May is for Birthdays....A Fabric Basket Gift

The month of May is PACKED with birthday parties to attend, so get ready for a bunch of gift projects in my upcoming posts.  The first birthday we have is for a little girl who is turning one.  I wanted to make something that was personalized but wanted to stay away from the typical bibs and onsies.  I opted to make a fabric basket which will prove to be a useful storage option for years to come.

I just love when home decor, kid cute and function combine, don't you?

This fabric basket was made by altering this wonderful tutorial by Pink Penguin.  While her basket is perfect as is, I needed something larger and wanted to use embroidery & applique instead of quilting blocks.

My two canvas blocks measured 7''x15" and the bottom fabric measured 9"x15"

I serged the raw edges of my canvas to prevent fraying, used a medium weight interfacing on the quilting fabric and used fusible fleece as the main stabilizer
The lining piece measured 15"x22" and I used interfacing for it as well.

 For the handles, I used 4 strips of fabric measuring 3"x11".  I used interfacing on the quilting cotton to make the handles a bit stiffer.

  If I did this again, I would make the handles 2" shorter - I feel like they were a smidge too long...but that's just my personal taste!

The rest was made following the tutorial directions

I hope she loves it as much as I do!!

Oh, and if you are interested, the fabric used is Erica from Michael Miller's "The Big E" collection.