Picnic Basket and napkin tutorial

A couple of years ago I participated in a craft night, and one of the crafts to make was a picnic basket out of a laundry basket. I had been wanting a picnic basket for some time, so I signed-up for it. And then I found the most PERFECT picnic basket fabric. The lady who came up with the pattern wasn't there to show us how to interpret it, so we fiddled around til we got it to work. It's such a cute idea; I love how it turned out. I used my phone to take these pictures as we were camera-less at the, so the details might be skewed.

**If you would like a tutorial for the picnic basket, leave a comment and I will work one up!**

The basket with the cover on.

The inside. There are pockets all the way around to house your dishes, utensils, napkins, etc. You then put the food in the middle, then re-cover and head out the door! I have used my quite a few times over the last couple of years, and it's held up great. The best part is you can take it apart and wash it.

I had enough leftover fabric from the basket that I thought I would try making napkins to coordinate. I bought some red checked gingham-esque fabric and pieced them together.

Here's what you'll need:

• 8- 6.25"x6.25" squares of fabric PER NAPKIN (so if you made six napkins, you'd need 48 squares)

• sewing machine
• coordinating thread of your choice
• hand sewing needle and extra thread (for slip stitching at the end)

Sew each section with the right sides together using a 1/4" inseam, pressing out the seams as you go.

This is after the four front pieces were sewn together.

After sewing two sets of four pieces, put right sides together and stitch along 3 and 3/4 sides, leaving an opening to turn the napkin right side out. I also trimmed the corners and the seam allowances to make them lay flat and the corners to be more pointed.

This is the open edge. Turn the napkin right side out.

Slip stitch the opening and you're done!


**Please feel free to use this tutorial, but if you post on your own site, please link back to this original post. THANK YOU!**