Playfood - Picnic Basket

Good morning beautiful peeps!

Today's pattern is for a picnic basket! I figure with all these new foods, we need a way to store them right? And what is cuter then a little child sized picnic basket!

This basket is pretty straight forward to make, and only uses a handful of materials.

You will need:
4mm hook
Yarn in main and contrasting colours (I used tan and brown in DK weight, Worsted will work just fine)
2 matching buttons
Sewing needle
4 pipe cleaners
Piece of stiff board or plastic to line the base (I used the plastic from an icecream container)

With main colour
1: ch30, hdc in the 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across
2: ch2, turn, hdc in each stitch across
3-18: Repeat row 2.

Do not end.
Now we'll make the sides.

19: ch1, sc evenly down the side of the rectangle, 2sc in the corner, sc in each stitch on the next side, 2sc in the corner, sc evenly down the next side, 2sc in the corner, sc in each stitch along the last side, 2sc in corner, join to the ch1.
20-21: ch3, dc in each stitch around, join.
Change to contrasting colour.
22-23: ch3, dc in each stitch around, join.
Change to main colour.
24: ch1, sc in each stitch around, join.
Change to contrasting colour.
25-26: ch3, dc in each stitch around, join.
Change to main colour.
27-28: ch2, hdc in each stitch around, join.
29: slst loosely in each stitch around. End off yarn and weave in all tails.

Shaping the corners.
To give the basket a more defined shape and add some stability, we are going to sew the corners. This is a little bit time consuming, but it makes a huge difference to the basket.
You simply need to pinch the corners as shown below, and using matching yarn and a sewing needle, whipstitch from top to bottom, you want your stitches about a finger width deep. Repeat on all 4 corners.
If you want even more stability, you can pinch a pipe cleaner in there and then stitch, but I chose not to do so. (Lack of pipe cleaners, oops!)

Handles:
With contrasting colour.
1: Ch75, sc in the 2nd ch from hook and each across.
2-4: ch1, turn, sc across.
5: ch1, turn. Fold handle in half width wise and sc the sides together (going through the last and first rows) to create a tube. End off leaving a long tail.
This part can be a little tricky. You want to join 2 pipe cleaners together, and slide them into the tube. It is easier of you bend 1cm of the end of the pipe cleaner over before inserting it. Go slow so you don't poke it out the sides. Join the last 2 pipe cleaners and insert them from the opposite side.

Sew the handle onto the basket (the entire section that is touching the basket, not just at the bottom.)
Attach a large button to each side of the basket, positioning it over the top of the handle, and in between the 2 contrasting stripes on the basket.

Cut a piece of plastic or card to fit in the base of the basket and you are done! Fill full of play food and enjoy your yarn picnic!