gesundheit!
how to make a fabric tissue box cover
by Yee-Fan Sun

what you’ll need |

• Fabric of your choice
• Matching thread
• Scissors
• Iron and ironing board
• Ruler
• Colored pencil
• Sewing machine

1 Get the length, width and height measurements for the tissue box you’re covering; measure the length T of the tissue slot as well. Jot these numbers down.

2 Time to do a little arithmetic now. You’ll need six pieces of fabric, each possessing the following dimensions:

Pieces A1 and A2: (L+1”) x (W/2 +1”)
Pieces B1 and B2: (L+1”) x (H+1”)
Pieces C1 and C2: (W+1”) x (H+1”)

You'll also need to do this calculation:

(L-T)/2= S

3 Take pieces A1 and A2 and match them up with right side of fabric facing one another and wrong sides facing out. Using a colored pencil that will show up on your fabric, mark 2 lines as pictured, each ½” down and parallel to the long edge and S” in length.

Sew a straight stitch along each of these two lines.

4 Open the sewn together piece, and iron the seams flat. You’ll have a big rectangle with a gap at the middle. Sew a straight stitch down both seams, as shown.

5 Now take piece B1 and line up its long edge with the long edge of the piece you just finished sewing together. Sew the pieces together, with a 1/2"seam as shown. Go over this seam with a zigzag stitch to reinforce it. Line up piece B2 with the bottom edge of the A1/A2 piece and repeat this step.

6 Iron the seams you just sewed flat, with the seams pointing away from the center.

7 Line up the top edge of C1 with the sewn piece as shown, doing your best to center it. Starting and ending at about 1/4"-1/2” in from each side of C1, sew together with a 1/2" seam. Again, reinforce with a zigzag stitch. Line up C2 with the bottom edge of the A/B piece, and repeat this step.

8 Now sew together all four side corners of your cover by aligning each short side to its adjacent short side, and sewing a ½” seam. Again, reinforce all the seam allowances with a zigzag stitch. Don’t stress too much if the corners bunch a tiny bit; unless you’ve been grossly off in your previous measurements, it’ll look fine.

9 Finally, iron a 1/4" double hem all along the raw bottom edge of your cover (fold edge 1/4" up; then fold another 1/4"). Pin if you feel like the ironed hem isn’t staying put. Now sew the hem with a straight stitch.

Turn your cover right side out, gently tugging and poking at the corners as necessary to get them to straighten out as much as you can. Slide the cover over your box, pulling the tissue through the opening. And voila -- no more ugly tissue box!