Got BIG dreams of BIG projects? Then this is the task basket you’ve been waiting for. It has a 51″ circumference and is 10″ deep. If I’d been paying better attention in physic class, I’d probably also be able to tell you the formula to turn those measurements into total volume or area or something, but let’s just say, “That’s a pretty big basket!” or maybe, “That’s a big, pretty basket!” This is the sixth of eight projects in our new Half Moon Modern Sewing Room Series for Moda Fabrics. When I start a project, I like to gather up all the fabric and notions I need in one place to be certain I have enough of everything, and to keep track of it all as I move through the steps. Usually, I’ve just put all my stuff in a cardboard box, but that is soooooo yesterday. Our Jumbo Task Basket holds everything and does it with sturdy style. A super-heavy fusible stabilizer on the sidewalls is the secret to keeping the circular shape looking great. With two handles, you can move it around wherever you want. And, how can you look at giant zig zag stripes and not break into a grin?!

How do I know these are the perfect projects? Because you’ve been looking at MY bright red sewing room over that last several days of projects! Yep, our sample room is my very own creative space, and I absolutely love how everything turned out. The clean design and happy hues of Moda’s Half Moon Modern help pull the room together so it appears neater and more contained.

Sewing Tools You Need

• Any Sewing Machine (we recommend the Janome DC1050)
• Zipper foot

Fabric and Other Supplies

• 1½ yards of 44-45″ wide fabric for the exterior fabric: we used Half Moon Modern by Moda Fabrics in Geometric Big Zig Zag Aqua
• 1¼ yards of 44-45″ wide heavyweight fabric for the lining: we used a snow white cotton twill
• ¾ yard of heavyweight fusible interfacing at least 20″ in width; we used Pellon 71F single sided fusible extra-strong stabilizer
• Scrap or ¼ yard of medium weight fusible interfacing for the handles: you need four 1¾” x 9″ strips
• 3 yards or two packages of ½” piping; we used Wrights Maxi Piping in red
• All purpose thread to match fabrics and piping
• See-through ruler
• Fabric pen or pencil
• Iron and ironing board
• Pressing cloth for the heavyweight stabilizer
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Seam gauge
• Straight pins

Getting Started

1. From the fabric for the exterior (Geometric Big Zig Zag in Aqua), cut the following:
   TWO 11″ high x 26″ wide rectangles for the main body of the basket
   TWO 6″ high x 26″ wide rectangles for the pockets
   TWO 2½” x 9″ strips for the handles
   NOTE: We fussy cut our zig zag for the handles so it looked like stripes
   ONE 16″ circle
   NOTE: We used a large bowl to make our circle pattern, because it happened to be exactly 16″ in diameter.
   
   If you aren’t that lucky, here’s how to draw your own circle pattern:
2. Fold a 17″ square of pattern or graph paper into quarters. Make sure your original square is even and true.
3. Place a see-through ruler at the exact center of the upper left corner of your folded square. Swing the ruler from the top to the bottom of the square, like a pendulum, measuring and marking a dot at the 8″ point in three to four spots. You are creating a semi-circle.
4. Draw an arc to connect the marks. If you own a large compass, you could also use it to create your 8″ arc. Cut along the arc, then unfold your 16″ circle.
   NOTE: Take a look at our Whimsy neck roll pillow tutorials for step-by-step photos of this circle pattern technique.
5. From the lining fabric (snow white cotton twill in our sample), cut the following:
   TWO 11″ high x 26″ wide rectangles for the main body of the basket
   TWO 6″ high x 26″ wide rectangles for the pockets
   TWO 2½” x 9″ strips for the handles
   ONE 16″ circle
6. From the heavyweight fusible stabilizer, cut TWO 10″ x 25″ rectangles.
7. From the medium weight fusible interfacing, cut FOUR 1¾” x 8″ strips.
8. Cut the piping into TWO 51″ lengths

At Your Sewing Machine & Ironing Board

As we always recommend: start every new project with a new needle. This advice is especially important with this project because you will be sewing through thick fabric (the twill lining) and super heavy interfacing.

