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How to make a Dolly Carry Basket

> HOME > BLOG > How to make a Dolly Carry Basket

Blog Post by Darina Foots

How to make a Dolly Carry Basket

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Wondering what you can make for the little Girl who has everything? Darina's been making these beautiful Dolly Carry Baskets, and has very kindly shared her instructions with us all.

Instructions include how to make the Carry Case, Pillow, Mattress and very cute mini-quilt!

This will be an awesome Gift.

Thanks so much Darina

Carry Case for Dolls

BASE

Cut a piece of bag wadding for the base. 20” long by 9” wide.
Curve off the four corners. I used a sweet bowl to create a nice even curve, marked with pen then trimmed.

Using some temporary quilt basting spray, lay your fabric on top, leaving yourself about an inch of fabric beyond the wadding for your seams. Spray on the wadding, not your fabric.

Quilt a matching piece of fabric on the top, marking your first two lines 2” apart. To get a perfect diamond, measure as much up as across to mark that first line. (So if your fabric is 7” high then come in 7” along the bottom.

Cut a matching piece of fabric for the bottom

SIDES

Make eleven 6” quilt squares (6” top and bottom layer and 5” wadding)

Cross stitch the three layers together.

Stitch all 11 in a single row.

As an alternative you could cut a single long piece of fabric. Could be quilted onto your wadding.

At this time you may choose to add some embroidery. Gives it a really lovely feature but is optional.

Cut a 6.5” piece of lining fabric the same length as the outer squares.

Cut a 5” piece of bag wadding the same length as the outer squares.

Quilt these two together leaving a half inch gap top and bottom. Once again I have used a 2” quilt.

Leave a gap at the end to allow for joining later. You will possibly have to adjust this when joining to fit your base.

Overlock these two pieces together, top and bottom.

Alternatively put your two strips facing together and stitch along the top seam.

Complete the top edge of the sides with braid or lace and then do the binding once you have connected your ends The binding only needs to be cut on the straight as it doesn’t need to curve

Click here to view Darina's Blog on How to Make Binding

JOINING

Place completed sides around the edge of your base and pin together with your seam ending up on the inside. It is often better to flip your work inside out to make for easier stitching. This is the most difficult part of the stitching. I find using the zipper foot a great way to get in close. Trying to stitch around the corners when the wadding doesn’t want to cooperate!! I found I had to come back and fix the corners a bit.

HANDLES

Cut four 2” strips 22 - 26” long. Cut two pieces of wadding/batting the same size. Sandwich the wadding between two layers of fabric and stitch right down through the centre through all three layers. Make enough binding to go right around both handles.

Stitch binding on the outer edges and then attach to the cot. You can adjust the length of the handles as you see fit, or stitch lower down. I didn’t want to hide the embroidery this time!!

Here you can see how the handles attach

BEDDING

Cut the mattress @ 11-12” wide and the length of the cot. Stitch and fill, rounding the corners. Make a pillow the same. I have added some lace, but a bit lazy and only stitched it on the outside. Would look way better stitched into the seam! I am allowed to be slack occasionally!

QUILT

Make the little quilt anyway you wish. These last three I have incorporated the Sweet Dreams design in the centre and made into a rag quilt. After you have embroidered the sweet dreams with wadding, trim your block back to 7”. It works well with the 4” little blocks with the 3” wadding inside. Or make the quilt with 12- 16 quilt squares cut at 4 or 4.5”.