DIY Fabric Storage Bins

This storage DIY fabric box project is super easy to make, can be made in various sizes, and requires minimal sewing.

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I am a firm believer that you can never have too much storage. There is just no such thing! And I love storage in plain sight. An easy way to accomplish this is with storage baskets on shelves and tabletops. Storage baskets can keep things tidy and out of sight, as well as look pretty darn cute in the process! And they get even better when you make them yourselves in a custom color and size.

Supplies:
Fat Quarters (2 per bin)
Medium Weight Two-Sided Fusible Interfacing
Cutting Mat
Rotary Cutter
Iron
Sewing Machine
Clips
Grommets (optional)

If you are unfamiliar with fat quarters, they are roughly 1/4 of a yard of fabric so approximately 18″x21″. They are fun to work with for small fabric projects.

To make these fabric storage bins, we are going to cut the fat quarters into squares, or 18″x18″ pieces, so trim 3″ off of the long end with the rotary cutter on the cutting mat.

Cut the interfacing into 6″x6″ squares. It will take 9 squares to fill one of the 18″x18″ pieces of fabric. Go back and trim off 1/4″ off of one side from 8 of the squares. To 4 of those squares, go back and cut them diagonally.

Now lay a piece of the fabric face down on your work surface and place the interfacing on top. The untrimmed 6″x6″ square will go in the center, the other 4 squares on the top/bottom/left/right, and the diagonal pieces in each corner, with the tips pointing from the center to the outer corner. You can see ~1/4″ of fabric remains showing all around the interfacing.

Iron a 1/4″ hem around the edges of all of the fabric pieces. An easy way to do this is to create a “cheat sheet” with a piece of cardstock. Draw a 1/4″ line across the edge of the paper, fold the edge of the fabric over the paper to meet the line, and iron down.

Once all four sides of the fabric are iron hemmed, go back and tuck the interfacing back into place and use the hot iron to fuse the hem to the interfacing.

Lay the 2nd piece of fabric face up on top of the exposed interfacing, lining up the corners. Start from the edge and iron the 2nd piece of fabric to the interfacing. Flip the fabric over and fuse the 1st piece of fabric to the interfacing with the hot iron.

Sew along the edges of the fabric to keep the hems together and give the fabric a nice, clean edge.

Because the pieces of interfacing are cut into sections, you can bend fabric into a box shape, folding the corner flaps inward. Clip in place and stitch around the edge.

Note: Because of the thickness in the layers I recommend using a heavy duty needle on your sewing machine. Also, move your sewing machine so the arm hangs off of the edge of your table to make sewing the stiff bin easier. If you have a removable arm on your machine, take it off.

If you want to add further decoration to the storage baskets you can add metal grommets. Use a Crop-a-dile (a heavy duty hole punch) to cut through the layers of fabric easily, punching multiple times to make a large enough hole for a grommet. Or use super sharp scissors to cut a hole. Follow directions on the grommet box for attachment.

These baskets are ~6″x6″x6″ but the dimensions can be changed as needed. This size is actually perfect to store more of my fabric stash! But I’ll also be trying them out in other places in the house. I’m excited how they turned out and how inexpensive they were to create!

What would you fill your DIY fabric bin with?

 

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