From This to That Friday: From Box to Bin!

Repurpose your Boxes!

 I am excited to start doing From this to that Fridays again! (FTTT) As I said before, I used to do these years ago, but it was mainly papercrafting...well, I have a long list of things I want to show you already. Love changing things up and seeing the end results.
AND I don't know about you, but I am a sucker for before and after pics!
I don't know about you, but I always seem to have a ton of boxes around, and at this time of year, I have a ton of these!
Before:

A year or two ago I heard about one lady who took her diaper boxes and made them into cute bins to use and organize in her house. I have to say that I LOVE organizational items, but they are so dang expensive! Have you seen the prices of these cute bin/type baskets at the stores?! So I thought, these boxes would be great for that! So I went to work, and let me tell you...it was EASY! And I love the outcome!!!

After:

It really was so easy and I love that I used some scraps I had left from making my curtains a bit earlier (which I will show you soon too). This way it all matches! :) Yeah!

I took pics as I went along, so that I could give you a tutorial too! (Yeah for me, I might be getting better at this! haha)

So, here we go!
1. I started by cutting the flaps off the top of my box.
2. I made sure I had enough fabric that it would cover the bottom, sides, and fold over the edges a bit on all sides.
3. I cut my fabric and set my box in the middle of the fabric.
4. I started hot gluing the first side into the inside top of the box.

Next,
5. I continued by pulling the fabric up both of the long sides and hot gluing it. I pulled the fabric semi-taught to make sure it wouldn't be loose, but wouldn't be pulling too tight either.
6. I took the short ends of the box and cut down the sides of the fabric, leaving about an inch to an inch and a half that could still fold over toward the center of that end of the box. (hope I'm not losing you.) I also did NOT cut all the way down to the bottom. Again, I stopped about and inch above.
7. Both sides are now cut.

8. I folded the sides in a bit...
9. Pulled up the fabric and started hot gluing all the way of the side...
10. Folded it over the top edge and hot glued there too. Then I repeated the other end of the box with the same steps.

I love the look of burlap, but it is messy! Frays and my thumbs look like this when hot gluing burlap. Eek!

So, this is what your box should look like now:

Inside view:

The lining:
I measured the sides, length, and depth of my box and cut my fabric pieces to fit those measurements. Each box is different, so there is no sense in listing my measurements .

1. I cut two long sides, two ends and the bottom piece. On the side pieces I also added enough to not only go up the inside of the box, but enough to fold over and down over the outside as well. The amount you add all depends on how much you want.
2. I started by sewing the right sides together of one long side and the bottom piece together.
3. I sewed the other side piece then to the other side of the bottom piece.
4. This is what it should look like at this point, right side up.

You are almost done!
5. Take your short end pieces like shown here and sew them to the same bottom piece.
6.  Now, you will pull the two sides together at the corner and sew them together. (starting to make it look more like a box)
7. Do the same on the other side and you have this.
8. Set in into your box and fold the sides over. (I always like to have plenty of fabric, because I can cut off later, but it's harder to add, so mine is long in the pic.)

 The next thing I did was measure and pin up my sides while it was still fitted into the box. I just eyeballed how long I wanted it to hang over, measured it and then pinned it at the same length on every side.  (See the pic below:) 
 After that, take your liner back off of you box and just hem up the sides! And that's it! You're done! If you want to add some ribbon or other finishing touches, you can, but I liked mine simple. You could also do this as a no sew by hot gluing or using some fusible tape if you prefer, but I liked having the option to throw the lining in the washer if need be...what with 5 kids and who knows what will end up in here! Ha!)

There you have it!
 

  Already excited for next Friday! This time think crown molding! :)