Play Eats: Make a shopping cart

So we'll begin our little segment called Play Eats with a shopping cart tutorial. You should probably shop and pay for your groceries before you begin cooking, right?

This project is a great way to reuse that perfectly good walking toy that your kid hasn't played with in ages and turn it into an awesome shopping cart.

Materials:

thick canvas fabric (or home décor weight. I used that cheap stuff from Ikea)

cool cotton fabric from Spoonflower (or whatever quilting cotton you love, really. I used Paper Sparrow for this)

Pellon 809 heavyweight fusible interfacing

Velcro

boning

denim needle (or similar heavy duty needle)

The amounts will depend on the size of your walker.

1. Measure your walking toy. The Melissa and Doug alligator will need a basket 9.5 wide and 11” long. You’ll need a bottom too. Don’t forget to add seam allowances!  I like to use 3/8” because that’s the width from my needle to the edge of my favorite foot.

2. Cut your fabric. You’ll need two pieces of each shape.

Front

Back

Left side

Right side

Bottom

Straps:  Our pieces were 3.25” X 2.5”  (That includes a ¼” seam allowance). The diameter of the bar is 1”.
You’ll need 4 of the print and 4 of the solid.

Cut your interfacing to the size of your basket. No seam allowances!

It is important to be very careful with this. If your interfacing is too small, your basket won’t stand straight (guess how I learned this!). You also don’t want to be sewing over that extra layer.

3. Iron your interfacing onto the Spoonflower fabric. Tip: Lightly press the interfacing to the back of the cotton, then turn it over to press more firmly. My iron does not like the Pellon at all.

4. Draw lines on your solid. I used a disappearing ink pen. The lines started to disappear before I was finished sewing so if you can, do one piece of fabric at a time.

I used my 1” and 2” rulers to make it easy. Start at one edge and use the 1” ruler to make your horizontal lines and the 2” ruler to draw your vertical lines.

5. Stitch. 

I used a reinforced straight stitch so that it would stand out and have a nice texture to it.  You might want to change your needle now. All that probably dulled it.

6. Sew together your four outer sides RST (right sides together). Then carefully pin your bottom on. Clip the bulky corners.

7. Do the same thing for your inner layer but make your seam allowance just a smidge wider so that it will nest inside the outer a bit better.

8. Pin your boning into the seam allowance of the canvas solid and stitch it in place. You can skip this step if you want. The basket will still stand on its own. The boning will just help it to last longer.

9. Stitch your straps RST, leaving one short edge open, clip corners, turn inside-out and press.

10. Pin your straps into the seam allowance as shown. (There is an additional image with the Velcro step that may be helpful). The straps need to be stacked. Keep your solid sides down and the patterned sides up. Stitch ¼” from the edge of the seam allowance. That way they’ll get reinforced.

11. Stitch the baskets together. There are two options:

a. Place your baskets WST just as they will be when finished. Turn your entire seam allowance in and top stitch the whole top edge closed.  If you choose this option, you can also cut a piece of cardboard to stuff in the bottom between the layers for support. This would not work for the Melissa and Doug toy – only one with a flat bottom (those pesky gators!).

b. Place your baskets RST and stitch 3 sides closed and about 1” in to the fourth side on each end. Turn inside-out through that opening. This can be difficult with the boning and can wrinkle up your fabric.

12. Cut your Velcro and sew it to the straps where needed.

13. Admire your upcycled creation! 

Please let me know if there are any mistakes in these instructions. I’ve tried to make them simple. If you’ve never sewn on canvas or denim before, don’t worry. The needle is what makes it happen. And definitely upload photos of your shopping carts to the Project: Project flickr group.

Play Eats!

Two whole weeks of awesome play food tutorials, play food reviews ('cause not everyone's crafty and some people are busy), play kitchen stuff, play dishes ideas, some great stuff. So stay tuned.

Special guest posts: Thanks to Sabra of Sew a Straight Line, Jess of Craftiness is Not Optional, and Katie of Hippos and Dinosaurs for their play food and cookware tutorials. Also thanks for extra reviews to Carolyn who finds amazing vintage furniture for cheap like it's her job. See their posts for links.

Day 1: Shopping Cart Tutorial

Day 2: Cherries, strawberries, tea, and peanut butter and jelly slices.

Day 3: Tortillas, peas and carrots, tomatoes, bowtie pasta, no-sew ravioli.

Day 4: Ideas on repurposing and thrift store finds.

Day 5: Play Kitchen roundup and inspiration photos.

Day 6: Pottery Barn Kids play kitchen review

Day 7: Fabric pots and pans tutorial

Day 8: Fabric pretzel tutorial

Day 9: Felt egg tutorial

Day 10+: Play Food Reviews...

 

Haba

 

Garden Fresh Peel-Able Fruits and Veggies

Ikea

Target's Play Wonder

Melissa and Doug

Green Toys

Finally, some Etsy tips.

Play food reviews disclaimer: I have either bought all of the play foods discussed here or a family member has bought them for my kid. No company is paying me to write about this stuff. But if they were, I'd still be super honest about it.

Also, the photos may or may not contain all of the pieces found in a particular set. The play kitchen is a mess and I did my best to find a nice sampling the day I shot the images.

More plans

Just like that chair, I can't seem to get these houses out of my head, so much so, that I had to look through I Can Fly several times to make sure there weren't any more drawings of houses on the other pages. But no, this is it. And because of this one little scene, I went and bought a dollhouse kit. Ironically, my husband is okay with it so far. Maybe that's because I we haven't started it yet. Ha ha.

