Fat Quarter Friday Tutorial - Folding tray

Welcome to this week's Fat Quarter Friday Tutorial. This week, we will be making this little dish for putting your rings, watch etc in. This tray folds down flat for travelling, it takes up no room in a suitcase or bag, but then when you want it you just clip it togather and you have a little dish for bits and bobs. Great for when you are on holiday. This would also be a great gift for a man (they are so hard to make things for) as a change tray.

You will need:

2 pieces of fabric 22cm by 23cm (I've made it slightly longer on one side for ease in the final steps)

1 piece of card 8cm square

4 pieces of card 8cmx5cm

4 press-studs

Ribbon to decorate (optional)

To put it together:

First, sew the two squares together, right sides together leaving one of the shorter edges open.

Turn right side out and press, making sure to push out the corners fully.

With the open end at the bottom, measure and mark with chalk 6 cm in from the edge, then 8cm from this mark. Draw a straight line down so that the fabric is divided into 3 sections. Sew down these lines, leaving 1cm at the top and 2cms at the bottom.

Draw lines in the same way horizontally, at 6cm and 14 cm from the top edge, but do not stitch yet.

This will be the placement of the cardboard pieces in the following steps.

Insert piece 1. Sew the first horizontal line to keep it in place.
Insert centre piece, and pieces 2 and 3. Sew the next line.
Insert piece 4.

It should now look like this:

Fold in the bottom edge, press and sew a 1cm margin all around each edge.

Use a decorative stitch (I just used zig-zag for speed) all around.

Sew press studs at the sewn lines on each non- card corner as shown.

Put some ribbon or ric rac around the outside, if you want.

To assemble, simple press the press- studs together at the corner to make a box shape.

Don't forget, there's a prize for one person who comments on this post. I'll draw names out of a hat (or something) in one week.