Making Fabric Covered Boxes

The shoe boxes with flip lids that my sons' shoes come in make great storage boxes. I decided to buy some cheap fabric to cover them and make them suitable for use somewhere other than a closet. I chose a patterned fabric that came in many colors because I'm all about color coding and I wanted them to be coordinated. It's much quicker than reading a label, though I'll probably put some kind of temporary labels on them.

After an attempt to fit the fabric around an intact box, I realized the project would go faster and look more professional if I took the box apart, so that it would lie flat and I could make a pattern for it. These boxes don't use glue at all; they fit together using only slots.

First, I traced around the box on some paper that had been used as filler in a parcel we received. I cut out the paper pattern and pinned it on the fabric, then cut out the fabric.

Then I used double sided tape to attach the fabric to the shoebox. Pull the edges tight for a nice smooth look. I tried to have a generous half inch of fabric on the inside edges, so as not to be short somewhere. You can always trim off the extra. Here is the box about halfway completed.

After you've taped all the edges, reassemble the box. I am very pleased with how my first two turned out. Now I have turquise, purple, blue and pink to do.

Green Christmas

I found some pretty fabrics today that I thought would be great for wrapping Christmas presents. No sewing needed.

I bought a yard and a quarter of each of the three fabrics. Just cut on the lengthwise fold line down the middle of the fabric and get two wrapping pieces. Each piece will cover a normal size clothing box. Perhaps leave one or two of them uncut to cover large boxes.

Wrap around the box until you've used all the fabric. If it wraps around three times...who cares. And two of the three are black backgrounds, so the recipient can't see through. Tape, and put a ribbon around it!

No wrapping paper to gather up on Christmas morning and no waste going to the landfill. Just fold it up and put in your wrapping paper box til next year. My family will love this.

Meeting Pioneer Woman

Yesterday, I got to meet Pioneer Woman aka Ree Drummond in Denver at The Tattered Cover for her first book signing outside her home state. And her mother-in-law, Nan and sister-in-law, Missy.

PW held a thirty minute Q & A session, then got down to business signing books. In the Q& A we learned that Ree is going to publish a book on her romance with Marlboro Man. Yeah!

It was no surprise to all PW's fans that hundreds of people-- I heard the figure of 500 tossed around--showed up, but the bookstore was caught off guard . The bookstore ran out of books sometime after I bought mine ...whew, I would have been upset if I hadn't been able to buy a book. All seats were taken by the time I arrived, so people lined the walls and filled the stairways on either side of the room. An employee said they would have picked their bigger store had they known.

I did not get my book signed til 11 PM. I did not mind the 3 hour wait though. I passed the time very pleasantly talking with Blair and Tara, whom I met at the signing. And I also got to speak with Nan and Missy for a while. (I'm kicking myself now because I didn't think to ask them to sign my book and magazine.) I had Ree sign my cookbook and the People magazine that had an article about her and her family. She did not rush anybody through the line even though it was getting very late. (There were probably 40 people after me, so she was there til at least midnight I'm sure.)

The cookbook is absolutely gorgeous with lots of yummy recipes and has lots of beautiful photos of Ree's family too. Thanks , Ree!