Saturday, March 2, 2013

A Sewing Box from an Old Book

This is the project I entered in the current challenge on Craftster:  Bookworms.  
Voting doesn't start until March 10th (just in case you want to vote for someone...!)

I found a tutorial to turn a book into a sewing box HERE and I knew it would be 
perfect for my partner in the Book Lover's swap, which I had just started organizing 
when this challenge was announced.  So she got a new sewing box, and I got 
something I could enter in this challenge!  Win-win!



It started with this big, thick volume of Shakespeare I found for $1 at my local library. 
(People donate old books and the library sells them to fund their programs.)



First I removed all the pages--it was actually very easy to do 
with an X-acto knife:  
just one cut along the inside of the spine at the front and the back, and they all came 
out together. The pages aren't used in this project, so I saved them for something in 
the future.



Then I glued book-themed scrapbook paper to the inside of the covers, 
sandwiching in some ribbon to tie the box closed.  I measured and cut balsa wood 
into the sizes I needed to make the compartments, and used a hot glue gun to hold 
them in place.



I glued more of the scrapbook paper to the outside of the balsa wood to give the 
box a finished look.



I painted the top edges of the wood with gold paint.  The pin cushion is a simple 
circle of fabric stuffed with poly-fill and glued into one of the compartments.  I made 
a matching needle book to complete the package.


The most time-consuming part of this was the planning and the gathering of 
supplies; I've never worked with balsa wood before and I didn't really know where 
to buy it! (I ended up finding it at Michael's; in the future I will probably look for it 
on-line.) I worked slowly since it was the first time I had done it, but now that I have 
the experience, I think I could complete my next box in under two hours.  I like the 
way it turned out, so I will probably do this again, either for myself or a future swap partner.



6 comments:

bethwalker07 said...

Each time I see this in a different post, I am still like "Gahhh it is amazing!" Great job!! :D

Gill said...

Wow Leslie this is amazing!!
I love it!

LimeRiot said...

This is incredible, Leslie!! Now I'm spinning with book/box ideas :). I can't think of a better item for a book lovers swap!

Kay said...

Just so fun and practical too.

Alexandra Abarca said...

Hello Leslie:

This sewing box from a old book, looks really nice, an a good way for use a old book.

Ale
Costa Rica

Wendy said...

that is fabulous - I am so impressed!