Work basket pattern

I use a workbox made from old 1 litre milkcartons and lined covered in fabric. It has a octagonal base and a domed lid with a nice posh button on the top. I keep all my small hand sewing items in there and find it extremely useful. I have about another 20 which I need to cover so that some, as yet unknown, 'good cause' can sell.

I recently entered it in our local Show (the equivalent thing to a US County Fair) is a section for recycled items and took out First Prize for it. The Steward in that section told me that the judge was very impressed as I had put in the covered box along with a 'raw' box and lid so that the judge could see the milk cartons and how it had started its life as well as the final product once completed.

Reply to
FarmI
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Oh dear, how old is she? Ours was born on 10 July last year. She hasn't started walking or even crawling, but is more of an avid talker. I'm not worried about that, she'll start with all this when she's good and ready, and the doctor says that nothing is amiss with her, her development is quite normal. For the first few days she did nothing but sleep, even when she was supposed to be drinking, so we couldn't leave the hospital as soon as we would have liked.

Then she took to sleeping only a few minutes during the day while sleeping almost 7 hours at a time at night (I loved it, as you can imagine), only that was mainly all the sleep she'd get. I started to get really worried because 7 hours is not enough, even for me sometimes. Moreover, she had developed the habit of yelling at the top of her lungs at any opportunity, and unconsolably, too. You could tell that she was dead tired and could 'catch sleep' as my mother calls it.

When she was about four months old, the clinic sent round the offer for a course for parents with 'Schreibabys' - babies who'd cry at any opportunity. I went there and learnt a lot about sleep, rythm and other things. They recommended these two books:

- 'Crying and Restlessness in Babies: A Parent's Guide to Natural Sleeping' by Ria Blom

- 'Your Self Confident Baby: How to Encourage Your Child's Natural Abilities - From the Very Start' by Magda Gerber and Allison Johnson

The first one is in favour of swaddling, as they were (it is an anthroposophical clinic, which explains a lot). Although I had swaddled her for the first six weeks, I had thought it to be cruel and outdated for any older infant.

However, not long before Christmas, we were visiting friends who lived in a very old house. No proper heating but just one fireplace in the living room, several degrees Celsius below zero outside, walls that were almost a metre strong. It felt like a walk-in fridge. In the first night I found that I couldn't keep her little hands warm, so I made an impromptu swaddle. The result was that her hands were nice and warm (I could put away some of the clothing next night) and she slept like someone had hit her on the head.

That was it. From then on, we put her to bed in a dark room once or twice a day, depending on how long she slept in the morning and what our/my schedule says. Bedtime is at five or six in the afternoon. She has about 5 meals a day, one as early as 6 a.m. (after which I put her back to bed), one at

11a.m., then it's back to bed for one or two hours. After her nap, we try some mushed veggies such as carrot, parsnip, zucchini or pumkin which she doesn't really like. But we have to try, haven't we? Remember the toddler's apron thread? Well, it is a full-body experience, for both of us.;-) Next meal is at about 5, 5:30 p.m. before she's off to bed. The last meal of the day is at about 11 p.m. when my husband and I are off to bed.

Don't think it was easy, in the beginning she wouldn't fall asleep that easily, and there are still days when this wonderful scheme doesn't work for some mysterious reason. But she is so much more likeable since she sleeps properly, and we can leave her to herself for almost half an hour at a time. She plays with the cord of her pacifier or some other toy and talks to herself. There have been evenings, though, when I was so exhausted and worn that I sat down on the stairs in front of her bedroom, her crying inside and me in tears on the outside. My husband is a great help here; I sometimes feel my patience wear in times like that and then he comes and picks her up, makes her burp, whatever is necessary. Not a great nappy-changer, he is, but otherwise his patience is far greater than mine.