Create the handles

1. Find the FOUR 2½” x 9″ strips: two from the exterior fabric, two from the lining, as well as the FOUR 1¾” x 8″ interfacing strips.
2. Following manufacturer’s instructions, fuse the interfacing on the wrong side of each fabric piece, centering the interfacing on the fabric side-to-side and end-to-end.
   
3. Pair up one fused exterior piece with one fused lining piece. Pin each pair right sides together.
4. Using a ½” seam allowance, stitch each pair together along both 9″ sides, leaving both ends open.
   
5. Turn right side out and press.
6. Set the two finished handles aside.

Create the pocket panel

1. Find the TWO 6″ x 26″ exterior pocket pieces. Pin these two pieces right sides together along one 6″ side.
2. Stitch together, using a ½” seam allowance. Press seam open.
3. Find the TWO 6″ x 26″ pocket lining pieces and stitch together in the same manner.
4. Find one 51″ length of piping. Pin it to the top of the sewn exterior pocket piece, which is… you guessed it, also 51″ in length.
5. Use your seam gauge to insure the piping cord is ½” from the raw edge of the pocket fabric.
   
6. Machine baste the piping in place, using a ⅜” or narrower seam allowance.
7. On ONE end of the piped piece (say that three times fast!), use a seam ripper to open up about an inch of the piping’s fabric. Trim back the cording inside by approximately ⅝”. This will allow the two ends of the piping to overlap and match up neatly when you make your final seam to create the pocket “ring.”
   
8. Place the piped exterior pocket panel and the pocket lining panel right sides together. Pin together along the top edge (the piped edge).
9. Switch to your zipper foot, and staying as close as possible to the cording, stitch the two layers together. If you measured and placed your piping as shown above, this should be a ½” seam allowance.
   
10. Flip the lining to the back so that the piping stands up straight and the lining and exterior pocket pieces are wrong sides together. The ends and the bottom are still raw.
11. Press flat.

Create the main body panel

1. Find the TWO 11″ x 26″ exterior pieces. Pin these two pieces right sides together along one 11″ side.
2. Stitch together, using a ½” seam allowance. Press seam open.
3. Find the TWO 11″ x 26″ lining pieces and stitch together in the same manner. Set the lining aside.

Assemble the pocket panel and body panel into a basket ‘ring ‘

1. Place the 11″ x 26″ body panel right side up and flat on your work surface.
2. Place the finished pocket panel right side up on top of the body panel base. Align the side raw edges, the bottom raw edges and the center seams of both pieces. Pin in place along both sides and across the bottom; also place some pins along the top edge of the pocket.
3. Decide how many and what size pockets you’d like to have on your basket. This is really a matter of personal preference and how you plan to use your basket; there are no hard-and-fast rules. We made a paper sketch of our flat basket to help us determine our placement. This is also a good way to actually measure around the objects you’d like to insert in the pockets: do you want to hold pattern envelopes, yarn skeins, design CDs, notions and tools? We also took a look at our fabric’s design motif to see if there were obvious division points. In the end, we decided on ten 5″ wide pockets, which allowed us to place our seams along the downward ‘zag’ of the pretty Half Moon Modern Zig Zag motif.
   
4. Using an erasable fabric pen or pencil, draw a line at each vertical pocket division point.
5. Thread your machine with thread to match the piping (we used red), and stitch along each drawn line. For a neater beginning and end to your seams, use a lock stitch rather than back-tacking or leave your thread tails long and tie a hand knot.
6. We added a Sew4Home label along one pocket seam line.
   
