Photo cubes

I've been working on this item for a long time. It is for my daughter and my nephew and I think I started it around last May.  I made these up after seeing a picture of the idea online somewhere.

The idea is that four sides of each cube have a plastic pocket on them, each large enough to hold a photo. For our daughter, who I'll call Bub, I've got a selection of pics of family and homes in different groups - her uncle's family in Sweden, my sister's family in Warragul, my brother's family in Gippsland, and four each of her grandparents. I'm making six cubes so I can have a group per cube. I'll send off her cousin's set with photos already done of us and the in-laws and leave them to fill the other four with family in my sister-in-law's side.

So! I bought fabric at Spotlight and Lincraft. I had the cubes made 15cm x 15cm at Clark Rubber. The example I found used plastic pockets (document pockets) as the photo pockets but I wasn't confident of their strength, expecting the pocket to be used as a handle soon enough. So instead I bought the thinnest vinyl available from Spotlight.

The fabric squares used to cover the cubes are 17cm. Each cube has three different fabrics, paired on opposite sides. The two sides without vinyl have picture patterns, sort of like a non-photo feature. The remaining sides use complimentary patterns and colour - nothing lost when the photo covers it. All the cutting was done with a rotary cutter and board, a la quilt pieces.

The vinyl pieces are 14cm x 10cm. Although this is slightly too small for the average photo, I've chosen pics that can be cropped, and to make cubes that are big enough for regular photos would make them kind of huge. A 15cm cube is pretty big already - good for a 1-year-old but too much for our 4.5mo Bub for a while yet.

The prototype (pictured) was pretty robust. I used firm interfacing to support the fabric, but have since decided it isn't necessary, although it did make sewing on the vinyl a lot easier - more on that later. It also makes the sides harder to grab. My husband suggested some loops on the sides, to help little hands, for future cubes . The photo pockets alternate profile and landscape too, but I haven't continued that since.

Soon I'll do a step-by-step with pics. :)