The Ice Cream Social Raffle Baskets

The elementary school's big fundraiser this season involves raffling off baskets full of donated goodies at the Ice Cream Social.  I'm heading up the basket for my daughter's first grade class, and my neighbor, Heather, is coordinating the basket for her daughter's kindergarten class.  I made fabric baskets for both our classes because (1) I have an obsession with sewing fabric baskets, and (2) fabric baskets are way cooler than crappy wicker baskets from a craft store.

Heather's basket has a Michigan foods/drinks theme, so OF COURSE I had to use cherry fabric.  [I'm being a little bit sarcastic here.  Everyone in Michigan is convinced that they are world-famous for their cherries even though neither Heather nor I had any idea of that "fact" until we each moved here.  We're happy to go with the theme though.  I'm probably going to be kicked out of the state for saying that, actually.]  Anyhoo, I used the Crafty Hipster Featherweight Tote tutorial (adding Peltex and using duck cloth for the lining).

The basket I'm coordinating will have a "Cooking with Kids" theme and will be filled with brightly-colored kitchen utensils and a gift certificate for a kids cooking class.  I didn't like any of the cooking-themed fabrics at the store because they seemed too girly and I wanted the basket to be gender-neutral.  As a result of my new obsession with this cute chevron fabric, I had to use that of course.  I kind of winged the design and finished the top in a similar manner to my Boxy Fabric Basket.

I went rogue on the sides by adding some large grommets and knotting cotton webbing through them for the handles.  This may be my new preferred way to do this!  I also added a layer of fusible fleece in addition to Peltex so the basket would be strong and structured.  The panel on the front is actually a pocket that is divided into three sections.  I plan to stick the gift certificate in the center pocket and a utensil in each of the outer pockets.

Inside the basket, there will be coordinating parent/child aprons.  The front sides of the aprons look like this . . .

. . . and the reverse sides look like that!

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Linking up to: And Sew We Craft, The Stitching' Mommy