Felt Basket

What You Need:

• Felt, 2 colors
• Embroidery floss
• Sewing needle
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Sewing pins

What You Do:

1. Help your daughter measure and cut a 9 x 9 inch square from each color.
2. Have her lay one square on top of the other, lining up the edges. Pin in place.
3. Stitch the two pieces of felt together. Knot and cut the thread.
4. Cut eight pieces of embroidery floss, each approximately six inches long.
5. Thread one of these pieces of embroidery floss through the needle. Knot the thread. One inch from one corner of your square, insert the needle between the two pieces of felt. See Photo 1.
6. Push the needle up beside a stitch. Pull the thread through, hiding the knot between the pieces of felt. Repeat with the other 7 pieces of embroidery floss. There will be two pieces of floss on each side of the square, one on either side of each corner.
7. This step pulls your felt into the final basket shape. Working at one corner, take the pieces of floss that frame this corner and tie them into a bow. See Photo 2.
8. Repeat at the other 3 corners and finger crease the folds at the base of the basket.

Make baskets of different sizes. A long narrow basket is perfect for hair sticks and a small square for rubber bands. Alternate which color is on the outside and which is on the inside as well.