My New “China Hutch”

Hey all, I have been totally strapped for time lately to put up posts due to my new volunteer position, but I have been creating things. As I started collecting pieces of crockery to display my food I realized that I had nowhere to store them and there was no room for a nice hutch. So I as I wandered Home Goods I spied a really nice, reasonably priced wicker basket.

It captured my imagination and had me dreaming of picnics and cute tea parties ha ha ha. So I picked it up. When I got home I decided to line it with some leftover cloth. I didn’t have a pattern, but figured it was easy enough to do (being a box and all) so i started measuring.

I used left over grey denim for the main lining and a few cotton pattern squares for the sides. I measured several extra inches of cloth to the top to allow the lining to drape over the edge of the basket and be secured with strings.

I pinned and sewed the sides together and snipped some gaps for the handles and lid-hinges. After which I hemmed all the visible edges.

Lastly, I sewed the strips of cloth together, folded the piece in half long-ways with the right side facing itself, and sewn the end to create the string. I finally used a safety pin to draw the string right-side out and sewed the edges of the string inside itself to remove the rough edging.

It turned out pretty decent, though I wish I had taken the time to measure the basket properly. The inside was baggy and the top wasn’t long enough to create an even look. The drawstring turned out well, even if it was shorter than I hoped, but I forgot to create a way to fasten it so I ended up just tying the string to the handle, ha ha. I think its cute and it works well for storing fancy plates and cups, which is what I had hoped for. Have a nice week!