Much of last week [my staycation] was spent trying to figure out how to hide most of the 'clutter' in my office. Since I share my space between work and play I really needed to cut the distraction down to a minimum. While I love all the colors and textures of fabric I was feeling more and more cramped by having it out all the time and visible in my shelves. I have also noticed that my papers were fading so I assume that the fabrics would do the same.
So after doing some research and asking my guild friends how they organize; I settled on the IKEA Drona fabric boxes. Unfortunately they are not online and only available in store. The Portland, OR store only has the white, but in my research on Flickr they come in black, navy and pink.
These fit perfectly in the shelving unit and store plenty of fabric! But as you can see on the plain ones they were just that...plain. As my good friend Jon said 'you just made a classy pant suit for the face of each storage box'! Indeed I did - nothing flashy, just simple linen. I love the Essex Robert Kaufman Linen - so much that I buy it by the bolt.
Here is a quick tutorial - you are going to need the following:
Cutting mat, rotary cutter, scissors and ruler
Linen or fabric of choice
Iron
Hot glue gun
First cut your fabric into 13" squares - this gives you a square large enough to go up into the lip of the box. You can make this shorter if you like - Maybe 12x13" just so it goes under the flap.
You are now going to place the Steam a Seam adhesive on the first side, leaving a little room at the beginning and the end - I find that this cuts down on the bulk when turning the corners. Make sure that you rub down this strip so the adhesive is sticking to the fabric
Then peel off the strip and ignore my un-manicured nails...
Once you have the sticky strip exposed, now you can turn your fabric edge up a 1/4"
After turning up the one edge I cut the corners at an angle - I am sure there is a way to do this cleaner; I was going for more quick and 'it looks fine'
Then you are ready to start the other edges - this time I go the edge of one side and leave room on the end.
As you are going around doing your edges do not be worried when you see your finished edges pop up. Keep in mind that this a temporary adhesive and only become permanent when set by heat. Take a deep breath...
Once all the edges are done you are now ready to set them with your iron
This is what your finished edges should look like...
If you used the same measurements [13x13] then you are going to need to 'stuff' the extra underneath the flap. I used a poker took that has a ball point to help me do this.
Once you have everything in place you can start hot gluing the edges down to the box. If you made them 13x13 then you only have to do three sides. If you made them shorter you will need to do all four sides
Ta-da! The Drona boxes now have a classic pant suit
Let me know if you have any questions!
