Treasure Boxes

These are the treasure boxes I have been working on. A while back (OK, Winter, 2005), Quilting Arts Magazine had an article about making these treasure boxes...little fabric things that fold up to be a box-like thing that one can put treasures into. My friend, Marilyn, had made some of these and showed them to us at a meeting of the Memphis Sewing Guild. Well, I decided that these would be the perfect way to give Gift Cards that we are giving to various people this year, so I gathered some supplies and decided to make treasure boxes.

I had found a pattern for this box online somewhere a while back...and I apologize but I cannot remember WHERE I found this, so cannot give credit.

Having NOT made these before, I wasn't sure if this box was even the right size for the cards to fit, so I cut out the paper pattern to test it (Marilyn had given lottery tickets in hers). Sure enough, it was too small across the base for the gift card. Phooey. So I opened it in Photoshop and resized it. Then I printed it and cut it out, folding again to be sure the card would fit inside. Still no good.

Finally, I just cut the paper pattern and slashed and spread until it was the right size for the gift card, so that the base was a rectangle instead of a square. Then I cut multiple copies of this (3) and began the layout.

I fused some DecoBond (stiff interfacing) to the backside of one (green) fabric, then layed it on the table face down. I placed the other (pink) fabric over it, making a sandwich with the DecoBond inside.

I layed out the patterns and traced around them with a black Sharpie...I planned to stitch in black, so show-through was not a problem.

I rough-cut around each one and stitched on the lines, using a narrow zig zag. Then I cut each one out just barely outside the stitching.

I set the stitch length a bit wider and shorter and stitched around the boxes again, this time stitching off the edge with the 'zag'.

Then I added a bit of glitter paint to give them some sparkle!

To use these, you bring together the two ends TAB ENDS , then bring each slotted end up and insert the tab ends through each slot.



All in all, these were a lot of work for not all that much show! If I had wanted 'boxes' I should have just enlarged the original pattern, rather than reshape it, so these would NOT be so flat. But for little 'envelopes', they worked out great!