The Other Fabric Baskets

I know - "define 'a day or two'", right? I got side tracked.

So... I loved following Ayumi's tutorial, as I said the other day. The basket came out so cute and I will definitely be making more! I wanted to make some larger fabric baskets, too - so I sort of followed the tute at this link. More or less. Give or take. I may have colored outside the lines...

In the little basket, I just used cotton batting. For a basket that size, it was perfect. For a larger basket, I knew I'd need something a little stiffer, to help the basket hold its shape. For the large basket, I used some Soft & Stable my friend Donna sent me! (Thanks, Donna!)

The pinning stage

It was perfect! Easy to work with, soft to the feel, but even with this pretty tall basket, it looks GREAT!

Instead of turning the basket right-side-out through a hole in the lining, you stuff the lining in, turn the lining down 1/2 an inch, turn the outside down 1/2 an inch, then do some top stitching.

That photo gives a good look at one of those times I "go reeeeeally slowly", as mentioned in the previous post. I made great use of my #8 denim foot, a 90 needle, and my leveling bars, for those of you playing along on the home version.

I was posting little snippets of what I was doing on FaceBook as I worked, and mentioned batiks about ... a million times or so. Give or take. That led to a great question by my cousin Jill.  She wanted to know what exactly is a batik?  Is it different from regular fabric?  I'm cutting and pasting my answer in, because I really can't come up with anything much better.  LOL.  "Batiks traditionally are from Indonesia, though they're made in other areas now.  They have a higher thread count - a tight weave, if you will - and have almost a silky feel to them.  They're traditionally hand-dyed, using a wax resist to add pattern.  Usually are saturated colors... really, really gorgeous."  That covers it pretty well.  I thought I'd see if a photo would help show the difference!  One of these is a batik; one is a hand-dye -- pretty, but not a batik.

Keeping in mind what I said above, can you tell which is the batik?

Dave, Guide Dog for the Color Blind points out the batik

Way to go, Dave! He knows the blue fabric has a tighter weave, a silky feel and is saturated with color! Dave has great taste, doesn't he?  He was  sleeping  doing something important when I chose the fabs for the large basket, so I didn't use any greens.  (Greens are my hardest colors to differentiate.)  He did come down to the Studio when I was putting the medium one together, so I let him choose some greens for me.



Pretty cool. I do love the green in there, I just can't tell which one/s go or don't go.



For the medium basket, I decided not to add the handles - basically so it would fit on the shelf easily! I used batting on the outside and heavy interfacing in the lining. I think both were good choices for a basket this size - and frankly, this lining came out best of all three baskets. So there you go.

I did a little more quilting on this basket than the others.



I'm not sure why. I could do that twisty thing all day, though.



I love how it contrasts with the double line of top stitching.

I had a blast making these baskets and they're all hard at work on my new shelf. I will be making more for sure - I think they'd make great Christmas gifts!!

Thanks for reading!