7. Find the remaining 51″ length of piping. Pin it to the top of the body panel base (which now also has the pocket panel stitched in place along its bottom half).
8. As you did with the pocket piping, use your seam gauge to insure the piping cord is ½” from the raw edge of the body panel’s top edge.
9. Machine baste the piping in place, using a ⅜” or narrower seam allowance.
10. On one end of the piped piece, use a seam ripper to open up about an inch of the piping’s fabric. Trim back the cording inside by approximately ⅝”. Just like with the pocket piping, this will allow the two ends of the piping to overlap and match up neatly when you make your final seam to create the ‘ring.’
11. And… creating that ring is what you will do right now. Oh boy!
12. Re-thread your machine with thread to match your main fabric.
13. Fold the basket body in half, right sides together, matching up the remaining 11″ raw edges. Pin in place along this side, being very careful to match up the piping along the top and along the pocket.
14. Stitch together, using a ½” seam allowance. Press the seam open. Turn the basket ring right side out.

Add the handles and add the lining with its heavy stabilizer

1. Find the two finished handles.
2. Place one handle at each seam. The handle should be right sides together with the basket ring. The raw ends of the handle should be flush with the raw edge of the basket fabric with the handles overlapping the piping.
3. Loop the handle so each side the is 1″ from the seam. Be careful that the handle is not twisted; it should be a simple loop.
   
4. Find the 11″ x 51″ stitched-together lining panel and the two 10″ x 25″ heavyweight fusible stabilizer pieces.
5. Following the manufacturer’s instructions, fuse the stabilizer pieces to the wrong side of the lining panel. Place one piece on either side of the lining panel’s center seam. Each stabilizer piece should sit ½” down from top and ½” in from open end. It is very important that the stabilizer is securely fused into place, otherwise, turning the basket right side out at the very end will be really hard.
   NOTE: You must use a pressing cloth with this stabilizer or it will stick to your iron.
6. Fold the fused lining body in half, right sides together, matching up the remaining 11″ raw edges. Pin in place along this side.
7. Stitch together, using a ½” seam allowance. Press the seam open. Leave the lining ring wrong side out.
8. Find the finished exterior basket ring (which should be right side out). Slide it inside the lining ring so the two rings are right sides together.
9. Pin all the way around the top (the piped edge) matching the seams of the two rings.
   
10. Switch to your zipper foot, and staying as close as possible to the cording, stitch together through all the layers around the top.
11. Turn the basket right right side out so the top piping stands up straight and the lining and exterior are now wrong sides together.  Press.
12. For the following steps, turn the basket wrong side out again and pull the layers apart.

Attaching the exterior and interior bases

1. Find the 16″ exterior circle and the 16″ lining circle.
2. In order to attach a circular base to the open ring that will become the walls of the basket, it helps to make ‘quarter-marks’ on each piece. To do this, fold each circle piece in half, then in half again. Lightly press to set creases. Unfold and place a pin at the end of each crease.
3. For the ring, first fold it in half so one seam is on your left and the other seam is on your right. Place a pin at each seam. Fold in half again, bringing one seam across to meet the other. Place a pin on either side at this second fold point.
   NOTE: For the sake of a clearer drawing, we show the ring as a separate piece, however, you already attached the exterior ring and lining ring together in the steps above. Therefore, in reality (and as I just mentioned above), you have to pull the two layers apart to work with each independently.
   
4. You will work first with the exterior base circle and the exterior layer. Remember, you’ve already pulled the exterior and the lining apart so you are working only with the exterior fabric ring. Place the base circle inside the bottom of the basket ring (the bottom of the pocket panel), with right sides together. Match up the pins you put in place on your quarter folds. Then fill in with pins all around.
   
5. Switch back to a regular presser foot.
6. Using a ½” seam allowance, sew all the way around the circle. Press the seam open.
7. Repeat these steps with the lining base circle and the inside lining fabric with one change: rather that stitching all the way around, leave a 6-8″ opening in the seam to allow you to turn the basket right side out.
   
8. Turn the entire basket right side out through the opening. This will be a little bit tricky because of the heavy stabilizer on the sides, but you can do it, especially if you heeded our advice above about making sure the stabilizer is securely fused into place.
9. Push the lining down into place inside the basket and press everything.
10. Then, pull up the lining a little bit at the area of the opening. Fold in the raw edges of the opening so they are flush with the sewn seam, and whip stitch the opening shut.
    
    

Project Design: Alicia Thommas
Sample Creation: Debbie Guild