Earlier this spring, I had the absolute joy of going to the bi-annual Junk Bonanza at Shakopee Downs with two of my best ladies. This place is a junker/thrifter/vintage lover/hoarder/DIYer's dream come true. Floors and floors of rooms and rooms of secondhand (or thirdhand or fourthhand) trinkets lined nearly every inch of this place. Also, since I had just started planning the interior of The Loon, I was in interior-design heaven under a Pinterest-induced delirium. Luckily, I exercised moderate restraint and only came home with a polyester maxi dress, a velveteen handbag, a whitewashed wooden ladder and the suitcase showcased below!
At first, I planned on mounting this sucker to some metal legs and putting it inside the bus to display jewelry. After some more careful measuring and sketching, I realized that wasn't quite going to work. I put the case aside, filled with dresses, and moved on to other things. I also planned on using the floral fabric to cover a bench for a dressing room that ALSO was not meant to be, so I had a bunch of pretty remnants with nothing (or so I thought) to do with them.
After some brainstorming with my much craftier and creative friend Mel, we decided on tacking the fabric down for a stronger fit and a decorative touch. The project was, more or less, exactly what it sounds like. Cut fabric, put on suitcase, nail down, end.
For those of you, however, that are curious about the specifics, read more for photos, step by step instructions and tips!
- Fabric remnants big enough to cover the top of the suitcase (plus a few inches on each edge)
- Fabric nails (Ace Hardware, Hammered Silver finish, $7 for 3 packs, which was miraculously EXACTLY enough to cover this 26x19 suitcase all the way around)
- Thin Sharpie pen for marking
- Hammer
- Sharp scissors
- Suitcase (duh)
Then, I laid the fabric over the top of the suitcase with the wrong side up. After lining up the edges, I rounded the corners and cut off the excess fabric to the edges of the suitcase. You can also (barely) see, near the corner of the case, where I marked the edge of the actual surface I wanted to cover. I wanted to be sure I was cutting in a straight line as well as leaving myself enough room on the edges. This left me about 3/4 of an inch to fold under later.
After trimming the fabric and flipping it over, I figured...this is as good a place to start as any! I folded the excess edge fabric under and used juuust a little tension to pull the fabric taut against the suitcase.
And then, I got to hammerin'. To get an even spacing between the nails, I used the width of my pointer finger as a reference. It took a little while, as evidenced by the wavy line of nails below, but I eventually got the hang of how far up from the line I should place the nail to be sure the bottom of it met the edge of the moulding. As I went along the border, I made sure to pull the fabric tight and trim off the excess edge fabric. Even though I started out with a wrinkled piece of fabric, it stayed perfectly flat!
Though the corners seemed like they'd be the hardest part, they weren't too bad. By trimming the edges of the corners slightly smaller than the rest of the sides, I had less to fold under. Besides that, I just bunched it all together underneath and made sure a nail covered up the bumpiest parts. Spoken like a true professional, no?
Here's the finished product! I was fortunate that the sides of my suitcase were thick enough that 98% of the nails did not poke through the other side, or that would be a BIG cautionary point of this post. I plan to cover the five or so sticking through, so I don't scrape myself. Otherwise, you would need to either bend the nails down or cover them.
Overall, this project took me less than an hour from start to finish. I had the craft gods on my side that day that I had enough nails, did not break any thumbs and it turned out exactly how I envisioned. If you've got an old suitcase and some fabric laying around which, if you're reading this, chances are decent that you do, pick up some fabric nails and try this no-glue no-sew project.
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