Noodlehead Divided Basket
I’ve been looking for an item I can offer for baby showers. Several people have suggested that I make diaper bags, and that’s something on my list to try, but I thought something like these cute divided baskets would make good gifts. I’ve seen such pretty examples online and you can fill them with diapers and other newborn supplies to give as a baby shower gift for the new mother’s changing table. The main problem I ran into was how do I choose fabrics for these? I mean, I’m not much of a fan of the usual baby patterns (except for whales and woodland creatures) so nothing was really calling out to me. There’s all the Disney fabric but I usually stay away from Disney fabrics as they are so busy. And I would imagine that it’s hard to match something to the design theme a new mother has spent months cultivating in the nursery. There I was walking around Joann’s looking for something to speak to me. I was even thinking, “well, these don’t have to be baby presents, someone might want to use this as a book/craft/knitting basket. Maybe I should make these more general.” And then I saw these beautiful fabrics in the quilting section. I was really drawn to the little white flowers. They had this design in several color schemes and I was tempted to get three different ones. I chose a pretty orange and blue combo but was also really drawn to this black and orange combo. I don’t work with dark backgrounds very much and the cute black with white polka dots reminded me of a Mary Engelbreit illustration. I got both combinations but decided to make the first basket with the black and orange.
The pattern calls for an accent fabric for the front pocket and handles but I really wanted to stay with the main fabric so I did. The pattern is very well written but I always like to follow a video because I’m a visual learner and sometimes I have trouble seeing how something fits together in a 2D photo. But I didn’t find a tutorial. The only difficult part was sewing together the lining pieces with the divider in the middle. I’ve done dividers before and this one seemed difficult to piece together so not sure why it was constructed this way, other than just using less pieces of fabric. I also decided to make fabric handles instead of the cotton webbing. I don’t have the size cotton webbing it called for and thought that a two-toned handle would look nice. I decided to add extra topstitching lines and it turned out nice. I did lengthen them a bit and after seeing the finished product I think I’m going to add another couple of inches to the handles next time.
There was an injury on this one! The final step is to iron under the seam allowance so that you can place the lining inside the exterior and topstitch them to close. This is a great idea because trying to sew them right sides together and turn would be very difficult. Another technique would be to add binding all the way around the top, which would also add a nice quilting touch to the bag. I might try that next time and quilt the outsides of the bag. But the trouble came when I was trying to use my heat ruler to iron over the seam allowance on the foam pieces. The foam is just so thick that it doesn’t want to stay down and I was using the ruler to get my edges as even as possible. So I was trying to hold the ruler and the foam and wound up hitting my fingertip with the iron! Ouch! After a 15 minute first aid break I figured out that I could just use wonder clips to clip the edge down - then it wouldn’t be popping back up or moving around. Wish I had thought of that earlier!
So the wonder clips made the whole end process very easy and I was able to drop in the lining piece and add that to the clips. Topstitching was a little challenging because that divider piece kept getting hooked on my machine moving parts but if you go slow it works fine. After I was done I put it on my table and was like, “WOW! That looks really good!” The pattern is very striking and really stands out and is cheerful. I’m not sure how well it would blend in with a nursery but it looks very nice. If I see a cute woodland fabric in the future I’ll be sure to get it for this project but for now I think I’ll make a few more with these flowery combinations. I think they would be fun for several different uses. I’ll definitely be making more of these.
The Details:
Pattern: The Divided Basket by Noodlehead
Interfacing: SF101 and Flex Foam
Finished bag size: 11”w x 7.75”h x 6”d
Fabrics:
Exterior: Joann’s Quilters Showcase Black Mimosa Daisy
Lining: Joann’s Quilters Showcase Mini Daisy Peach
