DIY Easter Basket Gameboard

DIY, Sewing, Tutorial

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This DIY Easter basket has two amazing features: it unzips to lay flat for storage and to become a gameboard for the kids to play on!
Read on for the easy tutorial.

Easy felt DIY Easter basket sewing project

If there’s anything more fun than sewing in general, it’s sewing for holidays!  Spring is almost here and I’m having a great time getting ready for it.  Today’s DIY is a fun Easter project that I’m really excited to share! You ready for this??

Easter Basket DIY Sewing project for kids

It’s an Easter basket that unzips to lay flat!  Awesome, right??  I hate storing baskets and buckets for holidays so I’ve been brainstorming this project for a while.  But not only is this basket easy to store, it can also be used as a gameboard!  I’ve included a printable with 4 separate game ideas to play on the basket with some yummy Easter candy as game pieces.

#DIY #shop #Easterbasket

I used Easter prep as an excuse to go to Target (naturally) and peruse the holiday and candy section.  My treat haul included DOVE Peanut Butter Eggs and DOVE Milk Chocolate Bunny (because…chocolate bunny!!), M&M’s White Strawberry Shortcake (only sold for a limited time and only at Target), Starburst Sweet & Sour Jellybeans and Starburst Crazybeans Jellybeans (these have 2 jellybean flavors in each one!).

Check out some great coupons for the M&M’s and DOVE candies HERE and for the Starburst Jellybeans HERE.

Or check out some drool-worthy holiday ideas for using these treatshere!

#DIY #shop #Target

Move along, kind people of Target.  Nothing to see here….

I found the DOVE chocolates and Starburst Jellybeans in the holiday section of Target.  The M&M’s White Strawberry Shortcake, along with other M&M’s varieties, were right at the register.

#DIY #shop #Easterbasket

#DIY #shop #Easterbasket

Alright!  Let’s hop to it… (Ha!)

Supplies:

1/4 yard felt (I used the standard felt by the yard at my local fabric store, but the sturdier the better!)
5 yards of 1″ grosgrain ribbon in assorted colors (1 yard of each color)
5.5″ long strip of velcro
22″ zipper (in the same color as your felt)
1/4 yard fusible interfacing
coordinating thread

Begin by making a pattern for the bottom of your basket.  Using a piece of cardstock, find the center and then measure out 3.5″ from that center, all the way around the page, making marks as you go.

easter_basket_diy2

Cut out your circle along the marks you just made.  Trace your pattern onto the felt with chalk or water soluble marker and cut it out.  (You can also make your circle directly on your felt, but I often screw up my circles so I like to make a perfect pattern piece first!)

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If your felt needs to be interfaced, go ahead and do that to your circle piece only now (cut out a matching circle out of fusible interfacing and iron onto one side).

Next, cut out a rectangle of felt measuring 23″ x 6″.

easter_basket_diy4

Open up your zipper and begin sewing your circle to one side of the zipper tape, starting at the zipper stop (the metal piece at the top of the zipper).  Be sure the zipper teeth face the outside of the circle and that the edge of the felt butts up right against the teeth.

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When you get all the way around the circle, be sure to fold the top loose end of the zipper tape (where you began sewing) underneath and sew over it as you finish attaching the tail end of the zipper.

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Next, begin sewing the rectangle of felt to the opposite zipper tape, again with the zipper tape facing away from the felt and the felt edge right up against the zipper teeth.  Sew all the way to the end of the rectangle and zipper tape (at one point, you will need to move the zipper pull past your needle: leave your needle in the fabric and lift your presser foot up.  Move the zipper pull past the needle, then lower your presser foot and resume sewing!).

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At this point your basket will look like this unzipped.

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Separate your velcro strips and pin them to the short ends of the rectangle (make sure one strip is on the outside of the basket and the other is on the inside).  Attach each piece by topstitching around the edges.

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Zip up your basket and velcro the short ends together…it should look like this!

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Measure and mark one inch strips along the length of the rectangle.  Using a rotary cutter, cut through the felt along these lines, leaving about 1/2″ intact at the top and the bottom of the slit (be careful not to cut all the way through from top to bottom!).

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Begin weaving your ribbon through the slits, keeping the ribbon close to the bottom of the slits.  Once one color is all the way through, continue with the other colors, each on top of the last.

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At the short ends of the rectangle, trim each ribbon down to about 1/4″, fold raw edges under and stitch the ribbons to the felt.  You can also heat seal the ribbon with a match or lighter before stitching it down.

Make your handle by cutting a felt strip measuring 2 1/4″ x 20″.

At this point, I interfaced both the strap and the body of my basket in order to keep the ribbon in place and make it all more durable.  Simply cut matching rectangles of interfacing and iron onto the backside of both pieces.

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Fold your strap’s long edges in towards the center (making sure you’re enclosing your interfacing to the inside) and stitch along the center through all thicknesses.  Leave about 1.5″ unsewn at both ends of the strap.

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Pin your strap to your basket on either side and stitch along the short edge of the strap.  I used two lines of stitching for strength.

#DIY #shop #Easterbasket

And that’s it!!  These really come together quickly and you’ll be able to bang out a couple in no time!  Now go stock up on some yummy treats, and fill these bad boys up.

And don’t forget to get the printable here with some suggestions for games you can play on your unzipped basket!  Starburst Jellybeans and M&M’s make perfect game pieces….especially when the rules say you get to eat your opponents pieces.

 

#DIY #shop #Easterbasket

#DIY #shop #Easterbasket

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #EasterSweets #CollectiveBias

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6 Comments

  • Reply
    Kelly
    March 17, 2016 at 11:31 am

    I love the idea of a basket that folds down. Plus it’s a game board, too cool. #client

    • Reply
      Bonnie
      March 20, 2016 at 10:47 pm

      Thanks Kelly! It was a ton of fun to make 🙂

  • Reply
    Kathleen
    March 24, 2016 at 5:03 pm

    Oh my gosh, I love your baskets! So cute and what a great idea. The candies sound wonderful too.

    • Reply
      Bonnie
      March 26, 2016 at 9:03 pm

      Thanks, lady! I’m a big fan of sweets myself 🙂

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