A fabric box for coasters

When looking around the internet for ideas for fabric boxes for my sewing room, I came across a cute little folding box, and thought it would be perfect for holding coasters. I've seen quite a few similar boxes, each with their own special touches, but the basic concept is the same.

The little box is easy to make, and it's the perfect size for the 4.5 in. finished coasters. It's made from an 11x11 in. square of fabric, with a 3-in. square piece cut from each corner. This makes a finished box that's big enough to hold up to 16 coasters.

The box is also simple to assemble: Layer the outside and lining pieces, right sides together, and stitch, leaving a 2-in. opening on one of the sides. Clip the inside corners, trim the outside corners, and turn it inside out. Press it, topstitch it, and press it again. Mark the button locations on both corners of each tab, stitch on your choice of buttons, then add a length of narrow ribbon or embroidery floss to the left-hand button of each tab.

To form the box, just hold adjacent corner pieces together and twine the floss around that pair of buttons; I like to use a figure-8 pattern. Leave the ties long until you've assembled the box, then trim.

On the first box I used mismatched cream-colored buttons, which looked really cute. And I added little metal heart-shaped beads to the ends of the embroidery floss, to give the box a bit of bling.

On the second box, I added interfacing to make it a bit stiffer, and pressed a crease between the bottom and each tab to make a more defined box shape. I chose dark gold and forest green beads to go with the coaster colors, and used matched buttons so the beads would take center stage.

If you'd like to see how I made the quilted coasters that went into this cute little fabric box, you can find more information here. I hope you have fun making these... I sure did!