Rattle Cubes

I made these after making my tag cloths and thought this was something else to use up my scraps of material. I made mine on the small size, but they could be made any size.

Cut out 6 squares from different materials, or just different colours. I used black cotton; white cotton; yellow cotton; blue denim; blue linen; red satin. Mine were about 3" which included enough for the seam allowance.

Squares cut out to size

For this cube I used a 1/4" seam allowance. With this size seam allowance you have to start the seam 1/4" away from the edge so that the piece that fits along the next edge can be sewn in. This takes a bit of precision to get all of the corners to work, which was great for me as a perfectionist. To make it easier you could draw a square on the material 1/4" in with a fabric pencil and follow the line.

This is one of the sides all sewn up with the seams following the square I drew.

When sewing the pieces together make sure to keep the pieces underneath well away from the seam, especially in the corners. I find it works to fold the underneath pieces in a triangle so that the corner is nice and clean.

Sew them together in a cross pattern, and then just fold it up into a cube, and sew as you go.

I added a loop of ribbon (with the loop towards the middle of the cube) when sewing up one edge. This way I can attach the cube to something if I want to save it being thrown on the ground. Make sure to leave a gap when sewing the last seam so that you can turn it right-way-out. Trim the corners to make them less bulky.

I stuffed it using teddy bear stuffing and for the rattle I pushed a small bell into the middle of the stuffing. Make sure it is a reasonably loud bell as the sound will be muffled when in the stuffing.

The finished cubes.

The next ones I make may have a letter or something appliqued to the outside for a bit of interest and contrast.