Mind you, we never let her cry more than 30 minutes, but she hardly ever does. Mostly, she grumbles for a couple of minutes before she drops off. If I wouldn't swaddle her, she'd keep herself awake by playing with her pacifier or her feet. And one more thing on those books: I don't follow every little detail of their instructions. Especially since they contradict eachother on the topic of swaddling. However, the one by Ria Blom is my current reading, while the other one covers later stages in the life of an infant. I just pick the llittle raisins of wisdom that suit me out of everything, just as my intuition and common sense like them. And I just have to take one step a ta time. ;-) I don't know if this will be of any help to you, nor if you wanted any (must remember Sharon's sig, not that you are a pig, but anyway... ;-)) but I thought I should share this with you, so please don't get cross. ;-)

so are we but DD still pulls surprises out of the hat!

Hah, since she hasn't started moving around, I'm sure that I am in for a couple of surprises, too, sooner or later. You're right, you can't think of everything, but then, mommy is always around to keep an eye on the little tyke. ;-)

U.

Reply to
Ursula Schrader

Ah, now that's what I'd call nifty! And praise is well earned here. I fear, however, that German milk cartons won't do in my case. They are cardboard and don't clean very well. I guess yours is one of those 'nice' plastic bottles (nice for re-using, but perhaps not for the environment, but then, what in modern civilisation is?). Did you glue on the covering? Could you post a pic? I'm really curious.

U.

Reply to
Ursula Schrader

My daughter was jumpy as a newborn, and behaved as if her hands belonged to someone else. When she would cry, for whatever reason, she would wave her arms around and several times managed to grab her own ear and then forgot how to let go. Then she would cry because somebody was pulling her ear.

I had her checked for an ear infection (all clear) and the pediatrician recommended that we swaddle her for naps and bedtime. It worked like a charm. I could do a decent job of getting her all wrapped up and tucked in but if swaddling were an Olympic event, my husband would take the gold medal. He could make a "baby burrito" in less than ten seconds.

Reply to
Kathleen

On the one hand, having it lie not quite flat would help keep things in the pockets; on the other, making enough darts to do it subtly would be a royal pain; better to make the drawstrings a tad short.

Or, the equivalent of what I used to do when crocheting bags: make a circle of the thin stuff a tad more than a seam allowance bigger than the pocketing circle, then sew on a straight strip.

Having the thin stuff extend well beyond the stiff stuff certainly helps in the bunches-of-fabric department, and the photographs suggest that it suffices.

A ruffle would help too; in addition to giving you a handle to open the bag, it fills in any hole left by not being able to bunch the fabric closely. On a circle, it means using a facing instead of just turning the edge down, but I guess you'd need to do that anyway, since a hem wide enough to run a drawstring through would pucker. (The tiny bag appears to use two complete circles instead of a facing or hem.)

Another trick I used on crocheted bags: make the part close to the casing mostly holes. Hard to implement in a sewn bag. The equivalent is using a thinner and softer fabric, but that would make it weaker just where there is the most wear.

Getting elaborate: a small circle for the bottom of the bag, a circle with a hole in it and a narrow wedge cut out for the pockets, and a straight strip for the top and the casing. Lots of calculating , lots of sewing, and the seams would mar the product.

To think that I sat down here because the discussion reminded me of a square knitting bag I used to be fond of! I'd better make that a separate post.

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

A lot of good hints, I'll have to mull it over so that it can really sink in.

Yes, do so! I'd love to hear about that one. After all, nothing has been cut out yet. ;-)

U. - greedy for more ideas... ;-)

Reply to
Ursula Schrader

DD is now 25 months..... we swaddled, we rocked, we breast fed to end all breast feeding records..... etc.

She will now sleep up to 12 hours straight in a night - but not every night. She's had a bad go at chicken pox, and still not right, so she's picking up every single germ going and making a full blown meal out of it.... I went to work on Monday having had less than 5 hours sleep - and that was five hours broken - I think my longest continuous stretch of sleep that night was 1.5hours.....

The swaddling sheet is still in use - to control her hands while we breast feed! And to keep the security teddie's tucked up close. I unravel the swaddling when I slip her into the cot, so as not to constrict her or cause strangulation hazards.

Thanks for the reading tips. You might like to try:

No cry sleep solutions for babies or No cry sleep solutions for toddlers and pre-schoolers - both by Elizabeth Pantley.

A very sensible lady who does NOT advocate leaving a baby to cry it out. Her books have given me what sanity I have managed to achieve so far on the sleep front.