So see that one little house there on the left in the back, the one with the ironwork at the peak of the roof? (I have since learned it's called cresting). That's what did it. I need to make a dollhouse and it needs to have cresting. I bought this one for super cheap on eBay. I know it's a tudor and they don't normally have cresting. Cresting is more traditionally a Victorian element. I plan to leave the half-timbering detail off the dollhouse anyway. But seriously, I'm going to Mary Blair the heck out of this house. It will be mid-century whimsy at its finest. I'm so excited.

Plans

I Can Fly, illustrated by Mary Blair, is a nighttime favorite for us. I love the her style, I love the colors, I love the whimsy. I love that red chair. I can't stop thinking about it.

I'm going to try to make one in miniature. My plan is to find an existing 1:12 chair -- probably something with a different back. Then I will bend wood or something to try to make the oversized roundy back.

Do you think that's even possible? I was thinking of starting with this.

In Miniature

I think I mentioned before that all the research I did on play dollhouses before Christmas re-ignited my childhood love of miniatures. For years and years as a kid I asked for a dollhouse and one year I got it. But it was a kit and, of course, it never actually got finished. One year my mom sold the whole lot of stuff for next to nothing. I hadn't remembered much about it at all until I started building this little sofa from a kit I got on eBay. Cutting out the little pieces, sanding the wood, and gluing it together triggered all of these memories. As a kid, I'd say not even 12 yet, I started building furniture for my dollhouse from kits. As I've started browsing eBay, I recognize many of the ones I had -- an entire kitchen, a Chippendale desk, an end table. I want my loot back. I'm not sure if it will happen but I'm on the case and will let you know if we find it. I don't think the people who have it now realize how important it is for me to see the craftsmanship of my 10-year-old self -- how much that will mean to me. As an artist who is making very, very little art these days, I'm hanging on to my creativity with a single strand.

Making this sofa, which has some gorgeous lines and with the right choice of stain will be very modern, made me super happy. I really enjoy it. Now if only I could get over this disease -- probably swine flu or something like it, I could finish it and post some pictures.

I also have kits to make the matching 4 dining room chairs but instead of the blue fabric, I'll be using Liberty of London that is in perfect scale. I've found a dollhouse and it will be mine in a couple of weeks. I've been collecting miniature furniture and accessories with the rabid passion of a 19th century naturalist. And Z and I have been making lots of scenes in a roombox. She has a fantastic eye for space and detail. I added a little gadget thing over there in the sidebar that will take you to the flickr set of our work. Or, just click here. I've been encouraged to start writing posts about my minis so this, I guess, is the first.

Vegan Chicken Salad

So this will be my last post in penance for saying you all should look at leather messenger bags just so someone could get $55. But $55! That's a lot. I don't sell ads on this blog* and I certainly don't make money off of this so I think it's cool that a company likes what I do enough to reward me and the people who read it.

Back to Vegan Chicken Salad -- one of my absolute favorite foods. Like I have written about before, I haven't eaten meat in a long time. I stopped Freshman year of college because dorm food was just making me sick. So I lived on a bizarre diet of pasta and cheese for a few years as I was gradually learning about being more healthy with my food choices -- learning from friends how to cook vegetarian, learning about protein. I've always loved vegetables so that was never an issue. I just grew up eating meat and all of the food I learned how to cook had meat in it so I'm very thankful to a few good friends who kept me from starving. More and more I don't eat meat for a lot of other reasons.

Ok, I'll get on with it... I first had this stuff at Teany and was immediately in love. Whenever we're in Manhattan, I try to get down there for their Chicken Salad Melt to be revived. When my local co-op started carrying this, I was floored. It must be the same stuff. Either way. You have to check it out.

Other vegan things that I love:

Venerable Bean Bakery, my husband's baking company. Everything is vegan and he has also started doing a lot of gluten-free stuff because he was getting so many requests.

Vegan Cheese Ball, a delicious party treat that I invented. Super tasty.

This video is one of the reasons why animal rights are so important to me. Watch the whole thing. It's really amazing. I cry every time I watch it; it's so beautiful.

We had over a week of sickness around here. Z is almost back to normal. She now coughs like she's been smoking only 15 years instead of 60. I'm two days behind her in symptoms so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hoping to be better soon. Super awesome stuff ahead.


*Yes, there are a few "sponsors" over there. They are friends of mine who offered to donate items for giveaways. I'm giving back with a little link love. Just in case you were wondering.

I love my new bag

Just before Christmas my Mom and I took a girls' weekend to New York City. We cheated by having Mr. Lemon drive and drop us off in the city (Z too!). We saved on parking and I think about 2 hours worth of traffic on the way home by taking the PATH train to Jersey where we met him at a station. Easy.

Anyway, we hit up as many holiday markets as humanly possible. If you know me and my mom, that's a lot. We saved the Union Square market for last as that's one of our favorite markets the rest of the year. I saw this bag and it drew me in. I needed a new bag. My old one had literally fallen apart the week before. I thought this was leather and was so tempted. But when I saw the 100% vegan sign hanging in the back of the booth, I was sold.

They are made out of recycled fabric and very durable. Mine looks brand new after 2 months of taking it everywhere everyday. It is the bag of my ideal self. The brand is Viva Zapata and their website is really well designed.

I have seriously never spent this much money on a bag before but the last few years I've been making some changes. I haven't worn leather in over 10 years but I also don't really like all the poorly made synthetic shoes/bags that are out there. It's hard to find something that's sustainable and fashionable. I don't consider myself remotely stylish but I also don't want to look like I've stepped off the commune either. Instead of buying cheap plastic crap, I've been doing research and buying quality stuff that is a little more expensive. The result is that I'm buying a whole lot less because my stuff is fitting better and lasting longer. So in the end, I'm actually spending less.

I will take a real photo of this bag and edit this post as soon as I have time.