Let me start out this story by saying I’ve never been good at origami. Ever.
I remember in junior high, we had the gifted and talented teacher come into our classroom every few weeks or so to do things with us like tangrams, engineering projects with toothpicks and marshmallows, and of course, origami. She’d walk by our desks looking at our work. And even as an 11 year old, I could tell she was just a little frustrated by me. While other kids would have a stack of cranes on their desk, I’d be working on the first one which looked a bit ugly. I was clearly not stupid, just an unbelievably spatial learner.
Good Chinese food is not possible in my town so I was excited for a grocery store option.
Fast forward almost 20 years. Dorrie really wanted to try these Chinese food containers she saw on another blog. They seemed similarish to the no-sew bags we did awhile back but also involved folding. But I wasn’t going to be alone with folding… or so I thought.
Plans and weather forecasts got in the way and I found myself alone with a folding project. Here’s how it went:
Materials:
Tai Pei Frozen Chinese food container (the one Chinese food restaurant in Bar Harbor is terrible, and I normally love even terrible Chinese food so you know it’s bad)
Parchment paper
Interface (fabric you iron to other fabric to make it stiffer)
Fabric
Scissors
Iron
Duct tape and/or fabric glue
1. Stop by the freezer section of your grocery store and pick up the frozen Chinese food. Long for good Chinese takeout options.
2. Open the container and take out the food to heat in the oven (some of us don’t have a microwave). Wash and rinse the container.
3. Unmake the container and place on wax paper. Draw in pencil the outline of the container on the wax paper. Cut it out.
4. Iron interface to the fabric. A damp cloth works best and the interface should come with instructions if you need more guidance. Note: You can get different ‘weights’ of interface at your favorite fabric/craft store. The kind I got wasn’t quite thick enough so go with the stiffest kind you can get. You’ll see what I mean soon…
Tracing and cutting I can handle. You know, because I rocked second grade.
The folding begins, and only sort of works because I have something to copy. Mrs. Pelletier (the GT teacher when I was in school) would be so proud of me!
5. Once ironed, trace the design from the parchment paper onto the fabric/interface. Cut design in fabric. You might want to reiron the fabric/interface again.
6. Using the folds from the frozen container as your guide, try to fold it correctly. The original blogger made button holes so she could tuck the pieces into place. I am not that skilled (and didn’t have the kind of takeout box that was folded but instead glued together). I tried duct tape but as I troubleshot, I realized fabric glue may have worked better.
I also decided to give the interface side a layer of duct tape to make it stiffer. It sort of worked.
Here’s the final product:
Not so much a 'Ta-da!' as a 'Hmph. That kind of worked..."
As you see, not superfantastic looking but a good first attempt. If I pick up fabric glue, I might be able to save it!
Aren’t I crafty, and defying my middle school self?
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