Fabric Bunny Basket - Free Pattern

Spring is my favorite time of year. When I was a kid, I always equated it with my birthday and Easter. Two celebrations that meant lots of treats and lots of family time. 

So to kick off this Easter season, I'm sharing with you how to make this cute fabric bunny basket. It's perfect for filling with treats or goodies and giving to a grandchild or anyone else. 

Bonus, this container also works great as a bread basket for your Easter meal. Since it's lined with batting, the batting will help keep bread warm. Keep reading because I have a rare treat for each of you. 

Here is the free downloadable fabric bunny basket pattern. Print the pattern at full scale or if you want a doll bunny basket, shrink the pattern down by at least 75%.


Supplies needed:

• batting
• coordinating thread
• embroidery floss, white, black and pink
• (1) 3" white pom pom
• 1 /4 yard of fabric
• 1/4 yard fabric for lining
• 1/4 yard of light to medium weight interfacing
• 1/4 yard of heavy weight interfacing for the bottom of the basket

Directions:

Using the pattern above, cut out all the pattern pieces.
For the handle, cut out a 5" x piece from the lining fabric.
*1/4" seams unless otherwise noted.

1.  Sew ear lining to ear fabric, right sides facing.
2.  Turn right side out and clip the curves.  Iron. Top stitch around the ear.
3.   Fold the bottom of the ear in half.  Sew 3/4" up from the bottom & 1/4" from the edge.
4.  Your bunny ears will now look like this.
5.  Hand embroider the face onto the bunny's head. Pin interfacing & then batting onto the head.
6.  Baste in place.
7.  Pin the sides to the bunny's head.  Sew in place.
8.  Baste the ears onto both sides of the side seams.
9.  Pin the bunny sides and head to the bottom, easing as necessary.

10. Trim interfacing & batting down by a little less than 1/4". Baste interfacing &  batting onto bottom of lining. Add batting & interfacing to the sides of the lining. With the lining fabric, repeat steps 7 & 9.
11.  Add interfacing to the handle fabric.  Take the handle fabric and iron it in half width wise.  Fold the width in toward the ironed fold and iron the raw edges. When finished the handle's raw edges will be in the center of the handle. Top stitch both edges of the handle.
12.  Sew the handle edges onto the middle of the fabric basket.
13.  Right sides together, handle tucked into the middle, pin the lining to the basket.  Sew around the basket's top edge, leaving a 2" opening to turn the basket.
14.  Turn the basket right side out.  Iron the edges.
15.  Top stitch around the edge of the basket.
16.  Hand sew the pom pom to the back, bottom edge of the basket.
17.  Completed front view.
18.  Completed back view.

Now it's time to fill that basket with old fashion goodness.
 

Here is my little treat for you (so thanks for reading if you got this far)! This recipe is my husband's grandmother's recipe for potato yeast rolls. And they are divine!

My husband remembers having contests with his cousins and brothers to see who could eat the most rolls. These rolls are soft, light and melt in your mouth kind of good. (Add butter, cinnamon and sugar and the dough works great for making cinnamon rolls too.)
   

Grandma Cox's Potato Yeast Rolls

1/3 c. warm water
2 packages of yeast
3/4 c. sugar
2 c. milk
1/2 c. shortening
8-9 c. flour
1 medium potato
2 tsp. salt

Add yeast to warm water.  Stir until dissolved.  Stir into yeast and water the sugar. 

(This is a great way to test your yeast and make sure it’s working…the sugar will make the yeast foam).

Peel the potato, dice into pieces.  Boil 1 potato in 1 1/2 c. of boiling water (until the pieces are really soft). 

Do not drain off any water which has not boiled out of the potatoes!

Add milk and shortening.  Beat until really smooth.

Add 2 tsp. salt and yeast mixture.

Stir in flour.  When the mixture is too thick & you can’t stir any longer, start kneading the flour into the dough.  Do not add too much flour, the mixture will feel a little sticky. 

Spray a bowl with cooking spray.  Add the dough into the bowl.  Cover the dough with a clean tea towel.  Let the dough rise in a warm spot.  About 1-2 hours.

Roll the dough out until it’s around 1/2” thick.  Cut out your rolls using a round cookie cutter.  Dip one side in melted butter and fold over.  Place onto a cookie sheet.  Cover your rolls with a clean tea towel and let rise again until double in size.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes.

