Lined felt storage basket - quick and easy!

 

I got the idea for this from some little girls' handbags my sister made a number of years ago for a market stall we were running.  We have a few leftover that are still in storage at our Mum's house and, whilst I was visiting over Christmas, I was trying to think of a way to reinvent them.  So I thought of removing the handles and lining them to make little storage baskets.  I actually forgot to bring the little bags back with me so just used a sheet of craft felt I have here.  These take just one sheet of craft felt and the same amount of fabric.  Craft felt is all I have at the moment but I imagine a whole shelf lined up with ones made of wool felt would be so gorgeous too.  Here is how I made it:

1. Take your sheet of  craft felt and cut out your lining fabric to the same width and just a little longer in length (for the folded over stitched lining look).

2. Fold both in half (fabric right sides together) and stitch up both sides.

3. Open them both out, mark a stitch line to create your base (I measured it to be 4.5cm in from the point).  Stitch the bases on both the felt and the fabric.  You can make the base on your fabric slightly smaller if you like but it won't make that much difference to the 'fit'.  You can trim those triangles off as well after stitching but I left them on for added sturdiness.

4. Turn your felt inside out so the seams are on the inside.  Place the fabric inside to check the fit.  Fold the excess liner over twice towards the outside of the felt so it is sitting snugly around the top.

5. Take the lining out and iron this so it sits neatly while you are sewing it on.

6.  This is where I deviated from my original idea of just felt and lining and decided a cute little label holder would spruce it up nicely.  This needs to be stitched on before the liner.  I was winging this part so I just cut out a base of felt and a slightly larger piece of my lining fabric.

7.  I then butchered my fabric in the middle and folded it over the felt and stitched it down around the inset and then folded the outside around and stitched that down close to the outside edge.  If I hadn't been so impatient to see the end result I would have done this a lot neater!!  Just ignore that bit.....  As a side note, I used a felt core for this because the lining fabric is so lightweight but I like the end 'quilted' result anyway.

8. I then stitched this on around the sides and the bottom edge (leaving the top edge open to slot the label in).  Fit your lining back into the felt and stitch around the top edge securing the lining to the felt.  I cut out a rectangle from some clear plastic packaging and slotted that in to protect the label as well.

Then you can fill it with bits and bobs in your child's room and admire your handiwork.

(and make a mental note not to rush so much next time and get the seams straight!)