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As I sit here evaluating 15 baskets with 15 hand made print liners, matching garters and coordinating skirts, I remember the cliche about the fine line between hobbies and insanity. This time, I may have crossed it.

It started out very innocently. My grand daughter needed a place to put her toys between visits. I decided on several baskets to keep them organized. The baskets weren’t sturdy enough, and they allowed small things to filter out, so I decided to make liners. To make the liners sturdy, I decided to add coordinating lining to the liners, and add inner lining to make them stiff. No problem .

As most addicted seamstresses, I have a large stock of fabric and trims on hand, so I just measured the baskets and proceeded to cut the pieces, and sew them together. Because the baskets varied in size, and the top measurements didn’t match the bottom measurements, the cutting became a little more complicated than expected, so I put the measurements and the sizes needed in a spreadsheet to keep track of them during the construction process. No problem .

The first baskets looked so good with the liners, I decided to coordinate them with additional baskets to organize my "stuff" in an appealing way. Soon, I had 15 baskets in various sizes that exactly fit the various hidey holes in my den. Because of the additional numbers, the measurements took longer, and the spreadsheet became more complicated. I am spreadsheet fanatic, so No Problem .

I would have to cut five pieces each for the 15 baskets in each of the three fabrics for the liners, the lining for the liners and the inner lining. That meant cutting, matching and sewing 225 pieces of fabric. Well, I had the spreadsheet to keep it organized, and a retired lady has plenty of time, so No Problem?

Well, there was a little problem. Some of the baskets had a cutout for hands to easily lift the basket. I didn’t want to cover up the cutout, so I had to line it separately. Covering four sides of a three dimensional small rectangular opening is not too easy, but it’s doable. Since I didn’t have enough of my lining fabric, I chose a coordinating fabric. To make the rectangular opening look better, I added skirts that would blend in with the cover for the cutout. No Problem!  .

Stapling and glueing those skirts to the baskets took hours, and it aggravated the little issue of mild carpal tunnel, but it went okay. The skirts didn’t drape exactly the way I anticipated, so that meant making garters to match the liners to hold the coordinating skirts in place and make them look neat. By now, a week has gone by, and I have done nothing but make basket liners, and I’m sick of looking at them .

The only thing I have left to do is attach the garters to the skirts on the baskets, and I will have 15 perfectly matching baskets with cozy liners and neat skirts that coordinate with the colors in my den. The only thing I can think of now is WHY DID I DO THIS?

Then I realize how neat it would be to just attach a fastener and handles to each of the removable liners so that we could just take toys or projects with us anywhere by picking up the basket liners with all the contents........ I believe there is a second part of the cliche about hobbies and insanity..... No project is ever complete.