When you have little ones, the toys seem to reproduce overnight, and any parent can attest to the fact that stepping on a LEGO in the middle of the night hurts! Tame the toy mess by whipping up an adorable DIY toy box. The project’s main material, of all things, is an Amazon box.
The project requires only a few different fabrics for the toy box’s interior and outer covering, some quick and easy stitching, and covering the box with the inner liner and outer fabric. No one would ever know the toy box was also what your new pillows came in. Customize this project with fabric that coordinates with your child’s room, or cover it in sophisticated patterns or neutrals so it subtly blends with the living room color palette. There’s no reason you can’t declutter economically and attractively.
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Materials
- Amazon box
- Cutting mat
- Utility knife
- Ruler
- Sheet of notebook paper
- Pencil
- 1 1/2 yards of fabric
- Grid ruler (optional)
- Marking tool such as a red pencil
- Fabric scissors
- Straight pins
- White thread
- Sewing machine
- Small fine art paintbrush
- Iron
- Large piece of fuzzy white fabric that's bigger than the box
- Bottle of Mod Podge Matte
- Large paintbrush with brush head about 3 to 4 inches wide
- Thin plastic gloves
- Hot glue gun
- Glue sticks
- Amazon box
- Cutting mat
- Utility knife
- Ruler
- Sheet of notebook paper
- Pencil
- 1 1/2 yards of fabric
- Grid ruler (optional)
- Marking tool such as a red pencil
- Fabric scissors
- Straight pins
- White thread
- Sewing machine
- Small fine art paintbrush
- Iron
- Large piece of fuzzy white fabric that's bigger than the box
- Bottle of Mod Podge Matte
- Large paintbrush with brush head about 3 to 4 inches wide
- Thin plastic gloves
- Hot glue gun
- Glue sticks
DIY Everywhere
Instructions
1. Place the cutting mat on the work surface.
1. Place the cutting mat on the work surface.
2. Put the cardboard box down on it so the bottom faces up and the flaps splay out.
3. Cut the four side flaps from the box with the utility knife.
4. Remove the cutting mat from underneath the box.
5. Take the metal ruler and measure the length and depth of the box.
6. Create a small diagram of the box’s dimensions using a pencil and paper.
7. Write down the width of the bottom panel of the box and add the side dimensions. The tutorial's measurements were 26 1/2 inches and 6 3/8 inches.
8. Do the same for the box’s length measurements, which are the bottom panel’s length plus the lengths of the two side panels. The tutorial's measurements were 32 inches for the bottom panel and 6 3/8 for the side panels.
9. Place the square quilter’s ruler at bottom right corner of the piece of fabric.
10. Mark a 6 3/8-by-6 3/8 square using the grid ruler on the fabric.
11. Using the ruler as a guide, mark an outline of the square with the red pencil and cut it out with the scissors.
12. Fold the fabric in half left to right, with the cut-out square on the bottom right, atop the lower layer of fabric.
13. Cut out a second square on the lower right corner of the lower layer of folded fabric.
14. Use the outline of the already cut square as a guide.
15. Unfold the fabric so the right side of it is facing downward. There will be a cut-out square on each bottom corner.
16. Bring the bottom half of the fabric up and fold it over at the halfway point.
17. You now have a double layer of fabric folded lengthwise, and the cut-out squares from the top layer will be on the upper right and left corners. The full lower layer of fabric will be underneath the cut-out squares.
18. Cut out squares from the lower layer of fabric, using the already cut squares as guides.
19. Open up the fabric and lay it out flat on the work surface, with the patterned side facing downward. A cut-out square will be in each corner of the fabric.
20. Bring the lower left corner section of the fabric toward the center.
21. Flip over the fabric so the patterned side is facing upward, and bring the lower right corner section toward the center.
22. Pin the two lower horizontally oriented corner end layers together.
23. Continue pinning the short corner ends of the fabric together.
24. After pinning corner pieces together that form the cut-out squares, the fabric will start to form a rectangular box shape. Make sure the printed side of the fabric is on the inside.
25. Sew the pinned pieces together with a straight stitch on the sewing machine, removing the pins as you go.
26. Take a second rectangular piece of fabric, about 10-by-30, and fold it widthwise.
27. At the bottom of the fabric, use the ruler and red pencil to mark 3 inches from the bottom edge, on the right and left side of the fabric.
28. Use the ruler and red pencil to draw a straight line connecting the two marks.
29. Use that horizontal marked line as a guide and cut the 3-inch strip of fabric from the larger piece.
30. Fold that strip in half lengthwise so the printed side is facing inward, and pin the side edge together.
31. Sew the pinned portion of the fabric with a straight stitch on the sewing machine, removing the pins as you go.
32. Place the fine art paintbrush inside the fabric tube you’ve just created to help turn it right-side out.
33. Put it down on the work surface, and iron it flat with the electric iron. Flip it over, and iron the other side.
34. Repeat steps 27 to 33 to make a second ironed fabric tube with open ends.
35. Lay the fuzzy white fabric face down on the work surface.
36. Place the box with the open end facing upward on the fuzzy fabric. Make sure it’s centered.
37. Bring up the fabric and loosely wrap the box with it. The fabric’s upper edge will extend a bit beyond the open edge of the box.
38. Shape the fabric on the ends as if you were wrapping a gift, and pin the center folds of the fabric to keep them in place.
39. Separate the fabric from the box, and use the sewing machine to stitch each pinned end together.
40. Place the white fuzzy fabric on the work surface. The exposed portion should be its smooth underside, not the fuzzy side.
41. Trim away the fabric on the exterior of the stitched pieces so when it’s laid out it’s a rectangle with a triangular point on either end.
42. Reverse the fabric so the smooth side is on the inside and the fuzzy side is on the outside of the piece that now forms an unstructured box.
43. Take the two fabric tubes and place one on each end of the unstructured box.
44. Take one of the sewn fabric strips and curve it into a “U.”
45. Pin the ends to the inner side of the white fabric.
46. Repeat steps 44 and 45 with the other sewn fabric strip.
47. Sew the strip ends to the smooth inside of the fuzzy fabric.
48. Place the cardboard box inside the white fuzzy fabric box. A fabric strip handle should be on both ends.
49. Put on the thin plastic gloves.
50. Apply Mod Podge to one of the exterior sides on the end of the box with the large paintbrush. Apply it about two-thirds of the way up the side of the box.
51. Place the fabric liner on the inside of the cardboard box with the printed side facing upward, and make sure the top end extends over the upper lip of the box and down a few inches on the exterior on every side.
52. Apply Mod Podge to the other three exterior sides of the box as you did with the first side, and affix the fuzzy fabric to them.
53. Take one of the long sides of the box, and slide the wide fuzzy fabric down just a little bit.
54. Lift up the fabric liner edge that comes over the lip of the box and extends a few inches over the upper exterior portion, and apply hot glue to the cardboard.
55. Affix the fabric to the box.
56. Apply some hot glue to the outer side of the fabric you just glued to the box.
57. Bring the fuzzy white fabric up and affix its underside to the overlapping fabric.
58. Trim away any excess white fabric at the upper edge of the box.
59. Repeat steps 54 to 58 on the remaining sides of the box.
60. If any white fabric is loose and not well attached to the top of the box, hot glue it to the box.
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