A Work-Basket
June 30th, 2007 by admin
CRAFTS
For this, you must buy a straw basket, flat in shape, and without a handle. It can be round, square, oval, or eight-sided, just as you prefer.
You must also buy a yard of silk or cashmere in some pretty color.
Line the whole basket, first of all cutting the shape of the bottom exactly, and fastening the lining down with deft stitches, which shall show neither inside nor out.
Make four little pockets of the stuff (six if the basket is large), draw their tops up with elastic cord, and fasten them round the sides at equal distances. These are to hold spools of silk, tapes, hooks-and-eyes, and such small wares, which are always getting into disorder in a pocketless basket.
Between two of the pockets on one side, suspend a small square pincushion, and on the other a flat needle-book hung by a loop of ribbon. At the opposite ends, between the pockets, fasten an emery bag and a sheath of morocco bound with ribbon to hold a pair of scissors.
Finish the top last of all with a quilling of ribbon, and you have as dainty and complete a gift as any younger sister can wish to make, or any older one receive. It will cost time and pains, but is pretty and useful enough to repay both.
St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5,
Nov 1877-Nov 1878; No 1, Nov 1877
(Now in the Public Domain: not copyrighted in the United States)