Sewing Room Screaming: Burlap Covered Boxes

I always thought my house was pretty clean and organized and then I look around and think I must have been high the entire time cause I'm not really. I would like to blame JB but...you know what I'm just going to go ahead and blame him. Now that we have been in our house for almost two years we are already starting to need more room. But we don't really need more room we need to organize the room we already have. First stop in mission organization is my master bathroom.

You are currently standing in the door way of my bathroom. What do you notice? My pretty pictures from our family vacation in mrytle beach? No. The pretty light blue paint? No. The gorgous tile work? No. You know what I notice? That mess of shit on top of the cabinet. Well time to fix that shit.

With some boxes and this burlap bag from Southern States I bought for about $2.00.

There so many things you can do with burlap. Besides having a very Brady sack race, I'm going to cover some ordinary boxes to make them look fabulous. I've seen fabric covered boxes all over the web but I haven't yet seen any covered with burlap. I dont know why, it's inexpensive,durable, and awesome. So this is my tutorial on burlap covered boxes.

Supplies:

Burlap bag

plain old box

glue gun and glue sticks

spray glue

scissors

Scrap fabric

rotary tool (optional)

sewing machine with coordinating thread (optional)

The first step is measure measure measure! This is so important! It will take off so much time this project if you measure everything out and then cut all your fabric.

I only wanted the burlap to go about 3/4 the way up the box but I measured one inch more so I could wrap a little underneath the box

Cut across the measurements

Dress that box like the burlap is a prom dress. Uh-oh the burlap is a little bit too big.

Cut the excess end. This will now give you one long strip of burlap which makes it easier to glue onto the box.

Using the spray glue, glue the burlap around the entire box leaving a one inch overlay at the bottom.

When you get to the end fold the ends down and glue. This will give you a nice end seam with no fraying.

Cut one inch down into each corner on the bottom of the box.

Fold and the glue.

Outside burlap is done. Now for the inside.

Before you start gluing inside the box, fold one end down and glue like you did for the outside so you will have a nice end seam with no fraying in the inside.

First measure out a square that will fit snug on the bottom of the box. Once that's all nicely in there and glued, starting with the end of the burlap that you DID NOT fold and glue start gluing the burlap to the inside of the box. This can be kind of a pain because the long strip of burlap goes everywhere and gets in the way when you are gluing. Try and get the ends into the corners.

The easiest way to glue is lay the piece of burlap down how you want it to go, fold onto itself exposing the box, spray the glue, fold it back over onto the glue, pat it down, and repeat.

Measure and cut your pretty fabric you want to cover the top of the box. This needs to be wide enough to cover both outside and inside the box. Add some extra fabric on both the length and the width for a folded hem. You will only need about an inch more added to your original measurements for .5" on both sides.

Fold and iron down a small flap to make a "fake" hem. I used a piece of cardboard to help make the fold straight. Iron down a hem on both sides of this strip. You don't have to make the fake hem this big I just did out of force of habit.

On one end fold down and iron. On the corners fold a triangle and tuck it under the original fold. Leave one end untouched.

Now here you can either go ahead and glue to the box or like me you can run a seam through it to give a unique professional touch. If you don't sew it I still recommend ironing the sides down.

Run a quick stitch through the fabric.

Using a glue gun glue the fabric to the outside of the box first all the way around.

The sewn seam overlaps the untouched end for a pretty and professional end seam.

Almost done!

Now glue on the fabric to the inside of the box. On the corners fold into a triangle and glue down onto itself.

Add a fabric flower for some flair and.....

...Done!

This is all the crap I keep on top of my cabinet. I started running out of room from buying excess in bulk or on sale. I used to keep it in my laundry room but it started creeping back in my bathroom where we use the stuff.