Throw these rolls in your new bunny basket and your Easter is off to a really good, yummy start! Enjoy Easter with your family.  xoxo Grandma

Turn a Basket Into a Doll Cradle

This project is one I started more than three decades ago. After years of play, it needed a little refreshing.  

Back when I was a young mom, I made doll cradles for my little girls. I used wicker baskets and added rockers to convert those baskets into doll cradles. 

One of these cradles has been sitting in my storage area for a long time. I pulled it out to give to my daughter last year when she came to pick-up all her things, but since it no longer looked clean and new, she didn't want it for her little girls. Well, I couldn't just throw it away, it held too many memories. So I decided to refinish it. I removed the old, dirty cushion, that had obviously benefited from years of love and play and gave the basket some new life. 

Here's what it looked like after I refinished it:  

If you want to make your own doll cradle too, here's a list of the supplies you'll need: 

• Basket, (The basked pictured is 16 1/2" wide x 20 1/2" long x 9 high.)
• Foam
• Batting
• Fabric for cover, blanket and pillow
• Fiber fill
• Thread
• Plywood
• 4 wood screws
• Good quality wood for rockers, 3/4" thick

Take that basket and follow these steps to turn it into a cradle:
   

1. Cut a piece of plywood the size of the inside base of the basket.  

2.  With a saw, cut two rockers from good quality 3/4" thick wood - do not use plywood.  (My father-in-law cut these for me - I don't use electric saws, I'm afraid I'd cut off my fingers.) The size of my rockers are 15 1/4" long x 4 1/4" high x 3/4 thick.  Get the free rocker pattern HERE.  Print at full size two copies of this pattern and tape the sides together to make the rocker pattern complete.  Sand the rockers as needed making sure all edges are smooth.  (Keep in mind, the rockers pictured are over 33 years old and if I'm in the mood, they may get a little sanding but it's snowing today and I refuse to sand inside my home.)

3.  Using four long, wood screws, drill them through the wooden base and into the rockers, securely connecting these pieces. Also see the photo next to step one for screw placement.

4.  Make a paper pattern of the inside shape of your basket. Use that pattern to cut out a foam base which will become the cradle's mattress.

5.  Cover the mattress with batting.  I sewed the batting together to form a pillowcase shape.  Then I slipped it onto the foam and hand stitched the batting's opening closed. (On the original covering, I hot glued the batting in place and the mattress was very lumpy because when the glue dried, it gets hard. I do not recommend using hot glue with foam.)

6.  Use fabric to make a cover for the mattress. For my mattress, I used flannel.  I used a fabric marker to trace the foam mattress shape onto the flannel. Add a seam allowance around all the traced fabric. Cut out two pieces of this fabric. Measure the distance around the mattress and measure the height of the mattress. Add 1/2" to these two measurements to create your seam allowance to the height and width and cut out from your fabric the side of the mattress cover. Sew the side seam together along the width. Sew one of the side pieces to the top piece. Now sew the bottom piece to the side piece leaving one end of the mattress cover open. Slip the cover onto the batting covered foam and hand stitch the opening closed.

7.  Make any style of doll blanket making sure the blanket is a little bigger than the inside of the cradle.  You'll want to add enough width for a doll to go under the blanket. For my blanket, I took the scraps of fabric that I used to cover the mattress. Then, I cut the fabric into 16, 4" squares. I sewed those squares together alternating the fabrics so that I had 4 rows across and 4 rows down. Then with a fabric marking pen, I drew lines diagonally through the squares as shown above. Then using my sewing machine, I machine quilted along the lines. To get rid of the lines, simply rub with a wet rag or spray with water.

8.  Make a little pillow for the doll's head.  Any size of pillow will do as long as it's scaled to fit your basket. I added a 2" ruffle to the left side of my rectangular doll pillow and stuffed the pillow with poly-fill. 

Do you know a child that would love one of these cradles? I'm now positive my granddaughter will be thrilled to get this cradle for her doll.   xoxo Grandma

Here are the supplies I used:

    

Shared at: Threading My Way, Featured Here

How to Make a Little Miss Muffet Costume

"Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey;

Along came a spider,

Who sat down beside her,

And frightened Miss Muffet away."

 - Mother Goose

To create this costume, I used vintage pattern McCall's #9270.

This pattern is perfect for a toddler's costume and the best part of this costume is the dress can be worn later by your toddler as a normal dress. 

For instruction on how to make the moppet hat, please go to this post.

