The Picnic Basket Tutorial

Ready for the tutorial for the little picnic basket? It’s super easy. And very un-exact. That’s not a word, but you know what I mean.

Find a basket. I lucked out and found a perfect miniature picnic basket but other styles of baskets would work as well, even those without lids.

Measure the sides and bottom of the inside of the basket and add a seam allowance {I added 1/4 inch on each side to account for my serged seam} then cut your pieces according to the measurements. {I added 3/4 inch on the top edges to allow for the folded edge in the next step.}

Sew each side piece to the bottom piece and then sew each side seam {make sure right sides are together}. I serged around the top edge to eliminate fraying and then folded over and pressed 1/2 inch all around.

Place the liner into the basket and lightly hot glue the top edge to the inside of the basket.

Make a super cute posie {instructions can be found all over the internet … I love this version}, add a knotted piece of fabric for the center, and glue onto the outside of the basket. The basket is complete!

Onto the little picnic blanket. Since the basket isn’t very big, I didn’t want a big bulky blanket so this blanket is just one thickness of fabric … I didn’t back it with anything. Cut a square of fabric and, using a zig zag stitch, sew ric-rac along the edge.

The ants were added using my Silhouette and white heat transfer material. If you don’t own a Silhouette, you could always stencil the ants on with fabric paint … or skip them altogether.

To make the napkins, cut two rectangular pieces. Sew a line of ric-rac an inch or so from the edge, then fold the fabric in half, right sides together, and stitch two of the sides. Flip the napkins right side out, sew the final seam {since I hate hand sewing, I just sewed it with my machine and kept the stitch line as close to the edge as possible.}

This is the tricky part of the tutorial because I don’t actually crochet. I crocheted a small circle and then just continued doing my own throw-together method of crocheting around and around the circle until I had a saucer. For the cup, I changed my method a bit {less chain stitches on subsequent rows, if that’s the correct terminology} which gave me the cup shape.