Jack-o-lantern baskets

Every year when I take out the Halloween decorations, Brian reminds me how much he loves his jack-o-lantern basket that his aunt made for him 25 years ago, and he mentions how cool it would be if I made some like his for the kids. Every year I brush off the hints because it's too much work when I am already working on costumes. This year I actually looked at it and realized it wouldn't be that hard, plus I'm not sewing costumes. So, I took on the challenge.

I looked at buying a pattern, but it didn't seem worth it. The closest pattern I found I still would have modified a lot to get it to look like this one. With some Google skills, I found a blog where someone made one just like Brian's, and it included a free tutorial of sorts. I used the measurements that it gave, but I ended up changing some things anyway because the measurements didn't work out perfectly. I probably would have been fine just winging it. 

See how lopsided the smile is on the right one. That was the first one I did, and I learned that it is much, much easier to sew the face on before you sew all the pumpkin pieces together in a sphere. I ended up accidentally sewing the back to the front with the extremely tight zigzag stitch and it made a huge mess and ended with a very crooked smile. Lesson learned. The second try turned out much better. See below. 

I really like the lining fabric. This was pretty much the perfect use for it.