Now all I have to do is get rid of the breast feed to sleep association, and I can stop breast feeding finally!

Sarah

Reply to
Sarah Dale

Those are the ones! Our 1 litre milk cartons are all still made of cardboard. It's a cardboard with a very, very, very thinnish shin of a shiny substance on the outside - it may be a very thin plastic material on the outside.

I've found they clean up very easily and very well. When they are empty, I fill them with cold water for about a day and then I fill then with warm water to which a drop of detergent has been added for about another day, then I rinse them and sun dry them. they come up very clean and not the faintest whiff of stale milk smell to them.

I also use them for propogating yound plants and trees to get a deep root run so there are hundreds around this house either in my sewing room, in the potting shed or in the plant propogation area.

I guess yours is one of those 'nice' plastic

None of the covering is glued on, it's all sewn. The domed lid is made up of 8 darts to make sure it forms a proper dome shape and the side are just long rectangles of fabric and the internal and external base are just octagonal shapes. The internal dimensions are the best thing about it as it holds a good quantity of "stuff". They turn out to be 12 cm high and about

18 cms across.

If you e-mail me off list at moura at bluemaxx dot com dot au I will send you some pics as I still haven't signed up with any photo sites.

Fran

Reply to
FarmI

Usenet is like my half-gallon jar of odd buttons: paw through it and take what you need.

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

Now I'm wondering where my square knitting bag has gotten to? I've been carrying my knitting in my purse ever since I took up sock knitting about ten years ago.

It was just a square yard of fabric with handles sewn to the corners. This one was a patchwork square lined with one large square with a border of squares like those on the outside. The handles were strips of fabric folded to make loops; I may have sewn buttons on them to spread the strain. (That is, they were attached with bar tacks and the bar tacks were worked through two buttons.)

The idea was that one could spread it out to make a clean working surface, so that when I picked it up by the handles, all the bits were gathered together automatically. I carried it by putting my wrist through all four handles, and hung it on a doorknob when it wasn't in use. If I needed to set it down elsewhere, I tied opposite corners together.

Once, when I showed up for a meeting before the guy with the key did, I found that by putting one arm through the handles on two adjacent sides and the other arm through the other two handles, I had a sling that comfortably supported my sweater and yarn while I knitted leaning against a lamp-post.

That may also have been when I discovered that I can knit in typing mitts, but I can't imagine why I'd have taken those to a meeting; I prefer gloves for driving.

Found a picture of it!

But it's not the one I described -- note that the handles are loops of the binding, not sewn on afterward.

Now I have *two* knitting bags missing.

Note also that it's a *big* mistake to put the design in the middle of the square.

(Just thought of unwrapping the doll quilt next to my baby doll in the bottom drawer, and there was the bag I described, and it's the more-precious one. Made it from an embroidered-squares quilt I started in 1956. Three of the squares are actually embroidered! Some of the others are vintage prints. Now that we have a digital camera, I should photograph it.)

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

Hey, yes, that's simple but useful, especially with the clean working surface. (I have to admit, though, that I'm looking for something more elaborate.)

Yup, I can see that. Reminds me of the old joke: Ask some party guest who's holding his glass in his left hand for the time... The later, the funnier. Haha. ;-(

Yes, do, please do! I'm just so curious about that one. I think I'll buy a book about quilting, maybe one fine day I'll find the time to do it properly. I'm such a perfectionist that many things were left undone because I couldn't do them perfect enough. (Yes, thank you, the pills work fine, I'm over the worst and my shrink says I'll be able to lead a normal life in a decade or two. LOL! No, only joking about pill and shrink, I just worked on my character, and a workshop on time management helped a lot, too.)

Oh, I just thought that I could use poly chinese brocade for the reticule workbag as an outer layer. I bought a couple of - don't know what you'd call 'em - pinafores? those little bibs that the ultra-slim, very young girls used to wear a couple of years ago, just a string around the neck and one to tie the whole affair on the back. Always thought that I might make a bag or two out of them one day, although I had thought about something like a clutch for festive occasions. We'll see, I just have to find them, they're somewhere in the boxes that I haven't unpacked yet after my move.

U.

Reply to
Ursula Schrader

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