Who loves a good handmade basket? I know I do. I had quite a few sketches drawn out for this basket before I settled on this design (Basket project from Handmade Style). It’s simple and classic and great for holding stuffed animals, yarn, or gifts.

I love the way they look lined up on a bookshelf. And the leather handles look so pretty with any fabric. These are sewn up in my fabric, Rain Walk. The outer shell uses the cotton canvas and the lining is quilting cotton. I love how alive the fabrics feel and how they spark this glow in my living room. When I was designing Rain Walk, I made sure to try and keep true to my aesthetic by bringing the strike offs into the different spaces in my home. I definitely feel they strike a good vibe in my living room.

As for the basket pattern, please be aware that there is a bit of errata for this project, you can find the details on my errata page (if any others show up I’ll be posting them there as well). So much work and a huge team effort went into testing and editing all the projects in the book, so it makes me sad that this one slipped by. I hope you’ll forgive this error. The project is fixable if you did happen to cut it out before finding the errata, so shoot me an email and I can get you set up so you don’t have to recut pieces. But hopefully if you’re planning on making the basket you can take note of this and cut the correct dimensions.

Overall the basket is designed to have the lining be a 1/2″ shorter than the outer shell, my opinion is that it makes for a nice fit. The lining is taught so when it’s filled it helps the basket keep it’s shape. However, feel free to play around with it! You could alternately cut the lining pieces the same as the exterior, just be aware that you will probably encounter a bit more bunching in the lining.

All that said, I love all 7 baskets that I’ve made so far. Combing fabrics is such a treat and the basket comes together fairly quickly.

Pattern: Basket from my book Handmade Style
Fabric: Rain Walk for Cloud9 Fabrics by me!
gah! (that’s crazy to write!)

Handmade Style, my book, arrived in multiples at my house earlier this week! Remember back in the fall when I got to spill the beans? Well, now’s the exciting part, it’s here!

See, a little problem I’m having is that I assume you know all about the book and it’s contents, but it’s wrong to assume, isn’t it? I think it’s mostly because I’ve spent so many hours pouring over this work that I think you guys know everything already, right? Wrong. Ever talked with someone who thinks you already know all the details when you really don’t? It’s hard! So I’m going to fill you in on a bit of the details of my book.

The book contains a lot of projects. Yup, a lot. At least it feels like that to me. There are 23 if you’re counting and some have multiple parts to them = lots of sewing fun!

Bags! Of course there had to be bags.

[Bucket Bag project]

4 bags and  6 wallets, clutches, and cases in all.

Quilts:

[up & down quilt project]

4 quilt designs plus a picnic blanket.

Home dec fun!

[Patchwork Bench project – yes, you built it all yourself AND it’s fun!]

5 projects including pillows, floor pouf, basket, and a patchwork bench

Garments:

[Women’s Tunic project – I’m excited to make many more for this summer]

There are 2 women’s garments sizes XS-XXL, the dress on the cover is one and this comfy tunic is the other.

Plus more!

In fact, at some point in time I just lost track, yeesh. I need to tack a list on my bulletin board or study or something. I’m sort of kidding, but in all seriousness, I think there’s something fun for everyone no matter what kind of projects you like to sew!

Each project has ideas you can incorporate to make it your style. That’s the whole premise of the book (besides making a nice variety of projects) is to make them how YOU want, add your own creative twists. There’s no rules for sewing really and I know from seeing what you’ve made using my tutorials and patterns in the past, that you love to take artistic license and make each project just to suit you (or whoever – if you’re making a gift). Along with full instructions and lots of illustrations, I give a few ideas and suggestions for each project on different ways to mix things up and make it your own.

The book is set up with the lovely styled pictures in the front and the instructions and illustrations in the back. There are two large pullout sheets at the back of the book that contain all the pattern pieces you’d need. I do suggest tracing these pieces using Pellon 830 or your favorite tracing paper, it’s perfect for keeping everything organized and in the right spot when you need it. So pick up something for tracing if you don’t have it on hand already.

[instructions page excerpt]

[pullout pattern pages]

I hope that gives you a little peek into my book and I hope you’ll be excited about it and make some beautiful things!

Lastly, I want to thank my family for being there for me through the thick of it. Without their support and love it just wouldn’t have happened. I also want to thank my friend Holly (Holly DeGroot Photography) for doing half of the photography, I could not have done it without her!

Please check your local quilt shop for the book, if you can’t find it there you can find it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I will be adding signed copies to my shop hopefully within the next few weeks. Oh, and if you have the book already and have made something, share it on flickr or on Instagram using the hashtag #handmadestylebook so I can see what you’ve made (my favorite part)!

Had to make these dresses the  other night.  And they were a total dream to sew up.  Simple but fun.

It’s the Cowl Neck Jumper pattern by Heidi & Finn.  I really recommend this pattern, it’s really beginner friendly.  I used my serger for both dresses, but it gives instructions for using with a regular machine, too.  I’ve even gotten pretty quick at changing the thread in my serger, never thought that would happen.  Maybe one of these days I’ll try out some of the other stitches it does.

[we started out with a little pout]

[but ended up with mostly these]

The blue/dark brown knit is by Patty Young, bought at fabric.com, and the purple/white stripe is from my local hancock fabrics (which I think cost about $2 for all of it).  

I’m happy, they’re happy.