A boxed corner is all about making a flat fabric to its 3-D avatar. With just a few stitches, a two-dimensional piece of cloth is manipulated into a form with depth, volume, and structure – a flat square becomes a little box. Like this one….. And many more.
To sew this, you need to fold the fabric by the corner, right sides to the inside. Then keep one edge a little to the inside as in the picture below.
Now mark the depth you need on the fabric. I am marking 6 cms for making a somewhat shallow but adequate fabric box to keep my ‘this and that’.
If you would rather watch the video here it is
Cut it out
Now bring the edges together. This will create an uneven edge at the corner where you cut off the fabric. This projecting part is your seam allowance
You will be folding the top part over the lower edge – fold it twice, narrowly so that the cut edge is fully enclosed.
Sew the edge.
You get a fully enclosed boxed corner like this.
To make it into a fabric basket (first of all you need a thick material as it is unlined, and also you need a cardboard base) you should box all the 4 corners. Or make a fabric tray like this tutorial.
Lined boxed corner
When you have lining the process is even simpler.
Keep the lining and outer fabric one on top of each other, wrong sides together.
Fold the fabrics by the corner as earlier. But this time you have two fabrics. Stack one on top of the other.
Mark or fold and finger press where you want the boxing to be stitched.
Stitch across – together. And then, cut off the extra.
Now turn it rightside out.
I told you it is easier.
Boxed corner with a gusset
This method gives you an extra enclosure. Very useful when you are making a cover for a book or a tablet cover. You simply sew a short additional line of stitching across the corner, and that small change changes the fabric into a three-dimensional enclosure.
Fold the material as earlier, by the corner.
Mark the edge on the other side.
And a diagonal like connecting both.
Now, sew across the marked line (Blue line in the picture below) And then cut it off.
Pull it rightside out. You have created a small enclosed space.
I would box all corners to keep my book safe from dust.
Related post : How to sew a mitered corner
Rounded boxed corner
A rounded corner is as easy to sew as the above but cut in a different way.
Here I want the sides to be 3/4″ so I am using a 1″ sides. Mark that. and mark half of that to make the rounded corners as in the picture below
Sew the sides first and then the rounded corner.
