More box bags!

I think these are the last of the Christmas gifts.....

I made a set of box bags for one friend who loves to travel.  I thought these would be useful for separating her toiletries or whatever when she's traveling, and I was able to make it to match the sling bag I made for her two Christmases ago....The outer fabric is a pleather that came from a thrift store.  These metal zippers came from a garage sale, I think.  They look great but were a pain in the butt to work with - I think only because I had to shorten them, and I had to be really careful sewing over the ends.  If they were exactly the right length, they might have been no problem.  Oh, well.

The lining is a fun rock-n-roll disco print that had originally been intended for a scrub shirt for her, before her hospital stopped allowing random printed scrubs.  So it got new life as first a sling bag and now some box bags.

This one is for a friend who's into martial arts.  This is the same fabric that I used to make her a scrub shirt (which I sadly apparently never took a picture of and thus never blogged about) and then a stocking.  I managed to get these two box bags out of the leftovers.  The linings are a sturdy red twill.

This may be it for box bags for awhile.....but you never know!

Box bags!

I've made box bags before (pattern here) - they're very useful gifts.  Cute in and of themselves, but good for storing things - maybe for traveling, maybe just for organization.  But I've always made them for females.  This time, I asked my brother whether he thought that, in appropriate fabrics, they'd also be good for males.  He thought so, even though I hadn't told him he'd be a recipient! :)  These first two are for him - computer keyboard fabric.  I went to the quilt store hoping to find the print that looks like USB plug-ins, but no such luck.  I think these are just as fun, though.  Both are lined with the bright green you see peeking through the right one.

I had actually asked the question with the intention of making some for my brother-in-law, who loves his Jeep.  I found this fabric at Nancy's Notions and thought it would be perfect.  The one with an orange zipper is lined with a dark green, and the other has an Army green zipper and is lined with bright orange.  I used a heavier weight of interfacing for this set, and it does hold its shape better.

Box Bags!

Yep, still more Christmas gifts to catch up on.  I made my first box bags over a year ago (also for gifts!) from Stacy Schluyer's tutorial.  And in rereading that post, I see that I had mentioned making some the next Christmas for some teenage sisters I know - I had totally forgotten about that idea, and yet that's exactly what I did!  One of my friends has three teenage daughters who are very close in age, and I usually make/give them similar things, especially since I don't know them really well these days.  But I do ask their mom questions and pay attention, so I was able to customize these to their favorite colors and interests.  I made two box bags for each one - reversing the lining/outer fabrics.  I also made matching key fobs.  And I heard later that they were a huge hit. :)

I also made box bags for the older sister.  Hers used a brown linen blend as the outer fabric, leftover from the stockings I made for our family for Christmas 2011.  This one is lined with leftovers of a cat/bookshelf print I used to line an Amy Butler Swing Bag I made for her six years ago.

And this one is lined with a neat travel print - leaning tower of Pisa, Eiffel Tower, things like that.  It reminds me of how her bathroom is decorated.  Her key fob was a Tinkerbell ribbon, leftover from the trim on a pillowcase I made for her three years ago.  She loves Tinkerbell. :)

I have to say that I really like these box bags as gifts.  I need to remember to make more next Christmas!  They're easy to make, easy to customize to the recipient's interests, economical (especially if you can get a good deal on zippers - I buy mine from Cleaner's Supply), and so very useful.

Box bags!

Stacy Schluyer of Stacy Sews first started posting about box bags about three years ago and then posted her tutorial for them about 2 years ago. I had them marked to try when she made her first one and blogged about it, and then I downloaded the tutorial when it was posted, and you can see how far that got me! I even had fabric that I thought would be fun and perfect for it, and still I kept putting it off. Well, today I finally went for it!

I like them! The bags are made from a quilting cotton for the outer layer and a cotton broadcloth for the lining. The lining is interfaced with a lightweight interfacing. As discussed in the tutorial, because of my lightweight interfacing, the box is easily collapsible and doesn't retain its shape well. I'm okay with that, though, as I see this being good for shoving into a suitcase and not taking up much space. The fabric has been in my stash for several years, so it's nice to keep using what I already have.

I think this will be a great gift - it's cute and practical, and it can even serve as a gift wrapping! One of these is earmarked as part of a gift, and I think I will simply package the other items into it. It doesn't take long to make - I think I spent about an hour or so on these, and I could easily have streamlined that a bit. The size can easily be changed as desired, depending on what you want to put in it. My only dislike is that the inside corner seams are unfinished, but I simply serged them, and that's fine. I could change things up a bit to make those seams enclosed, but I don't think it's important enough to make the process take longer.

I definitely see more of these in my future! I think I'll whip up a few in girly prints for some teenage sisters I know, but there will be a lot more next year for Christmas!