Re-covered Hat Box

These are the crazy new toys that come with being 3. We must have a place to put them.

When I was about 8 years old, my Grandma Connie came to a silent auction with us. She bid on a Caswell Massey (remember them?) gift box, and won. She turned right around and gave it to me! Those were the kinds of things my grandma did that I loved. She definitely knew how to win me over with her generosity and gift giving. (I still remember the box had a maroon loofah and grape currant body wash, bars of soap and lotion in it.) Lo and behold, the hat box it all came in was still at my parents' house. My mom began putting Ivy's tiny Barbie shoes and dresses inside of it, and it ended up over at our house.

If you've glanced at Ivy's room tour post, you would know that this dated damask print doesn't exactly match her blue and green room. So of course, I wanted to upcycle it. It was a great source of storage and had sentimental value!

Here's what I needed:

-fabric

-pencil

-scissors

-iron

-sewing machine

-measuring tape

-glue gun

-modge podge

-pom pom fringe... if you like :)

I just used the box itself as a template. I traced the lid, then cut about an inch wider than the lid, because I was going to fold it down over the side of the lid. I measured the circumference of the box and cut out a wide piece to go around it. This fabric matches a bunch of other stuff in her room.

I had two different pieces of fabric for the lid: one for the circle, one for the sides. For the side piece I measured carefully and sewed seams so that it would lay nicely and not fray.

I used a combination of glue gun and modge podge to make it stay. I found out while doing my Vintage Train Case, you kind of need to use both.

I really wanted to use this pink pom pom fringe I picked up in the mistake bin at Wal-Mart. It doesn't match the fabric perfectly, but I didn't care. I glue gunned it around the lid.

For the actual box, I measured very carefully to make sure the sides and center were all the correct height before i sewed the seams. They all needed to be 4 3/4".