A Treasure Box

As you may have read in my previous post (oh look! a convenient link to it, in case you want to read it, can be found right here!) I lost my Babci (my grandmother) last May due to the pandemic. She was a catalyst to my passion for Sewing. In order to start the healing process and begin sewing again, I decided I needed to create something for her…..well, for some of her things that I cherish.

I could have just made a cloth bag. That would have been easy. But, alas…..who needs easy?! I decided to make a structured box….a treasure box, if you will.

I found this beautiful fabric in Pennsylvania and was immediately drawn to it. The one with the text says, “My soul is fed with my needle and thread.” I also was able to get my hands on some very stiff stabilizer (the stiffness you’d use for the bottom of bags). But this wasn’t just going to iron on and be all good to go. No, I actually sewed a cloth cube with a lid that was stitched around this stabilizer and then was able to hand stitch the walls together to make the form geometric. Think of those gift boxes you buy flat and have to put together…..but now make it have a front and a back (an inside and an outside) with the cardboard sandwiched in the center, all while having no raw edges and a professional finished “box.” The geometry alone was pretty tricky and it was made large format, specifically to fit everything I wanted in it. Remember: this entire box was made as one whole piece. There is no piecing here, only topstitching in between the box sections. It was made as one whole piece (like a bag) that the stabilizer sections were put into from the bottom to the top, with topstitching the previous piece into place and then moving to the next one.

I am very proud of the finished product. To many, it may simply look like a cloth box….something you could buy an equivalent of at Crate and Barrel and move on. To me, this was a custom treasure box made for priceless items that are invaluable to me. Equally as important, it was something that was sewn and started the process of getting over my previously mentioned “Grief Hurdle.”

A dear friend told me to write a note to my Babci and place it into the box to give myself some closure. I have yet to do that….but I will. Actually, I think I’ll do it now, just after I publish this post. (Setting small, attainable goals, remember?) I was struggling for months with what to write in that note….and then it dawned on me. Every thing I have to say is summed up in a few simple words: “I love you Babci.”