accordion sewing box

for my sister-in-law's birthday I found a nifty wood sewing box on ebay. it showed up late and the handle was broken in shipping :( but I fixed it up a bit.

I buffed the wood out smooth with steel wool and rubbed walnuts all over. the oil in them stains the wood and hides scratches - pretty cool, huh? I glued and clamped cracks here and there, filled chipped spots on the inside with glue and sawdust (makes a great wood filler if you don't have any on hand... but happen to have glue and sawdust) and cleaned up the hardware a bit.

then I removed the old, tacky, shelf paper printed to look like marble and replaced it with embossed felt.

I needed to cover the parts on either side of the box that the handle was on since I decided to just remove it altogether, but it was kinda icky looking. I took ornate little bookplates I found at Michael's and inserted some embroidery I did on faux suede - they came out better than I expected! I want to do more embroidery now :) and I just happen to have a small mounting hoop I bought the other day for a buck!

I'd really like to try my hand at making my own box like this one, and I really wanna use dovetails. this guy makes it look easy. if you don't watch it all, at least skip to 5:08 - it's a great shot... of nothing noteworthy! but nonetheless a great video. I could watch instructional videos all day - I love how inspired I get after I watch someone make something cool.