For the apron, I sewed together lace, netting and ribbon to make a rectangular pocket. Once the pocket was finished, I sewed it onto the lower right side of the apron.

This pocket is the perfect size to fit a soft, little pom pom pet spider into.

How to make this pet spider for Miss Muffet's pocket follow the directions below:

Supplies needed:

• 2 extra large 3 inch black pom poms
• 1 .28 inch orange Pom Pom
• 2 wobbly eyes
• 2 black pipe cleaners
• clear elastic thread
• hot glue bun

1.  Glue the two black pom poms together with the hot glue.
2.  Glue the eyes onto the head about 1/4" apart.
3.  Glue the orange pom pom onto the head right below the center of the eyes.
4.  Cut the black pipe cleaners into 3" lengths and glue them onto the body of the pet spider.
5.  Bend the pipe cleaners so they look like feet.

Optional - add clear elastic cording around the neck of the spider and add a slip knot to fit around Little Miss Muffet's wrist so she doesn't lose her little friend.

Please join me tomorrow as I share with you a free pdf downloadable pattern to make this child sized spider costume.   xoxo Grandma

Shared at: Project Run and Play

Make a Doll Size Travel Case

Excuse the long absence, it has been quite the winter! We were on the road for the holidays and then had I had a little mishap on the ice while shoveling snow. It concluded with my left arm in a cast and a minor surgery to hold the bones together. Not exactly how I envisioned starting 2016. What I had envisioned, though, was more cute, easy projects like this... so let's get this fun started and pretend that ice doesn't exist. At least for a few minutes. 

I found these two cute little tins at a thrift store and knew they'd make the perfect doll accessory. So, let me show you how I turned them into vintage looking travel cases.  You're going to love this project because it's super easy to make!  

Supplies Needed:

• Tin
• Sticky backed felt
• Vintage travel fabric (I found this fabric at Hobby Lobby.)
• Embroidery thread
• Needle
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Lay the sticky felt on top of the tin.  With a pen or marker, trace the edge of the tin onto the paper side of the felt.  Cut out the felt along the inside of the traced line.  You'll need two pieces of felt, one for each side of the tin.
2. Cut out images from the vintage travel fabric leaving a little edge and pin them onto the felt.
3. Hand sew the fabric cut outs onto the felt using embroidery floss.
4. Pull off the paper from the felt and press the felt onto one side of the tin.  Now press the other piece of felt onto the opposite side of the tin.

That's it!  Your doll sized travel case is ready for traveling.

Where will your doll go with her new travel case? Hopefully no where snowy or icy. Happy travels! xoxo Grandma

Available on Etsy

Make a Super Simple Horse Ornament

Do you have any horse lovers in your life? I have quite a few in mine. If you have some in yours too, this is one ornament you'll want to make because it's so simple to create.

Supplies needed:

• Plastic horse - I found this one at my local dollar store
• Silver spray paint
• Eye screw, 1/4" x 2"
• Spackle or putty

Fill in the area where the plastic pieces of the horse have been joined together with a little spackle - you know, that same stuff you use to fill in holes in your walls before you paint.  I used DAP Fast and Final Lightweight Spackle for my filler. Trust me, you'll want to putty it before spraying it. 

Add an eye screw by twisting it into the plastic. From there, you'll want to add a piece of decorative ribbon or twine to hang it to your tree or onto a gift. 

Your horse ornament is finished as soon as the paint dries.  xoxo Grandma

Make a Chic Multi Strand Bracelet

Anyone here like nice jewelry, but don't want to pay an arm and a leg to buy it? I'm raising my hand over here!  Well, I saw a bracelet for $140 that looks a lot like the one I just created. The instant I saw it, I knew it was an accessory I wanted to create myself.  If you like the chic look of this multi-strand bracelet, then keep on reading. I'll show you how to make your own bracelet for a fraction of the cost.

Supplies needed: 

• Leather pieces, cut 2 pieces 2" x 1 1/4"  (I used scraps leftover from making "Warm Lined Baby Booties". To get your leather for a great price see this post.)
• Needle
• Embroidery Thread
• Beads
• Leather Cording
• 1 button
• 2 or 3 different beads, 6 mm

1.  Fold the leather pieces in half, width wise.  Measure for hole placements, 1/8" in and 1/4" apart. Push a heavy needle through both layers of leather. Now thread the needle with six strands of embroidery floss.  Attach the floss by making a slip knot at the end of the leather.  

