Treasure box finished

My last swap for a while with the Surface Design group is a box for Deb Cragan in Australia. I've decided to dramatically decrease the amount of swaps I do so I can have more time to play and experiment and hopefully do more design work.

First I created the fabric for the box by fmeing in various threads, including some thicker threads in the bobbin.   The background was a piece of paper fabric which I'd made some time ago and liked the colours.  This was covered with a sheer fabric before I began to sew.  Once I was happy that there was enough thread play on the piece I took a heat gun to it to create more texture.

Next I digitised some 'inchies' using Bernina V5 software and sewed them out onto soluble fabric covered with iridescent film.  I wanted the inchies to have a gleam of treasure.  These are very simple to make and doesn't need digitising skills to create them.   If anyone is interested I'll show you how I made them.

Once I'd sewn out a hoopful I separated them and washed out the sabiliser.  I quite liked them when they were finished and I might make some more later.  Not sure what I'll do with them but I did think they would make a bracelet or a cuff if beads were interspersed between the inchies.

I added some beaded beads I'd made earlier and some beads in toning values to the inchies and this was my treasure for Deb.

 I created a cardboard template for the box.  I had to keep adjusting it so that all the sides met up  properly.  Once I'd got a template I liked it was used to cut out the fabric I'd made earlier.  I satin stitched round all the pieces then sewed them together to form the box.  It was a treasure box so I put a few hot fix gems on the top before closing the lid with a piece of velcro.  The latter was intended to keep the box shut and stop the 'treasurers' from falling out en-route to Australia.