Making a Book Box for the Bookshelf

Our little Bean Sprout loves to read, and we pause periodically throughout the day for a quick story time (at her request). By the end of the day, it's not unusual to find a book or two laying in every single room of the house. We try to encourage our daughter to pick up after herself and put away her own books, but as her collection grows, this becomes more challenging. Those small, chubby, almost cube board books are difficult to stack neatly and have a tendency to tip over and fall out.

It finally occurred to me that it instead of trying to stack those smaller board books, it would be much easier to toss the smallest books into a fabric lined storage box instead. And luckily for me, I had another empty diaper box which fit perfectly on the bottom shelf of the book case. Gathering up the fabric from an old pair of chinos, and some leftover flannel, I set to work transforming the boring cardboard box into a cute fabric lined storage box.

I very loosely followed this tutorial at Positively Splendid, although, because my fabric source was a pair of pants, I had to modify most of the instructions. Nonetheless, it was great inspiration.

Here's my basic project recap:
1. Fold box flaps inside box to provide extra stability (as compared to cutting them off)
2. Trace perforated finger holes and cut a matching hole through the inner cardboard layer.
3. Cut pants and use spray adhesive to wrap around box. Hot glue along seams for extra strength.
4. Hot glue sheet of felt to bottom of box
5. Sew flannel inner liner. In poor judgement, I winged this without instructions but luckily it worked out. (Three pieces of fabric - a long strip for the front, bottom, and back and two smaller pieces for the sides.)

Here is my final product in use. Yes, I love the way it turned out, but I'll be honest, this project took much longer to complete than I expected,

Linking to: Sew Much Ado, Sugar and Spice, Someday Crafts, One Artsy Mama