylor’s Chalk
Snippers
Paper Scissors
Fabric Scissors
6″ x 24″ quilters ruler
Iron and Board

Instructions

Place your tissue box in the middle of your pattern paper and draw around the bottom of the box. From these drawn lines, add on another 1/4″ (so that you have two shapes drawn).

Measure the sides of your box and from this extended 1/4″ line, draw your sides onto the paper adding 1/4″ to the sides and to the bottom.

Using your quilters grid, find the center of your first shape and draw a small circle. This will be used for marking the center of the fabric later on. Cut your pattern out using paper scissors.

Cut the circle out of the middle of your pattern. Lay your two fabrics with the right sides together and lay your pattern on top, pin it down and cut the fabric out. Put an ‘X’ in the center with your water soluble pen (or chalk), to highlight where the center of your fabric is.

Lay the pattern over your fusible interfacing, pin and cut out. Marking the center with an ‘X’ before removing the pattern.

Lay your interfacing with the fusible side facing the wrong side of one of the pieces of fabric, and iron on for the required time. I pressed the iron down and lifted it up before moving on, to avoid creases.

Before you start to sewing, you will need to turn all the bottom edges of the sides up by 1/4″ so that they will naturally fold in later on, when you sew both pieces together. I used a heat resistant ruler for this.

Measure the opening in your box and reduce the measurement by an inch and draw a circle or an oval around the center mark in your fabric. The square box had a circle which I drew 1 inch less, the oblong box had an oval opening so I replicated this, but an inch smaller in length and width.

The next thing to do, is to pin your fabric around these drawn shapes and using a 2.4 stitch length, machine stitch around the oval or circular drawn line. Lifting and lowering your foot to help you to change direction, as and when required.

Cut the middle of your shapes out and leave around a 1/4″ seam. You may need to make several cuts in the seam so that your fabric lies flat when you turn it inside out.

Turn one of the fabrics through the middle hole, so that wrong sides are now together.

Using your hands, press the fabrics flat, and manipulate the center piece so that the seams lie flat. If they are lumpy bumpy, turn them back again and put a few more cuts in the 1/4 seam and turn back again.

Iron the center fabric to flatten everything down and pin around the center ready to sew.

Using a 3.5″ stitch length for decoration, stitch around the inside of the hole by a 1/4″ to help it to lie flat.

Pulling the two fabrics apart, you will now pin down all the side seams ready to stitch the seams together. I Started at the bottom to line the bottom edges up before pinning each side.

I have drawn a line on the first image, to show you that you can sew right off the edge at the opposite end, so that a full 1/4″ seam is sewn all the way down each side.

Sew all four sides together with the bottom edges flattened out.

Bring your fabric pieces back with wrong sides together.

Next we will pin the bottoms together, but include two elastic strips to help the cover to hold it’s shape.

I laid the elastic onto the short width of the box base, and cut two pieces to the exact size. As some of the elastic will be encapsulated within the seam, this will give it a little resistance when on the box.

Fold the ironed bottom edges in to face one another on both pieces of fabric (to the insides of the fabrics) and pin all around.

I placed the elastic about a centimetre in from each corner for the square box, but 1 inch in from the corner for the oblong box.

Remove your accessory box from your machine so that you have a free arm to sew around the small space. From the images below you will see that I manipulated the elastic so that it didn’t get sewn under incorrectly and also to ensure that it was lined up straight when sewing over the seam. You may wish to sew it inverted where it all sits on top of your plate as you go around, but I preferred to sew it this way.

You are ready to fit the cover to your tissue box. As it has been sewn with all the seams inside itself, you can reverse it to display either fabric on your tissue box.

Here is the end result!