Sewing storage

As you might have guessed I am currently making attempts to sew at every opportunity and explore the loveliness that is my new machine.

That said it is still new and I am taking things slow and steady so as not to confuse myself.  So lots of little simple projects it is!

So while practicing on the machine I found myself irritated by the many charger wires gathering next to our computer.  So I decided to sew some little storage pots to hold all those annoying things that have no place to go. I learnt this technique from a sewing evening I go along to on Wednesdays.

I needed a reasonably strong fabric and a lovely friend recently gave me her old flared jeans.  Fabulously wide and fabulously funky!  A true ode to our 15 year old selves and the fabric is perfect for what I needed.

Now the jean leg is already a tube so I just cut it to the length I wanted.  I then did the same with the lining fabric.  I then sewed down the two edge seams of the lining to create the same tube as with the denim,

On the base of your fabric cut two squares out from each corner as below.

Then sew the base of the denim all along the flat edge leaving the cut out corners open.  With the lining do the same but leave a few cms open in the middle as you will need this gap later.

Then take the corners of your cut in square and pull them out so that your sewn seam is in line with the corner on the edge of your denim tube.   

Then just sew straight along that line.

When you turn it out you have a box effect.  As you can see due to the flare of the jeans I chose both my seams on the jeans were not equal so it was impossible to match the bottom with sides on both edges but it still creates a box effect.

Repeat the same with the lining and place right sides together and sew around the top.  Then turn the whole thing through the gap in the lining so that you have the denim on the outside and the fabric on the inside.  Neatly sew up the little gap.

I then pressed the fabric and used some embroidery stitches to do some edging on the turn over.

And there you have it - super quick to make, quite a forgiving project in terms of requiring not too much accuracy and a totally funky use of what were some pretty awesome flares!

I love them and I love that after sitting on the floor for a few weeks they can be thrown in the wash and used again - that is the beauty of fabric!