Today I’m letting my geek out (more than usual, anyway 😉 ), and doing a little crafting that’s perfect for those hurry-up-and-wait moments. It’s small, only a few pieces, light weight, and doesn’t take an engineering degree to figure out. A couple of years ago I saw a Rubik’s Cube Tissue Box on an episode of The Big Bang Theory and knew I had to make one for myself. It took a while to figure out the correct sizing, but it’s finally done. I made a few mistakes along the way that I’ll share with you – here’s my take on how to make a Rubik’s Cube tissue box cover.
supplies:
- plastic canvas – enough for 5 pieces measuring approx. 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (the piece I purchased was 13 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches, which game me enough to have some left over
ifwhen I made a mistake) - yarn – red, yellow, orange, blue, green, and white, approx. 4 feet for each color block (up to 36 feet per color)
- yarn – black approx. 40 feet
- needle – large-gauge blunt
You’ll need to cut the canvas into five pieces. Each piece will be 37 lines x 37 lines (or 36 open squares), they will be just under 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches. This means each color block will be 12 open squares. For the fifth piece (the top) you will need to cut a hole in the middle for the tissues. Measure in 13 lines from each side to cut the hole.
To make it easier to get the multi-stranded yarn threaded through the needle eyelet, put a little piece of tape on the end. Snip off the tape before you start pulling the yarn through the plastic canvas.
With my first square I tried “covering” only the outside (the part you see) of the canvas with the yarn, but this lead to two problems. First, the plastic canvas showed through the strands of yarn more than I liked.
Second, it made the piece curl up. I had to take it all out, and start over.
When you start each color block, leave about 1 1/2 inches of yarn to tie the ends together.
Once you’ve stitched the color block, pull the yarn underneath, and tie the ends together. Next, stitch between the color blocks with the black yarn, covering the plastic canvas. When you’ve completed all five sides of the cube, use the remaining black yarn to “sew” all the pieces together. It’s that simple! 🙂
This next step is completely optional.
Tissue boxes are not square, but Rubik’s cubes are. The Rubik’s cube tissue box cover will be bigger than your tissue box. When the cover was finished, it was a bit floppy because of the size difference, so I grabbed some black foam core that I had left over from another project and made a frame to reinforce the shape.
To make a frame to “firm up” the cover, cut two pieces of foam core to 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches, and two others to 5 x 5 1/4 (the foam core is about 1/4 inch thick).
Assemble with your trusty duct tape, and slip it inside your awesome new tissue box cover. The two pieces cut to 5 x 5 1/4 inches will sit “inside” the two 5 1/4 5 1/4 inch pieces, to keep the frame square.
And Bazinga! you’re done! When you create your own Rubik’s Cube tissue box cover, I’d love to see it. Please stop by and post a pic of it on my FB page. Until next time.
keep the green side up,
~Beth
p.s. Don’t feel like you need to follow my color block design, but I would strongly suggest creating your design from an actual Rubik’s Cube. The first design I created, while pretty to look at, turned out to not be possible on the cube itself.
p.p.s. If you have more questions feel free to ask, and check the comments for helpful tips from other readers!
Hello, Beth. Good job. I am wondering if this can be made smaller into a “Square” and just use the tissues “loose” in the cube. I did make this and love it but it is so large to keep on my small end table by my chair where I make all my crafts. Thought maybe I could just make a “small” square box with no top that would fit into my “smaller” Rubik’s Cube … maybe … and just place the tissues in there. Your thoughts are appreciated … and of course anyone else. You all be safe out there. Dot
Thank you Dot, I’m so glad you’re enjoying this project!
If you wanted the tissues “loose” in the cube, I see no reason you couldn’t size this down, as long as the dimensions stay proportional. Good luck, and let me know how it turns out 🙂
Thank you. Will do.
This is co awesome! I’m gonna make some for Christmas gifts! Thanks for the instructions!
You’re welcome!
I hope they turn out great, and that the people you gift them to, love them 🙂
Thank you so much for the instructions. My only question is you said not to do just the outside but I am not completely sure what exactly you did instead?
Hi Melanie,
I can see how that part of the instructions would be a bit confusing. What I wanted to get across, is that the inside will look “done/finished” the same way the outside does. The first time I tried making this, I tried to conserve the yarn, and did the long diagonal “stitches” only on the front, and did a one square stitch on the back to get set for the next long stitch on the front. This resulted in being able to see through to the plastic – not pretty. By doing the front and back, you won’t get that thin look. Hope that helps 😉
37×37 gave us an extra row. 36×36 was perfect for 3 squares of 12. Other than that: Thank you! Ours is coming together great!
That’s wonderful to hear! Glad you were able to adjust it a bit to fit your needs perfectly 🙂
I made one but didn’t like it loose so I cut it down to 32×38. The squares are 9×9 and there is rows unstitched so I took and used brown and it looks like it is one a stand.
I tried to make one from their site and it was hard. My husband found your site and I am going to start on mine today.
Thank you so much for these instructions. I will post a picture when finished.
Again thank you.
Letha
Letha, I’d love to see a photo of your finished project!
Thank you for providing the instructions. I appreciate it because yours was the only one that had instructions. God bless.
Belma, you’re welcome. I hope you enjoy making it!
Hello: Thanks for letting us copy your Rubik’s Cube pattern. Like everyone else I could never find any instructions on how to make one. I plan to make one for my brother’s Xmas present. When we were kids he figured out how to match the real cube. I think he will be very happy. God Bless U. Marilyn
Hi, Marilyn 🙂 So glad you found my site, and I hope the gift for your brother is a huge hit!
I looked at several rubix cube sites and yours was the only one that even tried to give instructions. Thank you for that!
I looked at several “pins” that showed rubix cube tissue covers. Yours was the only one that had instructions with it. Thank you very much!
You’re welcome, Janet! Best of luck with the project 🙂
I saw this on BBT. Thnx I plan on making this.
I’m so going to make this