I am in love with this pattern! I bought it ages ago, but never got around to making one, so when Kendra from Good Starter, decided to host a divided basket sewalong on Instagram, I jumped in.
I have a bit of a crafty crush on Anna from Noodlehead. I’ve always loved the look of her blog, her style and her patterns…every single one of them. They all look so well finished! I have to say I was not disappointed making this basket up. It comes together so easily, that at the end you have this little ‘I am so awesome, look what I made’ smirk on your face.
I made this basket using fabric from my stash. The chevron FQ was a birthday present (thanks Kate!) and has metallic gold on it. I took the idea and used gold thread to finish the handles and the pocket. The outer fabric is a blue cotton drill and the lining is from Cloud 9.
Wanting to stick with stash supplies, I also used interfacing I had on hand. It’s a medium/firm fusible woven interfacing and I’m pretty happy with the feel of it. I think adding fusible fleece too (as the pattern suggests) would add some nice squishyness, but I didn’t have any and it’s fine. I used an ultra-firm iron on interfacing for the pocket divider. It’s nice and sturdy.
The gold thread was a total pain in the butt! I was going to use it around the top edge too, but decided against it after doing the handles and the pocket. It had a habit of going all loose, especially if I stopped mid-seam. Anyone have any tips for me for using metallic thread? I would like to try it again, it’s so pretty. I’m a sucker for anything sparkly!
The basket comes together nice and quick and the result is just so lovely! I can think of a million uses for them and already can’t wait to sew up some more. As always, picking the fabrics is the hardest part.
The double stitching is one of my favourite features. It really adds some extra finesse to the basket and I’m glad I stitched it…I was almost going to skip it.
Thanks to Anna for a gorgeous, well written pattern and thanks to Kendra for hosting the sew-along…who know how long it would have taken me to actually get around to sewing this otherwise?!
Ros says
I love this basket! Such a lovely gift.
Mel says
gorgeous basket, smirk away. I used a metallic thread on my first quilt but it was one of those huge spools and you use one of those extra spool holder thingys I didn’t have any trouble but I’m not sure if tht was just dumb luck or not. (and my mum set it up LOL)
abby says
I ordered one of those spool holder thingys earlier this week.
anna says
It’s so gorgeous!!! and the gold thread, killer!!! 🙂 So happy you liked making it and flattered to be a crafty crush of yours.
abby says
thanks Anna!
Natalie from sewoutnumbered says
Gorgeous! I love the metallic thread!! Never used it before myself but I think I’ll need to try now 😉 I think I saw a how to on Pinterest the other day…I might need to go searching…
abby says
just have some wine on standby 😉
Natalie from Sewoutnumbered says
That won’t be a problem 😉
Renee //nearestthepin says
Gorgeous Abby! I used metallic thread on some Christmas ornaments last year and it almost resulted on me divorcing sewing forever….so I have no tips for you, but I do have empathy 🙂
abby says
haha! I feel your pain!