Over Christmas whilst I was on holiday I embroidered a top for sewing basket. It was a kit I bought at the Harrogate Show from Sew Different, you could buy the whole kit with all the fabrics in, but I chose to just get the printed lid panel and instructions for making it up.

This was the completed embroidery, competed back in January…

…and so it sat in my sewing room, waiting to be made up!

Last week I had a week’s annual leave, I ended up decorating for much of it, but on my birthday I put my foot down and said I would spend the day in my sewing room! I wanted something I could make in a day, so I decided to finish the sewing basket.

The fabric I chose for the outside is a lovely purple with bees and moths on, the piece I had left was only JUST big enough. For the inside I chose a sewing themed fabric which matched well colour-wise. When it came to cutting out the lining it was a bit weird. The fabric lay flat and appeared square on the cutting table, but the pattern went off at a slant, I was a bit irked at the time as I really wanted the pattern to go neatly round the sides. When I looked closely however, the pattern did follow the grain, somehow the grain was at like a 30 degree angle, yet the sides appeared straight! I’ve never come across a fabric doing this. In the end I tore it along the grain and cut true to the grain rather than the sides…very strange!

The instructions started with the bottom and worked upwards, they weren’t the clearest instructions to follow, but I got there in the end. The base and lining was sandwiched with bosal and quilted, half inch cross-hatching, so it took a while.

Next was the sides….the zip is a double-ended one, in that there’s two zip pulls in the centre and it opens outwards. I bought a nice purple one on line, not cheap but it finishes the basket off nicely. The zip was stitched in with the outer fabric and the lining on either side of one half of the zip. The bosal was then slipped in between the two layers to stiffen it. The instructions said to pin or clip this to the base, I decided to baste round the bottom edge of the sides first and I was glad I did, the seam allowance was only 1/4″ so it would have been very fiddly without the basting.

The hinge instructions also caused confusion! The piece was 2×3″, fold the sides into the centre…which sides, 2″ or 3″! In the end I cut a 3″ square and used that.

The inner seam was bound, I decided not to make my own bias binding after the hassle I’d had with the fabric. I had some purple satin bias in my stash which needed using up and it matches perfectly.

The lid and the inner lid were gathered round a circle of bosal, tacking this onto the zip was recommended, which I did. When it came to actually stitching it though, I couldn’t work out how. If I stitched with a 1/4″ seam I would lose some of the embroidery. In the end I stitched it together with edge-stitching. The inner lid was then hand-stitched in and my box was complete.

I’m really pleased with my box, it’s going to sit next to my chair in the lounge for when I’m sewing in front of the TV.