Baskets for birthdays - Now much cuter

Remember these? I am finished the re-make on them and they have turned out super cute!

I unpicked the lining out because aside from being a really yukky, cheap material, it was orange and blue and I wanted pink and purple. The handles are made from clear tubing which had orange and blue string in it so I just pulled that out too.

I pulled off (very carefully) the foam flowers and unpicked the green raffia leaves.

When I was left with the plain basket and tubing I started on the re-make. I sort of followed the tutorial here for paper dress cupcake toppers to make the dresses for the front. The difference being I made it out of fabric scraps and net. I also used fusible webbing on the back to stick it to some white felt just to give it a bit of substance when I hot glued it onto the basket. I made sure to glue it to the side I had pulled the original decoration off so I could cover up the damaged area.

I made Esther's (pink) shorter than Ellamay's (purple), because I thought shorter it could be called a ballerina's tutu, and Ellamay's is longer and it can be called a princess dress. I hot glued on some string pearls that I had from a previous project for a necklace on both.

I used the lining that I had taken out, as a pattern to make the new lining.

I had some gold cord left over from some Christmas crafts and so I used that to thread into the tubing to make prettier handles. I put a little bit of hot glue into the ends of the tubing to hold the cord in place. I also glued the tubing to the inside of the basket to help secure it while I worked on the lining.

I finished off by hand stitching in the lining with invisible thread (nightmare for my poor eyes!). I used a thimble to help put a few stitches through the tubing to hold that in place extra well too.

So what do you think? I am sure the girls will like them. I am so happy with how they have turned out. And they didn't cost a fortune to make either. I like that.

I have some more birthday posts coming up if I can get to and write them up. Do come back and see :-)