jezzicasprojects

I live in a really small house that was built in 1943. I don’t know a lot about that time period but based on the closets in my house I’m guessing that people owned far fewer clothes than we do today! When my husband and I bought this house we planned to live here about 5 years and then trade up to a bigger house, that was 25 years ago. We fell in love with our neighborhood and just kept postponing that move to a bigger house and now we just can’t imagine living anyplace else. I love my house but I still dream of closets that would hold all of our stuff!

In the hallway we have a tiny little linen closet which is jammed full of toiletries, hair styling necessities, first aid supplies, medicines, contact lenses, etc., etc… I have bought numerous storage containers over the years but nothing quite fits on the narrow shelves and without some sort of container everything gets all jumbled up. And then I came up with an idea to sew my own custom storage container from the clear vinyl that you can buy at a fabric store.

First I measured my shelves to determine how big to make my box. I added 1/2 inch to my measurements for seam allowance(1/4 inch seams). Then I made pattern pieces for the bottom, the sides and the front/back. I traced my pieces onto the vinyl (1- bottom, 2- sides, 2- front/back) and cut the pieces out.

Using clothes pins I clipped the bottom to the side and stitched them together using a zig-zag stitch, then I did the same for the other side.

Next I clipped the front piece to the side piece and stitched the together stopping 1/4 inch from the bottom edge. Now I clipped the bottom edge to the bottom and stitched them together, ending 1/4 inch from the edge. Then the other side to the next edge of the front piece and stitch. I did the same for the other end and the box was done.

I folded the top edge over to give it a little more structure and a soft edge.

Now all I had to do was to fill it. I like that I can easily see what is in front and that It is sturdy enough to pick up and take out of the closet to get to the stuff in back.

I made 2 boxes for my linen closet