Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Pretty Fabric Boxes...

Hi, all!

Well, it's Friday again!  Are you ready to get your whoop whoop on?  it's inspiration time!!

I've been working on a big project that I can't reveal yet, so instead I'm going to show you some of the "instant gratification" sewing I've done this week!  

When I was poking around on Instagram last week, I saw a whole lot of people making "One Hour Baskets".  I googled for the pattern and found out that it is available free on Craftsy (click the name above for the link!)  

And then I drank the Kool-Aid....

I started with these three, made with fat quarters of quilting weight fabric (that I found at TARGET, no less!) and heavyweight fusible interfacing...

Then I moved on to a box made with charm squares, some light quilting on batting, and an interfaced lining.  This one is a little smaller, and a bit more substantial.

And finally, I made this one with 2.5" squares patchwork and some pretty vintage linen for the base, all straight line quilted horizontally on batting.  The gingham lining is fused to heavyweight interfacing to give it added stability.

This is a fun pattern to make!  I will admit to making some alterations to it, though.  Instead of using two pieces of fabric to make the outside, I cut just one to what the finished size would be after the two pieces specified in the pattern were sewn together.  To me, the extra seam was unnecessary.  I did the same thing for the lining.   I also simply "boxed" my pieces to make the corners, rather than cutting a square out of each side, and left the triangles inside the bottom of the box, between the lining and the outside, to make it sturdier.

I made my handles out of a coordinating scrap fabric, so that I could use two fat quarters to make each basket.  And I cut my handles 6" x 9" instead of 5" x 9", and fold the edges all the way to the middle for added strength before topstitching.  (This will make sense if you read the pattern.)

Some other changes I will make in the future:  I think I want to add a piece of interfacing to the handle, or sew a piece of webbing on top to make it even stiffer.  They seem a little floppy for my taste.  I would also add a piece of batting and a little quilting to the plain boxes, like my first attempts, to make them a bit sturdier.

As far as the name, one-hour basket is pretty accurate - by the third basket in my first attempt, I could knock one out in about 35 minutes.  The second style took about an hour and fifteen minutes (the quilting adds a little bit of time) and the third style with the more extensive quilting took about an hour and forty-five minutes.

I'm working on size variations - trying to figure out exactly how big to cut the fabric to make specific sizes.  I'm sure there's an easy way to do that, and hopefully I'll get some quiet time to sit down and do the math soon!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

*&*&*&*&*&*&*

And now it's your turn!

What are you whooping about this week?

What's got you dancing the happy dance?

Share - because we want to dance right along with you!

(And it's always more fun to dance with friends!)

The party will end Sunday at midnight -

Hope to see you there!!

Hugs!

Sarah