Hi: This year Easter was at my house. We celebrated with my husband’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, their two girls plus two more family members. It was such a lovely day. Lots of good food, pretty weather and visiting with family.
I decided to make Easter gifts for the women that were coming (five in all). Have you seen all the pixie baskets floating around on Instagram? The tutorial is by Heidi over at Fabric Mutt. It is a simple project and it took very little time to make five.
I love the little accents such as the border around the top and the little tabs on each end.
I did make a few changes. When I made the first one, I happened to make cookies the same day. Because Ray doesn’t tolerate dairy products well, I often use butter flavored Crisco when making cookies. In case you don’t use it, the cubes of shortening come in these little plastic tubs. They are nearly the same size as the pixie baskets. I thought it would be nice to place the tub in the finished basket to give it a better shape.
Heidi’s tutorial instructs you to cut pieces to a length of 8″ when making the baskets. In order to use the little plastic inserts, I had to increase the length to 8.5″. These little inserts create wonderful structure for the pixie baskets. I used fusible batting which was a breeze. Finally, I topstitched 1/8″ above and below the seam connecting the main exterior fabric and the upper trim piece. It was a nice finishing touch.
These were so fun to make and fill up for my guests. I think they were well received too!
I could see using these for all sorts of things. Different holidays, Christmas, teacher gifts, etc would be great times to make these. You can see the red one in the back is made from American Jane scraps with the alphabet on it. My sister-in-law teaches kindergarten and I thought this would be fun for her desk.
Lots of sewing going on these days. Just finished the quilting on the Square Dance quilt. Time to trim it and square it up. Then I will get the binding done.
Have a nice weekend all!
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These are just adorable!! 🙂
Thank you! Now I have to do some serious baking to use up all of the Crisco I bought for those little plastic tubs. 🙂
These are so great! Looking forward to seeing what else you’re working on. Not a lot of sewing happening over here because our house is for sale (!) but soon enough. 🙂
Oh, I hope your house sells quickly! The market is much stronger these days (at least out here anyway) Have you found a place to buy yet? How exciting!! Hard to keep it picked up for all the showings, I am sure. Hang in there.
B.
Those pixie baskets are so cute! I checked in the cupboard, and yes, I have some Crisco in those little tubs. Your idea is so much better than just recycling them. Thanks for sharing the changes in the dimensions of the fabric pieces to make the baskets.
Haha. I didn’t have enough of the tubs so I bought more Crisco… my pantry has a good supply of it for a long while!!
Those baskets turned out so wonderful! What great gifts for Easter. I really like the idea of using a plastic insert like that. Thanks for sharing that idea!
You’re very welcome. The baskets are adorable. I hope you’ll give them a try. I’m off to check out your blog. Thanks for stopping by!
Oh my, these are adorable! I’ve not seen this pattern before so I can’t wait to make a few of these.
You’ll love it! They are a bit addicting because they are so dang cute! Have fun.
What adorable little baskets! And how clever to use those plastic tubs. Makes them waterproof! Have fun using up all that Crisco. If you need someone to take the extras off your hands, I’m available! Have a lovely weekend!
If you come over and visit, I will give you all the Crisco. It’s so worth it!
As for the waterproof aspect, I was thinking it would be fun to use some floral foam and make low profile flower arrangements. Especially for a shower or some other ‘girlie’ occasion.
I thought your idea to use the Crisco tubs was a great one! I made a pixie basket recently, and it could use something to shape it like that! Those look like the perfect Easter gifts – I hope everyone loved them!
Sounds like you need to head to the store and buy some Crisco!! I was able to use the insert on my first basket with the original dimensions but it was snug. It might still work for yours tho.
As a recipient of one of these darling pixie baskets, I think they are very creative and I plan to incorporate some of your ideas for my Christmas toffee. Thanks, Bernie, for a very enjoyable day.
Hi Cinda, it was really nice to have you and Matthew join us last weekend. Crazy that it has been so many years and this is the first time you were over to the house. We will do it again, it was such a fun visit. I think these baskets would be so cute for the toffee. If you make them over the summer, you’ll have them ready for the holidays!
Take care,
Bernie
These are very sweet! Great fabric and color combinations. What a wonderful hostess you are!
I love the baskets. I love the idea of using the Crisco containers. I throw them away all the time. Thanks for sharing your lovely gifts.
You’re welcome. I hope you will give it a try. It is always nice to be able to upcycle something, rather than tossing it. Have fun with these!!