3-In-1 Project-Part 3: Pencil Box

 

 

 

 

Over the past year, I've realized that I much prefer making seamless felt...

...to treating handmade felt as fabric and assembling projects by hand- or machine-sewing.

Besides saving the schlep to the sewing machine...

...the 3-D aspect of feltmaking is magical!

(It does take a bit of thought, though!!)

Since this project was a 'retro-fit'...

...only the sides could be made from a single ring of felt.

Instead of making a round box like my bread basket...

...I decided to make an open-topped cube, just the right size for pens and pencils!

I did have some sewing to do, of course...

...since the project needed a bottom.

Also, because I had used so many fabric inclusions this time...

...the felt edges required zig-zagging, to keep all of the fringy-bits from fraying.

I also needed to subdue the 'wild wanderings' of my red burlap piece...

...so machine embellishment was especially necessary in this area.

It's interesting, since I wasn't thinking about anything but catching all of the unraveled bits as I stitched...

...but now, looking at the red burlap section, I see that a strong, female figure has emerged!

Coincidence or subconscious machinations? You decide.

In order to make the ring into a box, I flattened it and measured its width...

...and since I wanted four equal sides, I halved this number.

Next, I cut a square with these dimensions from a piece of leftover felt...

...and sewed the ring to this square base with a small seam allowance.

At this point, I cut a piece of thin cardboard the same size as the bottom...

...and used it as a marking guide to even up the height of the sides, so that a perfect cube would result.

The thickness of the felt gave the project some structure...

...but I decided to run a vertical seam along each of the four corners for shape.

Next: Part 4: The final frontier-"The bag as it was meant to be".