Free Plan: 1912 Slatted Sewing Box
A walnut-and-ash keepsake box with 72 slats — it reads like heirloom furniture but fits in the corner of your bench.
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- PDF plan
- Material & cut list
- Step-by-step
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Download didn't start? Get the plan here.Seventy-two slats, drawn up. Here is where the next twenty pieces come from.
- 16,000 plans, each with a cut list, measurements and step-by-step instructions. Furniture, shop jigs, outdoor builds, beginner to advanced.
- What to print first: search the library for a jewelry box or a small blanket chest. Same walnut and ash, same slat spacing, one more cut list.
- Sold through ClickBank, with a 60-day refund window stated on the vendor's page.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
A sewing box sounds like a beginner project — until you count the parts. Four round posts, mitered rails, and 72 thin slats that all have to sit even. That's exactly what turns a small box into something that looks like real furniture.
In walnut and ash it reads like an heirloom piece, but it fits in the corner of the bench and won't eat a whole board's worth of lumber. That makes it one of the better gift builds in the shop: high perceived value, small footprint.
This plan is from 1912, redrawn into a clear cut list, post work, and slat spacing you can follow start to finish.
Project at a Glance
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Main materials
- Walnut (posts, base), ash (rails, slats), brass nails
- Build time
- 4-6 shop days, plus finish
- Tools needed
- Saws, tools for rounding the posts, drill, miter tools, clamps, finish supplies
- Page count
- 7-page PDF
Before you cut:
Sort the slats by thickness first, then cut a small spacer block to set the gaps. Across 72 pieces a hair of drift adds up fast, and the eye catches an uneven run long before it ever notices a tight miter. Pre-drill for the brass nails so the thin stock doesn't split.
Here's the part nobody warns you about: this is exact work. Seventy-two slats set to a line, and the gaps show the next morning, not while the glue is wet.
Exact work gets easier the second time, and the third. A cut list you can trust does more for a box like this than any tool, and the next piece with the same demands is already drawn.
What one of the plans looks like
One plan, front to back
Every plan in the library comes with the same three things: a cut list you can total before the lumber run, measurements on every part so nothing gets scaled off a photo, and step-by-step instructions from rough stock to finish. That is the layer this sewing box plan gave you, sixteen thousand more times.
The library covers furniture, shop jigs, outdoor builds and small projects, beginner to advanced. It works with a few hand tools or a full shop, and you keep it for good.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Also worth a look: the technique layer
Woodworking Secrets is a printed book on layout, cutting, joinery and finishing, the part a plan leaves out. The publisher sends it at no charge and you cover the shipping. It ships to US addresses. On the order page there is a box for a trial membership that is already ticked — untick it if you only want the book.
See the book →