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Mary Corbet

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I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

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Combining Fabric, Paper, and Embroidery. It Took a Long Time.

 

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This weekend, with the invaluable aid of some little advisors and half-way helpers, I got back to the project I mentioned last week, when I brought the subject of embroidery as craft, and asked you all if you have other creative pursuits outside of needlework. I think most needleworkers do. Maybe it’s the whole “hobby” thing: people who are prone to have hobbies or to be creative seem to cross over lots of interest areas, don’t they?

This past weekend, I got to dabble in a cross between embroidery and paper craft and… fabric manipulation, in a sense. It was fun (ish), and these are the results:

Fabric and Paper Boxes

As soon as I can get photos sorted out, I’ll show you up close and personal how we made the boxes. Just so you know, they involved a cutting machine – we didn’t cut things by hand! In fact, I thought the use of a cutting machine would make the process so darned fast that we would make a decision on which box we liked best and crank out a hundred million of them in no time! (Or at least a dozen…)

It didn’t quite work that way.

But we learned some good lessons. We were going to use a box to make “thank you” gifts for some fundraising the kids are doing. But we’re not going to make them quite like this after all. Why not? Because those six boxes up there took a looooong time to make (Friday evening, a good part of Saturday, and a bit of Sunday), and in adding up the cost and the time, it would be counter-productive.

Was it a waste of time? Nah! It was fun, and the boxes are all definitely something that can be made again for special occasions. They’d make great party favors or special occasion boxes for things like gift cards or little sweets and so forth.

But now it’s time to get serious again! That’s what Mondays are for, right?

See you tomorrow!

 
 

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(5) Comments

  1. Hi Mary,

    This looks interesting and fun. I would like to know more both for my own interest and I’m always looking for crafts for my Beaver Scouts (age 5-7).

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  2. I can’t wait to see how you made these. I really like the three in the back! If you’ve given up on making boxes, you might try origami or omiyage.

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  3. I made a small needle box once. It took me three days. All those fiddly little corners and waiting for glue to dry really ramp up the time element.
    Your boxes came out quite nicely, and I look forward to seeing the in-progress photos.

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  4. These boxes are gorgeous. I agree that they are time consuming. I made the hexagonal ones and the first one took up the whole day. The next few were quicker since by then I knew how to combine and reduce the unnecessary steps. I would love to see how you made these.

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  5. Siete state bravissime. Io adoro il cartonnage ma non ho fatto corsi e mi improvviso. Però non ho usato solo cartone, ma l’ho ricoperto col tessuto. Non è proprio così facile come sembra e ci vuole tempo. Non vedo l’ora anch’io di vedere il seguito di questo esperimento. Grazie e baci dall’Italia!

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