15-Minute Upcycled Fabric Tray Tutorial

15-Minute Upcycled Fabric Tray Tutorial

These cute little fabric trays are a great beginner project. They stitch up quickly and are a very handy cute little item to have dotted around your sewing room. Use them to catch threads or keep your little sewing notions tidy and easy to grab. Perfect as a quick gift, scrap buster and a short satisfying sew…

Aren’t they just the sweetest little things?

You will need:

  • An old pair of jeans

  • 1 FQ Quilting cotton

  • Heavy Iron-on Interfacing or a woven interfacing. Vliseline G700 is great for this

  • Temporary fabric marker

  • Thread

3/8″/ 1cm seam allowance throughout, unless directed otherwise.

Step 1:

Decide which sized tray you are going to make. Cut your fabrics as per the the table :

Cut the following based on the table above:

1 x square Denim Outer Fabrics

1 x square Inner quilting cotton

2 x squares Interfacing Squares

Step 2: Iron on interfacing squares to the reverse side of both the denim outer & the quilt cotton fabric inner.

Step 3: With RST pin the outer and inner fabrics together

Step 4: Sew round the edge leaving a turning gap of approx 3-5 inches (depending on which sized tray you are making)

Step 5: Trim the fabric on each corner diagonally to reduce bulk, taking care not to snip through your stitches

Step 6: Turn to the right side making sure your corners are crisp (Use a sturdy pin to dig out the excess fabric in the corners helps here)

Pro Tip: The tool pictured above are Needle Grippers and they are SO helpful for turning out projects

Step 7: Press & pin the turning gap closed.

Step 8: Top Stitch all the way around the edge using a 3mm stitch approximately 1/8″ from the fabric edge , closing the turning gap.

Step 9: On both sides of every corner make a mark with a temporary fabric marker the distance from the corner as listed in the table below

Step 9: Match up the 2 marks on each corner so the lining fabric is touching. Over stitch catching both sides of the tray. Repeat for all 4 corners.

Congratulations! You’re done!

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