Braided fabric cubes

About a year or so, the board of our quilt guild issued a challenge – make some new Christmas decorations using fabric. While I did not find time to do so last year, I have been waiting to be inspired as making Christmas decorations is one of my favourite hobbies.

One day I stumbled upon this blog, The Cheese Thief, leading to this video on YouTube, and I thought it would be fun trying to braid cubes using fabric strips.

The 4-strand-braiding-technique is quite simple - if you know how to braid; if not, you can check out this video.

My strips are 1” wide and approx 13”-14” long.

First you need to stabilize the fabric. I fused 2 ½” wide and 13-14” long scraps to rather heavy weight paper (drawing paper from IKEA), letting them overlap a bit as I would need to cut ½” off each strip. Just cover the paper with fusible glue and iron fabric in place, making sure the edges are properly secured.

Cut into strips; the wider the strips, the longer they will need to be.

Follow the directions in the video, and weave the edges in as shown there.

The tighter you get the braid, the squarer they get. As with everything else, keep trying and you will get better at it.

I cut the edges off close to the overlapping strip. If you pull them a little while cutting, the edge will be hidden underneath the strip.

The edges were secured by adding a dot of glue on the cut-off edge, and I used small cloth pins and paper clips to secure them while drying.

For hanging, I added strings of elastics with a little bell and a couple of beads.

Thread a long needle (doll needle), and stitch right through the cube – from one side to the other. This will only work if you do it in the right direction.

The opening in the front of this cube is closed one layer down. You will understand what I mean when you see the way the 4-strand-braid curls.

These little cubes are highly addictive. 

Before I knew it, I had made 28, and they were used as centrepieces at the guild’s anniversary dinner back in October.

(Getting ready for the hotel staff to set the tables)

I did a little demonstration at the guild meeting last week, so I’m looking forward to see more colourful Christmas cubes at our next meetings.

Have fun braiding!