Recycling for advanced craftspeople

[wiseheart]

Now, this was an insane project: making a box - or, in this case an Easter basket - out of postcards. I wanted to try it for Christmas already, but I had too many other projects running then, with the charity fair and all. So I decided to take a break from the baby journal and other stuff and gave it a try.










I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, but it was really hard work. First, you have to cut out all 6 panels and the bottom - twice. Then you have to glue two pieces together, so that it would have pictures on both sides. Then you have to punch the stitching holes individually because the double postcard panels are simply too hard to drive a needle through them. (That is the worst part. My fingertips still haven't recovered. If I were into crime, I should go and rob a bank, now; I'm sure my fingerprints are totally unrecognizable.) Then you have to sew around each piece with blanket stitch. And finally, you have to link the sides and pull them tight.

It took me the whole Sunday to make it, and that only because I'm practiced with both stitching and paper work. It is pretty, but I doubt I'd ever make another one. It's too exhausting.

Comments

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

Delighted to see this basket made from cards! In my childhood, the ladies would make these for our church's annual Fall Festival, and they were very popular.
My grandmother made them from greeting cards in exactly the same way - doubled together for pictures on both sides, holes punched holes, stitched together!
I loved looking at them. I especially liked the ones made from Christmas cards.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The original pattern was for Christmas cards, but I didn't manage making one at that time. But the Easter version is pretty, too - although surprisingly hard to make. Not hard in the sense of complicated - it's easy enough - but it's killer on the fingertips.