Easter basket

Soon the easter bunny will bring this little easter basket to my son.

I used mercerized egypt cotton (it’s so soft and shiny) and a crochet hook sized E. The basket is made of 2 parts (side + bottom) which are being sewed together.

Start with a crochet circle (or oval) as bottom and keep increasing until the desired size is reached. My last round consists of 90 stitches and the diameter is approximately 15 cm.

Crochet a foundation chain made of the same amount of stitches as your last round of the bottom.
Continue with some rows of single crochets. Keep in mind, that the side part is being sewn onto the bottom upside down, so you will crochet the gap between the blossoms and the upper edge + the rows of single crochets, where the blossoms are crochetted over, first.

The blossoms are cluster stitches, consisting of 5 double crochets (crochet together) which are stitched into the 5th-previous row. I cut the yarn of each blossom and knotted it on the backside.

Here you can see where I placed the blossoms. But instead of counting the stitches, you can just place them „by instinct“.

I made this chart using Stitch fiddle. Click on the picture to enlarge.

The colored box shows where the cluster stitch starts, the X below shows, that the dcs are stitched 5 rows below.
Here you can see a detail photo:

The leaves are crocheted separate and sewn on. Leave a long tail on both ends to sew the leaves onto the basket and stitch the stem.

Here I drew a crochet chart of the different leaves, and also the cluster stitch of the blossom:

I threaded the twofolded leaves behind a single crochet.

Sew the side together along the shorter edges und then onto the bottom.
To complete the basket, I crocheted one row of single crochets along the top, then a row of slip stitches and another row of single crochets around the slip stitches. This makes the upper edge a bit more solid.

By now, the inside doesn’t look too neat.
So I sewed a lining (made of a cotton dishcloth). Therefore, you need to cut the shapes of the bottom and the side + 0,5 cm seam allowance on all sides, sew the parts together and into the basket. ….Done! 🙂

Happy Easter!