I hope everyone had a very, Merry Christmas!!! I couldn't post this fun project until after Christmas as it was a gift for my little girls. I'm really happy about the way they turned out. I will be selling custom jewelry boxes on my Etsy if you are interested in having me do a customized jewelry box for someone special. Feel free to e-mail me with what you are looking for. No two are alike! Here is what they looked like before:
They actually look pretty good from the pictures. You can't tell that one of the windows is cracked and that the inside of the drawers are very dirty. A great part of the deal was that I paid about $6 for each of them! Here is what the inside of the drawers looked like before:
So that is one of the first things that has to go - the nasty felt! After I took the felt out, I just made a pattern of it on some poster board and traced the shape on to "Steam-a-Seam 2" (love that stuff). If you haven't appliqued before, just remember to trace your shape onto the side of the Steam-a-Seam that has sticky on the back, then pull off the paper on the other side and iron the sticky side to the BACK of your fabric. The instructions are right on the Steam-a-Seam also. Once you have your Steam-a-Seam onto the back side of your fabric, cut the shape out and pull the remaining paper off and put it onto the poster board, sticky side down. Then iron again and you have a fabric covered posterboard shape. Then all you have to do is glue your fabric covered poster board into place in the drawer. Here are pictures of the process:
This is the drawer after the old felt was removed. Note: I have already painted the outside of the drawer the color I wanted it to be in the end.
Here I'm making the pattern on my poster board with the old felt (ewww!)
Here is my friend "Steam-a-Seam 2":
Here is the Steam-a-Seam, with all the patterns traced, ironed onto the back side of my fabric:
Here is what the drawer looked after I re-lined it (much better):
To finish the project, I spray painted the jewlery boxes black, distressed them, and let pink or blue color "show through" to match the fabric I was doing. To really personalize it, I stitched flowers on coordinating fabric for the "windows". It turned out to be a really fun project and my girls loved them!!! Here are a couple of close-ups:
