Doll's Basket/Bassinet Tutorial

This doll's basket is very easy to make. I've used the pattern from an old Family Circle sewing book ("Family Circle Treasury of Dolls & Cuddly Toys"). The instructions weren't very clear and caused me to make a jumbled mess before I realised where I was going wrong. I've now re-written the instructions and taken lots of photos while making the basket and I hope someone might find it useful. If you do use it, please drop me a line and show me your basket!

Materials:
I used denim and the book recommends garbardine.

Cut 1, 136 X 30cm piece of material for basket sides & matching interfacing
Cut 1, 136 X 4.5cm piece of material for reinforcing strip
Cut 2, 30 X 10cm handles
Cut 2, 52 X 27cm rectangles of material to form the base of the basket. The material base will have a 1cm seam allowance bigger then the masonite/cardboard base. The corners need to be curved.
Cut 1, 50 X 25 rectangle of heavy cardboard or masonite to use as the base of the basket. You will need to round the edges.

Step 1 - Cut out the basket pieces. Use heavy-weight interfacing on the basket panel as you will want the basket sides to be strong enough to stand up on their own.



Step 2 - Fold the handles in half and then fold each edge into the middle to create a casing. Iron these edges. Sew along the length of each handle a number of times to reinforce them.

Step 3 - Fold the basket side in half and iron it to mark a line that we will work off for the rest of the tutorial. Unfold the basket side panel and lay it flat on your work area. Allow for a 1 cm seam line at each end of your length of fabric, then mark half and quarter markings along the length of the fabric.

Step 4 - Sew the handles 6 cm on either side of the quarter markings and 1 cm below the fold line. Reinforce the handle stitches as you see fit.



Step 5 - Take the reinforcing strip and fold it in 1 cm on either side. Lay the strip right sides facing onto the basket side and match the upper reinforcing fold line with the basket side fold line. Sew this edge to the basket so that it will then fold down and meet up with the basket side fold line (and hence the top of the basket edge when everything is folded down later on).



Step 6 - Turn the reinforcing strip down and then sew the bottom edge of the reinforcing strip to the main basket.





The unit should look as follows:



Step 7 - Pin the edges of the basket panel together to form a large circle. With right sides together, sew 1cm from the seam.





Step 8 - You will work with everything inside out for the next few steps. Open the basket panel and place upright on the table to create a circular shape. Take one of the basket bases and pin it to the bottom part of the basket panel (the handles will point to the top of the basket, so the other end is the bottom). I marked quarter marks around the basket sides and around the basket base to help me distribute the base evenly. Sew all the way around - right sides are facing. Use a 1cm seam allowance. This part will become the basket's "outer" wall and base.



Step 9 - Turn the unit over and pin the other basket base to the top part of the basket wall. Only sew half way around this end. This part will become the basket's "inner" wall.



Step 10 - Turn the basket inside out by pulling the fabric through the hole you have left while sewing the base. Do you remember how we put a fold in the basket walls at the very beginning? Now you can use this fold to create the sides of the basket. You now have an outer and inner part to the basket.



Step 11 - Insert your piece of cardboard or masonite into the base of the basket. Hand stitch the opening in the inside of the basket closed.



Step 12 - Well done! You have finished your doll's basket!

Busy Bee

OK, a bit of a catch up. There has been a birthday party - see pic. We managed to fit 9 people around our dining table which is the largest number of people we've ever had around it!



We have been busy doing some painting. Our lounge and dining were a glorious shade of orange when we moved into the house and its taken us near on 2 years to get that colour painted out. Admittedly we've been pretty busy fumbling our way through Boo's first year! So this is our new lounge room. To go from a dark colour to a very light colour really did make the room feel twice as big afterwards. I've always thought it very cute when bloggers snap their work and find "little helpers" in the shot afterwards. Boo, right on cue, grabbed a toy I'd cleared away and zoomed into shot.



Here is a teaser for a project I am working on. I've used some very heavy-weight interfacing for this project and I am wondering if I need to go and buy some stronger sewing needles before I start sewing.



I have another teaser for something special that I am doing tomorrow.

Muscling in on the action

Here is part 2 of the dolls project. I finally got his face sewn on today and my niece helped me stuff him.



I hereby present the dynamic duo:

My first bag

I am DIZZY with excitement at having made my first bag! Whoop-de-dee!!!



The most exciting thing is opening it up to see the lovely pockets that are included in the inside of the bag! I made them!! To *my* specifications!! Admittedly I'm not too specific as I just cut some rectangles and bunged them on! ;)



And here is the inside of the bag with my mobile phone in the "phone slot" and a space for my glasses and keys. Am I the only one incredibly excited at the thought that I can just make up my own pockets to go ANYWHERE I WANT rather then being confined to some other bag makers idea of where I should put my stuff? OK.. shall calm down now. :D



I followed a mix of instructions to make this bag. I intially had the Amy Butler Messenger bag pattern but I decided I did not like that the bag closure was narrower then the actual bag. I found these instructions at craftster which was more of the type of bag I wanted, so I loosely followed those instructions and referenced the AB pattern for when the craftster instructions weren't quite clear (bag straps and inserting the lining - I had already sewn the lining together so AB's turning out instructions worked better).

I have used a stretched denim and a nasty print from SL. The print is definitely a polyester blend and it was horrible to work with for this type of project. The material seemed to stretch when I ironed it which meant that when I put iron-on interfacing onto it, it then warped when it cooled! There wasn't much I could do about it. I soldiered on but would definitely only use cottons in the future.

Bib for Bubs

The characters in this material are so cute! I bought the material ages ago to use for a quilt. I don't think I would ever use it nowadays though - its a little too bright for me, but it looks fantastic as a bib for bubs.

Potholder

I don't think you call these things potholders, but can't think of what they are called. I put batting in the middle, made a quilt sandwich, put bias binding around the edge. Fun :)

Fun in the garden

I was so chuffed with the tee that I gave it to Miss Boo to wear straight away.

Applique Elephant

I have finally had a go at putting an applique onto a tshirt. Thanks to Karen for all the advice she passed on to me. I have used vlisofix to attach the applique to the tshirt, then attached some vlisene to the back of the applique area to help with sewing the applique on. I have used various quilting books on advice of how to machine sew appliques in place. My Mum gave me the book that had this design in it - a US book from when she was in a quilting group there. I am very happy with the results and love the thought of being able to make one-off originals for my daughter! Plus, she needs some new tees!

Wishing

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that
and someone believed it,
and look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.

I was looking up some song words for my daughter as my memory is a bit lacking from all my childhood songs and I found the Kermit song and the snippet above.. how gorgeous are those words? If you want a link for the melody - try Rainbow Connection

Love Musk

Two things in one day?

Well, I have made another pouch. This time I did the stitching differently.

The closed pouch:


The inside of the pouch:


Spot the error? Its actually too small to fit the wipes AND the nappy in at the same time - its not quite wide enough to fold. I actually had plenty of material to make it properly but forgot to include the seam allowances, folded the side flaps over too far and thoroughly stuffed it up. Not to worry, its all a learning process and I had lots of fun trying to work this out - turning it inside and out and I used double sided interfacing, ironing the second side as I felt appropriate and using it to help me position the panel. It was all good fun! So now all I've got to do is work out what to use this pouch for! I have made progress photos and will try to write it up as a tutorial.

Thoughts for next time:
* include a fastener of some kind - either velcro or a snap tab

Not sure what is wrong with me but I am obsessed with making stuff today - I have so many sewing ideas and I have some cooking to do and I obviously do not have time for this! I will probably be curled up in a ball, chanting, by the end of the day and be surrounded by dodgy cutting, scraps galore and burnt food.

Nappy Pouch

I have been wanting to make one of these for a while. I took some ideas out of a quilting book that I had and mucked around until I came up with this:





Its very simple, looks fantastic (love this Michael Miller fabric), and does the job I wanted - just a simple little pouch to take when we are visiting friends/ go to a cafe etc.

Here is the result of some baking we did during the week. Boo kept coming up and hanging around my legs waiting for another pikelet. I gave her two and asked her to give one to Daddy. She didn't understand, and went to eat both! I rescued it and I took the other to Daddy. The second time I asked her, she understood and would take Daddy's pikelet to him with her arm outstretched saying "Daddy, Daddy!" Sooo cute.

Luscious Books!

I mentioned back in January that I was ordering some post-Christmas craft books. We got them through Amazon and they arrived about a week ago (slow-mail to keep it cheap!). It was so exciting opening this box of books - so much crafting to pore over! There were also some cool children's books that I'd ordered. Our fave book is Millie Moo which I've purchased a few copies of to give to friends as gifts.

Marvellous Blue

I pinned the squares onto a pinboard and then started sewing the rows together:


I've been sewing the border on these last two nights. The quilt top is now complete:


So now onto choosing the colour to use as binding and buying some batting/wadding (sp?) and backing material to make up the quilt.

A quilting we will go..

Cutting:


The pieces piling up:


The general layout:


A slightly alternative layout: (keeps the clouds upright)


This photo includes some space fabric which I have had FOREVER and I am keen as mustard to make a quilt with them but they are pre-cut squares (roughly 6 1/4 inch) and I have not been able to work out a design and coordinating fabrics to make it work. So I was just wondering if maybe it would work with this pattern. I love that I can take a photo to get an idea of how it would look.

Jumbles

We gave our daughter a baby doll for Christmas and she has really taken to playing with her. Over the weekend, I gave DD a blanket to put on her doll and she spent MANY consecutive minutes placing the blanket on her doll, then taking it off, then putting it on the doll etc etc. I spied a little fabric baby doll basket in a sewing book of mine a few months ago and it seems that the time has come for this seed of an idea to grow. It would be perfect for DD so that she can put her baby doll to bed and she'll LOVE the addition of a mattress and pillow - more things to place and arrange! So yesterday I measured and cut (& then measured & cut again on a different fabric b/c I cut the original wrong!), then I studied the pattern, wrote new instructions, tried desperately to visualise what they were trying to instruct… then I finally set about sewing and manipulating my pieces of fabric. I sewed and sewed and SEWED… Unfortunately I have nothing but a jumble of fabric to show for it. :/ Why? B/c I sewed one little bit wrong which then created a problem - which despite my best efforts to work around - kept snowballing into a mammoth un-doable project :( There is just no way that I can attach the final piece without incredible, ridiculous efforts and it will still look wrong. I cannot un-pick because of the fabric I've used, the length of my stitch and the pure length of sewing that I've done.

Now that I understand what I've done wrong, I can see how easy this basket is to make. Alas, I do not have any fabric strips long enough to start again, so a trip to the shops is in order and that’s not very easy for me to organise. BubbleCats!!!!

My shmerpi

Last year I was looking at the One Red Robin blog where ORR had announced she was going on a "break" and had limited stock at her Etsy shop. I followed the link to see the cutest little purple shmerpi called Sugar. I told my husband about this very cute doll and that I'd like to get it but then I ummed and arred, decided I'd spent enough recently and left it. However, I did keep track of the dear doll and updated my husband that it was "still there" and then another time "drat, its sold!, someone had bought it!". My husband did joke at the time that maybe he bought it for me but I didn't believe him and figured some other crafter had purchased it. Well... guess what turned up under the Christmas tree with *my* name on it!! Yes, my husband had bought it for me - how incredibly sweet of him! It is so amazing when someone does something so unexpected for you. My shmerpi is just the cutest thing ever. So much ingenuitive detail has gone into the craftmanship of this doll. I just love it!

Here is my cutie: (yes, my shmerpi, not my husband!)

Hummingbird Cupcakes

I made a batch of Hummingbird cupcakes last weekend. Here they are with their tropical coconut decoration. Hummingbird cakes have pineapple, coconut and banana in them -- fancy schmantz huh? No idea who came up with that combination but they taste divine.

Cherry Dress

I think that hand basteing the zip is the easiest way to set it up:


Sewing in the zip:


The finished dress:


I absolutely love this dress - love the ruffles, love the material, love the yoke and all the gathers. Everything is turned in under the yoke at the end to make it all look very neat inside. The only downside is that it is very short and I will need to make some matching pants to go with it. I have got another pair of pants that I really like and would like to emulate them which is guaranteed to be an interesting exercise!

Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go and order all the craft books I didn't get for Christmas! The interest rate to the US is fantastic and there are some great deals on Amazon!

A sewing day!

Today I have had a very special sewing day. I was hoping to work on a few things but spent all my time on one dress. This dress has frilly sleeves, a gathered bodice, little pockets on the front, an internal bodice (?) and a zipper. So its been a lot of little features to work on all at once. I even made my own binding to go around the armhole. I spent 5-6 hours on it today which included tracing the pattern and cutting the material. I still have one sleeve, the internal bodice, the zipper and the hem to go.. so I'm still a little ways off! Am I too slow? Should I give up sewing?? I don't want to be taking three times as long as everyone else..