When I was 5-years-old (or so), and living with my family in Portland, I remember my mother going through one of her big sewing phases. This time, specifically, she hooked herself on making stuffed geese. She made one — they were life-size, as I remember — as a floor decoration for our living room, and I think loved it so much she went on to make a life-size stuffed goose for everyone she knew. I remember it well, the sewing part of this frenzy, but I also have distinct memories of bringing the geese to other peoples’ homes when we visited. ”Here’s a stuffed goose,” we might say as we entered their home for a small dinner party or a playdate, and then we’d giggle, hoping they liked the fabric selection for the body, the beak, and the webbed feet.
I recall not totally comprehending the magnitude of my mother’s frenzy or why our home was all-of-a-sudden filled with so much fabric and so many half-finished stuffed geese (and she may, upon reading this, challenge me a bit on the details of this story), but 30 years later and in the heat of an extremely intense “nesting phase” I can safely say, I get it. This frenzy is precisely what happened to me with a fabric bucket pattern I found a few weeks ago.
the inspiration bucket
Last summer, I happened upon a midwest farmer’s market where a talented woman was selling adorable fabric buckets (see above) and I purchased 2 or 3 — excitedly toting them home and filling them with Orlis’ blocks and other sundry items around the house, only to wish immediately I had bought more of them. Recently, I decided I needed to find a tutorial and make some.
Alas, a quick google and Pinterest search yielded many inspiring ideas, and I landed on this tutorial for fabric buckets which ended up being pretty darn easy. Easy enough, that is, that I just couldn’t stop and went on to make about 10 of them in a weekend — grabbing moments wherever I could and staying up late finishing a line of them that, upon viewing, elicited this remark from Rob: “your studio looks like a gift shop.” Touché.
The tutorial was quite malleable, and I ended up making lots of different size buckets, changing up the dimensions according to my prospected needs as well as the amounts of fabric I had on hand. My mother’s frenzy (as so many of them did) benefitted others — which is to say, at least she gifted her geese. In my extreme nesting state, however, I must admit (save one twin bucket for my mom and another for a friend desperately in need of a knitting basket) I filled each and every one of these sweet little containers with odds and ends collecting around each room, and scattered them around my house.
Suffice it to say, we are well-bucketed for now. Things are contained, and this nester is feeling just a tiny bit more organized.
Mary,
How sturdy are these? Did you make them with a regular cotton fabric, or something heavier like canvas? Thanks for sharing!
I’d say they are medium sturdy. I used what I had on hand — so I used up all my canvas and duck and “home decorator” weight fabric for the outsides and then used mostly old feedsacks cottons for the insides. If you used canvas on both sides, they’d likely be sturdier. Also, playing with the dimensions, I found (after making a few) that a bigger bottom made it sturdier. It’s definitely one of those patterns that I kind of winged-it. Good luck! They are addictive and SO useful!
Those are so cute. Can’t wait to get mine ! xoxoxo