DIY Garden Bucket (Part 1)

I have a plan!!  That plan is the creation of a super cute and very functional garden bucket of my very own!!  I have about a million-ish garden doo-dads that will fit beautifully in it - plus, I just kinda like them so dag nabbit - I'm gonna make one!! :) 

I saw these super cute buckets at the dollar store today for $3. (insert squeal of delight here!!) :)  I also have a mountain of fabric hidden away in my closet that has been screaming "sew something" at me for ages!!  (ummm....sorry roman shades...you don't inspire me at the moment. lol)  So - here's the beginning of it all...so far, I've made it as far as cutting out the pattern for the inside piece that will "line" the inside of my super cute bucet.  OH!  Rewind!!  I got the clever idea by browsing pinterest.  Specifically  this little gem!! :) It's the creative works from Hoosier Homemade! Lots of great stuff on her site!!

   So - fast forward to tonight...  I have an old roll of news print that I bought from the local newspaper back when they used to print locally.  Sadly - you can't get them anymore since they moved the printing to another site - but...i still have a partial roll and will enjoy every last bit of it. :)










 So - the first thing I did was tear off a hunk of paper big enough to wrap around my bucket.  I figured if I crumpled the bucket around the edges of the bucket it would give me the lines to cut it. 

Once I had my lines all crumpled, I unrolled the paper (see all those nice little wrinkles that form the outline of where I'll cut out the shape of my bucket?? )  **thinking voice sez this is going too easy...I wonder what will go wrong??** 

I traced a pencil line around the arc that would would be teh bottom of my bucket and cut it out.  (notice the arc cut out??  That's the bottom of the buckt. )  Once I had teh bottom cut, I wrapped the paper around my bucket again, and folded back each side so that it would only be as big around as the bucket, plus enough extra to be a seam allowance.  **Note - see the folds on the left and right??  Thats' where I'll cut it out so that it's only big enough to go around my bucket.**

Next step was to cut off at teh fold line to make sure that it was only as big as the bucket. (This will all make sense in a couple more pictures I promise!)

 So now my pattern is big enough to go around my bucket - but it's not the right height.  So - I wrapped it around the bucket again and folded the excess paper down into the bucket to make a crease at the bucket height only.  (Sorry - my genius is showing. :D) 


Once that part was done, I unwrapped the paper to reveal the beautiful crease for the top of my bucket...

(I didn't take a picture of the pattern when i cut the top off - but you can see my scrap under the bucket. :)  So - now my pattern for the inside piece of my bucket is all cut out - I slid it inside the bucket to make sure it's the right size and shape and...it's perfect!!!  See how it wraps around the insde with just enough overlap to be a perfect seam allowance?? :)  (Again - sorry...my genius is sticking out. :) )



And - see how it's just a hair taller than the bucket??  That's the top seam allowance!!  :)  My plan is that I'll sew the skirt around it...but I'll need something to anchor it to - so...I'll need a seam allowance. :)


So - that's all for the first part of my "plan"...I have the pattern made for the inside of my bucket.  Tomorrow (or maybe later tonight) I'll make up the rest of it and maybe even cut out my fabric??  Oooo - the possabilities!! :)