This Pascha basket cover has a quaint quilty look, with pretty scallopped edges, but is very simple to make, and needs no quilting know-how! Beginner-intermediate sewing project that will help you get better at sewing, or will be an easy project to pick up and put down over about a week. If you're able to sit down and complete it in one go, and depending on how much quilting topstitching you do, it will take about 2-4 hours.

Materials

• Fabric: Calvary Panel (one fat quarter of any woven fabric)
• Backing fabric: from your local fabric store, get a piece of woven fabric at least 21" x 18" that will work well as a backing; white muslin or a white quilt backing fabric is perfect
• Thread: white or as desired

Equipment

• Fabric scissors
• Regular lead pencil
• Sewing pins
• Sewing machine
• Turning tool (chopstick, knitting needle, etc)
• Optional: pinking shears
• Optional: hand sewing needle

Sewing Instructions

First: Prepare the fabric

1. Wash and dry the fabric to soften and pre-shrink.

2. Iron the fabric on the reverse side, or use a pressing cloth on the right side, on a hot or cotton setting.

Second: Cut and prep the fabric

1. Cut out the Calvary panel in a rectangular shape along the edge of the grey diamond-cross pattern.

2. Lay the panel on the backing fabric face down (right sides together) and cut the backing fabric a bit larger (1/4" or more) than the panel.

3. Pin the fabric pieces together.

4. Use a pencil to trace the scalloped edges on the back of the panel fabric so that you can see where to sew.

Third: Make the Cover

1. If you have a label or applique you would like to attach to the back to show who made the cover, attach it now in the area that is facing the green pattern.

2. Plan for the most inconspicuous scallop to be the turning hole (a top scallop near a corner), then start sewing the scallops on the next scallop over. Sew along your pencil marks all the way around, ending on the scallop before the turning hole scallop. Backstitch at the beginning and end.

3. Cut perpendicular into the V of each scallop to allow it to turn right side out, then make small cuts perpendicular to the curved edge of each scallop. Optional: use pinking shears to trim close to the stitches on every scallop instead of making the little cuts.

4. Turn the cover right side out. Use a turning tool to make sure all the seams are turned out completely, then iron to make it crisp.

5. Quilt the cover (or don’t).

    a. Option 1: Topstitch along all the lines created where two patterns touch, outlining each element with stitches so it has a pieced look.

    b. Option 2: Use a quilt pattern (squares, diamonds, circles, etc) to give it a quilted look.

    c. Option 3: Skip to the next step.

6. Close the turning hole.

    a. Option 1: close it by hand with a ladder stitch.

    b. Option 2: edgestitch (1/8") around every scallop of the cover.

    c. Option 3: edgestitch only the turning hole scallop.

 Enjoy!