Crazy Stitching Cameo: No Sew Cube Tutorial

I have been wanting to do this for a long time -- but finally got the time yesterday to sit down and take photos as I put it together. Since this cube is for the postal worker that has been very friendly to me for years, I can show it without worries.

How to Make a No-Sew Cube

supplies needed:
* a styrofoam cube that is a bit larger than your stitched item
* 2 stitched pieces that will fit the cube -- you will cut it a bit larger than the cube
* fabric to cover the sides (width) of the cube plus an inch or 2
* variety of ribbon in colors that compliment your stitched pieces and fabric
* glue gun and glue
* straight pins (flat head) and 4 glass head ones that match colorwise with your stitched items
* coordinating charms or buttons
* scissors

Place your cube over the stitched item, centering as much as possible and lightly draw with pencil the sides of the cube on the wrong side of the stitched piece. This will not be seen, it will be merely a guide for the cutting. Cut outside of the pencil line about 1-2 inches so that you have something to pin to the cube.

Place your stitched piece on the front of the cube and use a pin in the center of the piece and stick into the cube's center. This helps to keep it centered and in place while pinning. Fold over each end and put in about 5 flathead pins ... 1 in the center, 1 at each end near the corner, and 1 in between the center and corner pins. Using flathead pins allows the fabric to lay flat... you will NOT remove these pins. They will stay in the cube forever. Slightly tug the fabric taut while pinning. Repeat on all 4 sides. When this is done, it should look like this -- and now for the corners. Crease the corner to one side, pulling it taut and pin, rotate and do all four sides going in the same direction. You will do this for the back of the cube with your other stitched piece, repeating all the directions as stated above.

Now for the fabric section that wraps around the cube to hide your pins and stitched piece edges. Measure the fabric to cover all 4 sides of the cube and cut off the excess leaving yourself about 2 inches for overlap. Fold over the fabric on the wrong side of the fabric to make a nice clean edge. You can glue this down so that it doesn't move. Apply glue to the cube starting at the top, along the pin line and lay your straight edge of fabric on the glue. You can do one side at a time but I find that doing both sides at once prevents wrinkles and oopies!. Once you get back to the top, fold the excess fabric under and glue into place.

Nice cube you got there!

And now for my favorite part, ribbon! Ribbon should be the easiest part to attach. Always starting at the top, glue and place ribbon around all 4 sides of the cube. I used 2 ribbons for the perimeter of the cube, a large first and then a small layered on top. Layer several strips of ribbon and tie a small piece of ribbon around the middle creating a large bow for the top, glue into place. You can accent with a button or charms using your glue gun. An option is to place glass ball pins on the bottom at each corner to make the cube stand up off the surface that it's placed. It kinda gives them "feet" if you will.

Go around and gather up any loose glue webs -- hate those things.

Wasn't this easy??

Please email me if you have any questions or need further explaination. This was a tutorial that I made up all on my own and have made several cubes in this fashion.