Yoda or Things that Will Make Your Friends and Family Question Your Sanity

I am really jazzed about this Yoda box I made for my BIL. It was a total stash bust and it turned out just how I imagined it.

The Yoda Box is made of a tin canister that I covered with burlap. Members of my family might question my sanity, after spending a nice chunk of time embroidering Yoda, I grunged him up with coffee!

If you want to know the process step-by-step, I wrote some instructions.

Supplies

• Embroidery piece for the top of your container
• Instant coffee
• Spray bottle
• Cardboard
• Quilt batting
• Tin Canister
• Burlap (my burlap comes from coffee bean bags I pick up at the coffee shop)
• High temp hot glue
• Fulled wool sweater (optional)
• Trim material for embellishing (I used the sewn edge of a coffee bean bag, jean seams, and jute rope)

Staining Your Embroidery

1. To stain the embroidery, I made a weakish mixture of instant coffee. I put in the spray bottle and misted the entire embroidery piece with it.
2. I then made a really thick mixture (almost half and half) of instant coffee and water. I spattered it off a spoon, I dribbled it off a spoon and I simply poured it where I wanted it.
3. Let the embroidery dry then iron it.

Covering the Canister

Cut at least two discs out of cardboard to fit inside the lid and bottom of the cannister (cut three discs if you don't use fulled wool for the inside bottom.

Cut out several layers of batting to the same size as a disc. Cut a circle out of the fulled wool the same size as one of the disc (if you don't have batting, I think that some thick fulled wool or several layers of fleece would probably work well). 

Trim your embroidered piece so that it is several inches larger than your disc.Cut a piece of burlap about the same size.

Use hot glue and carefully glue the burlap to the one of the discs. Stretch and pull as you glue it down so that it is nice and smooth. Wrap the excess around the edges of the cardboard and glue it to the back. (Wrap a second disc the same way if you plan to line the bottom of the canister with burlap).

Cut burlap an inch or two taller than the height of your canister (and long enough to wrap around the perimeter if possible). Glue the the burlap to the cannister, avoiding gluing beyond the ridge that the lid settles down onto.

Hint: Glue slowly - an inch or two at a time. You will get better results. The reason for using high temp hot glue is it doesn't firm up (dry) as quickly so you have more time to work. 

Trim the burlap and glue the excess to the bottom of the cannister.

Glue the burlap covered disc to the bottom of the cannister to cover up the excess fabric.

Cut some more burlap so that it is an inch or two taller than the height of your canister (and long enough to wrap around the perimeter if possible). Glue the the burlap to the interior of the canister. Make sure to glue it all the way to the top edge - add extra glue just under the lip to insure that the burlap is completely secure. Trim the burlap down to the top edge.

Glue a fulled wool disc to the interior of the canister (or a burlap covered cardboard disc).

Cut a narrow strip of burlap to fit around the edge of the canister (I used the seam of the coffee bag as one edge of the burlap  so that I had a nice woven look to butt up against the lip of the lid).

Glue the strip around the lid and overlap the top slightly.

Lay your batting on top of the second cardboard disc. Lay your embroidered piece on top of the batting. Wrap the edge of the embroidery to the bottom of the cardboard and glue it down. It works best to glue one point on the circle then glue the opposite point then glue the next two opposite points (so you've glue 12,6,3, and 9 on the clock face) then go back and start tacking the fabric down between those places.

Glue the embroidery covered disc to the lid of the canister. Decorate the canister with trim.


Recognizing my Inspiration

I got the idea for covering a tin cannister from  The Twisted Stitcher.

I got the idea for using jean seams as trim from one of my favorite bloggers, Michele of michele made me.

I will be sharing this at: