Sunday 19 March 2017

New Weekly Offers


Starting tomorrow, and for the next few weeks, I will be offering a weekly 'Special Offer' in my etsy shop. 
Whether a discount on a certain item, or a buy one get one free, each week there will be a new offer. 
To find out what is it you need to check out either my Facebook page, my Instagram or come here every Monday to see what that week brings!
Remember starts TOMORROW!!

Thursday 9 March 2017

So how much can you fit in a Standard Size Basket?


In my last post I discussed the size and dimensions of my 'Standard' small baskets, so in this post I thought I would follow up with a look at what you can fit inside and give you an idea of what can be stored in my standard small baskets. If you follow me on Facebook or on Instagram you may have already seen this!


In these photos I have used my 'Arrow' basket (shown above) and if like me you live in a house with children I am sure you have lego all around the place! My children use the baskets, that over the years I have made for them to store their 'special' lego pieces in. You know the ones that are not the standard bricks, for example they have one basket specially for lego figures including all the odd arms and heads that some how we have accumulated over the years! So with the help of my daughter, who unfortunately is very camera shy so doesn't appear in any the photos, we decided to see how many normal lego bricks we could fit in one basket. Oh yes, we counted every single piece of lego that we fitted into the basket twice  just to make sure we had counted correctly!!


We had only just begun filling in the above photo!


And here it is a short while later filled. 
Now we stopped before it was completely full to the brim as we thought there was already enough bricks in there to count! We then emptied it out onto an empty surface and were quite amazed at the amount we had fitted in!

  
And here it is! Every brick and piece of lego in the picture above came out of this basket.
 610 pieces in total!! 
And I must stress that they were of varying sizes but we did try and put as many of the normal size lego bricks in as we could find. And again for scale below is my hand reaching into the basket!




Hopefully this continues to give you more of an idea of the size and scale of my Standard Small baskets which can be found by clicking here and my Arrow basket can be found by clicking here, and the link to my blog post discussing the dimensions of these baskets can be found my clicking here!
Next up I will be introducing my new 'wider' baskets, I am very excited about these, so please do pop back very soon!
 

Monday 6 February 2017

Lets Talk Sizes!


The question I get asked the most is about the size of my baskets. 
Now the measurements are always included in the description of every basket in my shop and it looks something like this;
APPROX DIMENSIONS:
H 8 X W 9 X D 6 INCHES (20 X 22 X15CM)
And I try to include at least one photo that shows the basket that is for sale with an everyday object, usually lego duplo, which is the larger style lego for younger children because I hope that it is a toy that is pretty universal, something that most of us can recognise and are familiar with. But occasionally I forget to add a picture like this and it is on my to do list to put this right!

Saying that..... the measurements, which are approximate as each basket is completely handmade so measurements vary very slightly we are talking a millimetre here and there, are included for each basket. The height of the basket, the width and the depth. But I still get many messages questioning the sizes, especially emails with comments like 'I'm struggling to visualize the size of your baskets', which is no problem, I see them everyday but customers don't, so I thought I would try to show you in better detail with lots of photos the size.

Now..... these measurements relate to my Standard Small Baskets.... the reason I emphasize this is coming very soon are some wider baskets of a similar height, but more about them later in another post! So in this post we are talking about my popular, normal, standard small storage basket, like the ones in the photo above and of course the ones in the photos below! RIGHT lets go...................



These two photos show you the height.....which is approximate 8 inches. For those that work in metric I apologise. When it comes to fabric I tend to work in inches, mainly because when I first became interested in sewing most of the fabric I bought was from the US and therefore measurements were in inches, cuts of fabric ranged from a fat quarter to a yard also I blame my quilting ruler, which is shown in the photos as it only measures in inches!
So as you can see the height of these baskets is 8 inches which is approx 20 cm. 



Next the width of the basket when it is folded flat which is approximately 11.5inches - 28cm and in the photo below you can see the rough depth of the baskets at the bottom is 4inches - 10cm. Now you maybe wondering why these two measurements are different to the ones I state in my shop which are width 9in and depth 6in and that is because these measurements relate to when the basket is standing up and is therefore open.




Below are some photos that show the rough size of the basket at the top when standing. Being made of fabric the baskets can be slightly manipulated. I like to place the baskets over the narrow end of my ironing board and iron on top of the sewn seam sides as this gives the baskets more of a 'boxy' shape.





I haven't over stretched the baskets in these photos and as you can see the sizes vary from 7.5 inches to 8.5in - 19cm to 22cm. Now I hope all these photos help give you an idea, especially a visual idea on the size of my standard small baskets. And if that isn't enough photos, here are a few more showing the baskets pictured with a few toys! Wooden cars, lego CP30 and lego bricks, a wooden stacking toy and various lego duplo animals and figure, and a Norsu Elephant Piggy Bank. Both the baskets shown in the photos can be found here Elephant Basket and here Deer Basket. Hope this helps!





 

Friday 13 November 2015

Shop Update - Two - New Baby Gift Sets





Earlier this year I added a some new baby bib and burp cloth sets to my range. Made with 100% cotton fabric on the front and backed with my favourite bamboo/cotton silky soft towelling on the back, these sets are not only practical, but extremely soft and cosy for the baby to wear. Two snap fasteners make the bibs adjustable and suitable from baby to toddler, and the burp cloths are designed to be flung over the shoulder to protect your clothing whilst winding your baby, and they also come in very handy as general baby cloths.





Sold as sets, one bib and one matching burp cloth, they make great baby shower gifts and lovely presents for new parents. They can be found here, though the 'Peeking birds in gold' has proved so popular it is already unfortunately sold out.

Friday 6 November 2015

Shop Update - Larger Style Baskets



Last year the thing that I got asked the most was 'Could I please make my storage baskets in a larger size!'. So I took all the sizes that people had suggested and came up with a basket that is based on the average size that people were wanting. And my 'larger' basket was born. I wanted the basket to have enough structure that it can stand up on its own even when empty, so no slouching, but still be flexible that it can be folded away when not in use. I have used heavier weight cotton, which helps with the structure of the baskets, apart from the Black Triangles which is made in a quilting cotton so has an extra stabiliser sewn in, to give it the structure it needs. They have a nice boxy feel to them.


They all have a natural linen/cotton base and come fully lined in a white cotton canvas. Now for the technical details! 
They are, measurements are approximate but as accurate as I can give, 29cm/11.4 inches tall, and are 40cm/15.75 inches wide across the top when folded flat, which makes them roughly 30cm/12 inches wide when open and boxed out, which gives the basket a rough depth at the base of 24cm/9.4 inches. I have found it quite difficult to show the size of these baskets. I have included photos that show the baskets alongside a child's rabbit night light which is 15cm/6 inches tall to help give an idea of scale, and I also got my little helpers to hold them to show the two size of baskets alongside one another. The larger is being held by my 7 year old whilst my 5 year old daughter is holding the smaller basket. It's high on my to do list to get some photos taken of these baskets being used to show how much you can fit into them! If you look at the photo above taken in my boys bedroom, that shows three baskets on a top shelf with a shelf underneath full of their toys, you may spot a lego figure or two, which should give you an idea of how much lego can be stored away in one of these baskets! 

 
I am pleased to say that this larger basket has proved popular, so much so that unfortunately, unless I can source more of the grey arrow fabric, I only have a couple left in stock. I was also pleased to see that a French Scandinavian Design blog called Scandinave featured my baskets in a list of 10 Scandinavian Decoration finds on Etsy
So if you are looking for handy storage that looks good that is modern and stylish you can find these baskets as well as others here

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Long Time......



 Sorry! 
I can't really believe that its been nearly 9 months since I last wrote a post. That's terrible!
For those of you that follow me on other social media sites, you will know that I haven't faded away, in fact quite the opposite! I have found myself so busy with work, that its been very difficult to keep everything going and to get the balance right. You will also have seen if you follow me on Instagram or on Facebook, that I have been busy adding lots of new items over the last few months which I am excited to share with you. So over the next few days I am hoping to bring you up-to-date with all that has been going on at A Crafty Hen!

Sale Time

The countdown to Christmas is here, there really is not long to go now! To celebrate I am having a flash sale in my etsy shop . 10% off...