This little beauty used to live in my closet. It's a cheap hamper from Ikea, $9.99. I finally have a decent sized closet and this was just killing too much space. The more practical place was in the bathroom but I couldn't put it in there so plain looking and especially not with the nice lipstick Lo got on it when she decided to play in my makeup (on a high shelf that she dragged a tall stool to reach). So out of the blue I just thought up a quick way to give it a mini makeover.
So you will need:
Scissors
Glue gun
Sewing machine (though I bet you could skip the sewing if you wanted to)
Fabric at least one inch bigger than the length of the hamper and 4 inches longer the width of the top flap
First things first- pick a fabric you like. I happened to have that plus it coordinated perfectly with my bathroom. PS that shower curtain was such a great find- $5 at West Elm!
1.Measure your hamper- mine was 26.5 inches by 19.5 inches so I cut my fabric 27.5 (26.5+1) inches by 23.5 (19.5+4 inches= 1 inch for seam allowance, 1 inch to overlap under the top flap and two inches to go down the back of the hamper.
2.Sew a quick seam around the fabric, you only need to fold it over once- this is just to make it looked finished.
3.So you should have something like this. If you are awesome enough to iron your fabric first you will probably have better finished results but... I'm just not that awesome.
4.Now the "cheating": Hot glue the wrong side of the fabric DOWN on the UNDER side of the top flap of the hamper. I did a line down the edge (as shown) and then one straight line the length of the flap, then another line down the other edge.
5.With the right side of the flap and wrong side of the fabric glue a short line on the edge- just like you did on the under-side.
6.Still working on the very bottom of the front of the flap- glue a small line in the middle. Then repeat step 5 on the other end.
7.Keeping the fabric as even and straight as possible glue halfway up on one side. Then repeat on the other side.
8. Finish gluing the rest of the way up, repeat on other side.
9. Now that the fabric is attached to the top it's time to glue it down on the back. Hold the flap down taught. Place a line of glue down the back edge of the hamper (should be about 2 inches to reach the end the fabric- just eyeball it by pulling the unattached fabric on the back down while holding the end of the flap taught as shown below)
10.Carefully glue the fabric down along the back of the hamper. There should be a small lip of fabric on each side as the "lid" of the hamper is a bit wider than the hamper (so it sits on top instead of falling in). Just glue the lip to the side on each side of the hamper.
AND VOILA! Finished product.
11. Stand back and marvel at your work. Now go do your laundry, we all know you have been putting it off. (And men: it's NOT cool to throw your dirty clothes BESIDE the fecking hamper!!!! That "lid" weighs as much as a feather, just lift and throw. *cough*EDDY*cough*)
No comments:
Post a Comment