Quiltingboard Forums - Bronny's Fabric Bucket

Truth be told, this is Judith Tetley's design, found in the Aussie mag: Handmade - November 2009 - a Country Christmas special edition.

I really loved the little bucket and thought it would be so easy, but the instructions in the mag got me a bit muddled. My patchworking group also thought the instructions were a bit odd and didn't make sense.

This is what I did. I've increased the size for the lining strip and all pieces include a 1/4" seam.

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Judith Tetley’s Patchwork Scrap basket.
Bronny’s version.

Materials:
• Assorted Christmas print scraps
• 5” square co-ordinating cream fabric
• 4 x 14 ½” strip of iron on batting (I used light weight interfacing)
• 5” square of iron on batting (I used a scrap of woolen fabric I’ve been using for batting)
• Assorted buttons in various colours & sizes
• DMC 221 – one length of three strands
• matching sewing cotton and general sewing supplies.

NOTE: It is recommended that all fabrics be 100% cotton, pre-washed and well ironed.
Cutting:
From the assorted Christmas print scraps cut:
- one 4 ½” circle
- One 3” x 12” strip for the handles

From the cream fabric cut out:
- One 4 ½” circle
- One 1 ¾” x 14 ½” strip for the outer base edge
- One 4 ½” x 14 ½” strip for the lining

From the 5” batting cut:
- One 4 ½” circle

Construction:
All seams are ¼” machine stitched.
The pieced border is made in a crazy patchwork method.
Sew some small scraps together to make a 15” x 3” rectangle. Press it and trim to 2 ¾ x 14 ½”.

Sew the pieced unit to the cream 1 ¾” x 14 ½” strip, right sides facing. Press.
Fuse the batting strip to the wrong side.
Work running stitch along the top edge of the bottom strip with three strands of very dark shell pink – DMC 221.
Sew the short ends of the new strip together with right sides facing.
Attach the batting circle to the Christmas print circle and fuse on wrong side, or stitch to secure. (Mine looks like the spokes of a wheel)
Hand sewing time: right sides facing – over stitch or tack the base to the pieced tube. You should now have a rough bucket shape. I carefully stitched another seam using my sewing machine at this point.
Take the cream lining strip and sew the short edges together – right sides matching

Fold the 3” x 12” strip lengthwise in half, right sides together. Stitch down the length and turn inside out. Press into one nice long strip. Cut in half and arrange on the pieced bucket in a satisfactory position. Tack into place.
Your bucket should now look like it has 2 ears pointing down.
With the Christmas bucket right sides out, slip the cream lining tube over the top of the patched item. Sew into place – turn right side out.
Fold the lining into the bucket. You should be able to make the lining fit over the top edge – looking like binding – about ¼”. Press, then stitch along the seam created – this is called ‘stitching in the ditch’. Your machine stitching should only be seen from the lining. Don’t catch your handles/ears in the seam, leave them hang down for now.
Stitch as many buttons as you like now. Avoid the handles. You will be putting a button on each of them last of all.
Turn outside in.
Hand stitch, like before, the lining circle to the edge of the lining. REMEMBER TO LEAVE A GAP FOR TURNING. Turn it rightside to check if you’re happy with it, then back inside out and machine stitch the lining circle. REMEMBER THE GAP – YOU WILL NEED THIS!!!!!
Turn the basket the right way around through the gap in the lining and whipstitch the lining closed, tucking the seams in, out of the way.
My whip stitches are horrible, so I added a ‘decorative’ blanket stitch all around the circle.

Push the lining into the base of the patched bucket.
Now arrange the handles to your satisfaction and secure with a button. I folded the raw edges inside itself and attached the button so the handles had their own loops and stood upright.

Fill with goodies!!