Sewing/Knitting Basket Ornament

This turned out a little differently than I had planned.  It was going to be two ornaments, one a sewing basket and the other a knitting basket.  However, the two small baskets I was sure I had, were no where to be found.  In fact, I wasted a good part of yesterday morning looking for them.  So on to Plan B.  I found the larger basket shown above and decided to combine them. 

This photo gives you an idea of the size of the basket.  I am going to give you a tutorial for how to make the little pin cushion and tell you how I did the rest.  Now check back tomorrow.  I haven't glued any of this in the basket yet, and tomorrow when I go to see my mom, I'm going to check at the thrift shop to see if I can find some smaller baskets.

For the little pin cushion, you will need a circle of red cotton 4.5" in diameter, some green embroidery floss, a little stuffing, and a tiny piece of green and red felt.

Using 3 strands of floss, stitch all the way around the perimeter of the circle using a running stitch.

Draw up your thread and add stuffing to the center. After its stuffed, pull tight to close.

Now wrap the thread around the pin cushion and secure with a stitch in the bottom.  Do this until the pin cushion is evenly divided into 8 sections.  Secure the threads on the bottom and then bring your needle all the way through the middle of the pin cushion so that it comes out on the center top.

Add the green leaf cut out and then sew on a little strawberry cut out leaving a one inch piece of floss between the leaf and the strawberry.  You can now tie it off and its finished.  I used Clover applique pins, which are very small, in the pin cushion.

To make the pattern envelopes, I scanned a couple of vintage patterns and reduced them in size.  Then cut them out.  The button card is a piece of card stock with beads sewn on.  The pattern is just a piece of pattern tissue that I drew on and then pinned to fabric and cut out.  The tape measure is a piece of silk ribbon that I made marks on.

For the knitting side, I used sock yarn to make small balls and hanks of yarn.  The knitting needles are cut off bamboo skewers with a bead glued on the end.  There is a little knitted sweater that's hard to see and the instructions to knit that will be my post for tomorrow or maybe Monday. 

On Saturday I'll have an announcement about a "Blog Hop" and give-away that I will be participating in next week.