2.  Add one bead onto the floss then tie a knot as close to the bead as possible.  Pull the thread tight.

3.  Keep adding beads until your strand of beads is at least 5" long.  (These strands should go a little more than half way around your wrist.)

4.  Sew a button onto the back side of of one of the leather pieces.

5.  Cut two small slits in the leather and attach 8" of leather cording into the slits.  Tie the cording into a knot at the base and again 5/8" up.  (See the bottom title photo.)

Enjoy your chic multi strand bracelet! You'll look like a million bucks wearing it! xoxo Grandma

*I've added some of these chic bracelets to my Etsy shop, just in case you don't want to make your own and they are reasonably priced too.  

How to Repair a Vintage Beaded Ornament

Over 30 years ago, my mother made these ornaments for my children as a Christmas gift.  The ornament on the left is my oldest daughter's, the one on the right is her twin sister's. 

When I was visiting the daughter on the left, I was handed a baggie filled with beads and thread and her baby photo and the mirror backing.  She'd told me that her beaded ornament had fallen apart and then asked if I please figure out how to fix it.

I brought the baggie home and wondered how I would ever figure out how to repair it.  Then I remembered that her twin sister had the same ornament and maybe I could look at the pattern and restring the ornament to match her sisters.  So after a few attempts, that is what I did.  Sadly, some of the gold elongated beads were missing and after going to three local craft stores, I was not able to locate an exact match to the ones my mother used, but with a little adaptation to the design, I was able to put this ornament back together so that it can once again be hung on a Christmas tree.  Below you can see the restringing process.  (I kept the ornament I was copying on the right for comparison.)  To keep the beads contained, I put them into a cake pan.

This is how the back of that vintage beaded ornament looks:

If you're interested in making this ornament, you'll need to gather these supplies:  

• White thread
• Scissors
• Small eyed needle
• Pearl beads
• Gold seed beads
• 2" round mirrors

xoxo Grandma

Emma the Fish Toy & the 5 Cent Rattle

This darling toy fish pattern, called Emma, was released this week by Nittens and Patches. I tested the pattern for the designer/owner and once done, sent it across the ocean to one of my darling grandchildren. Emma the fish is an easy and a fun sewing project. It took around 2 hours from start to finish to make this fish. Isn't she so cute?

This fish is the first stuffed animal I've ever turned into a rattle.  To get a rattle for a great price, I went to a local thrift store and found an ugly toy with a rattle in it. It cost a whopping 25 cents - SCORE!  The even better part, this ugly little rattle toy I found actually had five rattles in it!  So that makes the total cost per rattle five cents each, what a deal!

The finished size of this fish is 7 1/2" x 9 1/2".  If making this for a baby, I'd likely shrink the pattern down by about 50% so it will fit into a baby's hand. But look at how cute this fish fits in a toddler's hand!

You can find the pattern for Emma the Fish at any of these links: Etsy, Craftys, Madeit, Nittens and Patches.  xoxo Grandma

How to Make a Ballerina Pinata

This past week I've had more grandchildren visiting my house. One of them was about to turn the fun age of four. To celebrate, she requested a ballerina birthday party with a ballerina piñata.  

Let me tell you, I had no idea this little request from a four year old would be such a stressful project! I searched high and low for a ballerina piñata, but I couldn't find one anywhere, not even on the internet. The closest girl looking pinata I could find was a fairy piñata. So, voila! Being a resourceful woman, I turned that fairy pinata into a ballerina.  If you have someone that loves ballet, you'll appreciate this tutorial.

• Girl looking pinata (I used a fairy piñata)
• 6-10 feet of netting or tulle
• Thread
• Scissors
• Craft glue
• Needle

1.  Cut off the fairy wings using sharp scissors.

2.  Cut the dress up to the tops of the piñata's legs.  Trim any excess tissue paper to form the piñata's leotard.

3.  Add a lot of glue to the upper leg area of the piñata.

4.  Press the cut leotard tissue paper into the glue.

5.  Let glue dry.

6.  Sew several layers of netting together using a gathering stitch along the top of the netting.

7.  Pull the gathering stitch to create a tutu skirt.

8.  Tie the threads together in the back of the skirt to the piñata.

Doesn't that sound so easy?  

Now, to top it off, fill your pinata with treats or prizes, get a blindfold, grab a stick or plastic baseball bat and have fun!  xoxo Grandma