Now that we have a toddler, I’m ever more aware of the amount of useless junk & plastic crap comes into our homes, especially at the holidays, and kids birthdays. We love the holidays, and I love making and giving gifts, but I hate the single-use nature of most of it, so I’ve been trying to craft reusable holiday items, that my daughter will grow up using, and will go with her out into the world to be used for decades to come.
I already made her a wooden Advent Calendar to fill each year, and earlier this season I made reusable fabric Easter Eggs, that I filled with chocolate, and some of the small Bluey figures that fit in her dollhouse. For the past two years, I’ve just used random baskets I had laying around the house as her Easter/Spring basket, but this year, nothing I had around would fit the story books I had for her. (We’re trying to emphasize books & art supplies over candy.)
Since I didn’t want to buy a new basket, I decided to see if I could make one. I had some cotton clothesline rope leftover from making sari silk bowls & coasters, and I had a Honey Bun size of rainbow batik precuts from a project that just never worked out. Since her favorite colors are purple & pink, I wanted them to be the top edge of the basket. So I started with red as the base, and worked up from there.
The body worked up slightly wonky, with it being a bit taler at the sides and dipping down a bit in front and back. But since it worked out that way evenly on both sides, I decided I was fine with it. It’s now a ‘design decision’. As I got to the end, I created handles on each side, and coiled the remaining pink rope into a spiral, and secured that with a handmade button I received in a swap on Deadster. (I believe it was from @LeapFeetFirst?) It matched the colors, and the feel of the batik prints perfectly.
It was plenty wide enough (and deep enough) to hold two large picture books, a Little Golden book, a coloring book, a new pair of Sunnies, a Peep’s Bath Bomb, some dried apples, and even a white chocolate bunny.
Also rainbows. what’s not to love? 