A Tisket a Tasket an Egg Collecting Basket!

It's Easter and I made an egg basket!  Well, I made an egg basket and then Easter happened.  The two events only coincided  accidentally.

Here's the deal...my son and his girlfriend have a flock.  Of chickens!  And they lay lots of eggs that need to be collected. (the chickens, not my son and his GF.)   "Girlfriend's" birthday is at the end of March.  I always struggle with what to do for GF's.  I love them, but they are not easy to gift.  I worry about being too personal, or not personal enough, or too old fashion...anyway, this year I think I nailed it!  

The flock is an important aspect of their lives and I thought something to help with them would be enjoyed and useful.  I have seen wire egg baskets and thought I could come up with a fabric version that would do.  I did get side track by considering an egg gathering apron.  I saw a little girl with an apron with a bunch of pockets across the front and that seemed like a good solution until I realized that you have to transfer the eggs out of the pockets before taking off the apron.  That means you actually have to 'collect' the eggs twice!  Not very efficient.  So back to the basket...

I figured the pockets were a good idea to keep the eggs from bumping into each other, but what size?  I got out some dish towels and eggs and started to engineer my basket... don't they look cozy?

Once I had the pocket size I created a "pattern" that would have an inner and an outer circle of 6 pockets in each circle.  There is also space in the middle of the pocket circles in case the flock is extra productive!

My next stop was my neighborhood fabric store...I love that!  I collected some too cute chicken fabric, some plastic canvas stuff and strapping.  I had some quilt batting in the cupboard.  I wasn't exactly sure what I might need, but I figured there was an egg basket in there somewhere.

I got very caught up in the process, as I often do when engineering a bag, and forgot to take any pictures.  Suffice it to say, that there was a fair amount of growling and gnashing of teeth before the final version emerged..

I put the canvas in the outer circle and batting in the inner one.  The stiffness helped keep the pockets from collapsing into each other and the batting pads the eggs so they stay intact.

I am very pleased with the end product and have heard from the "flock-keepers" that it works really well.  I hope there won't be requests for another one, because I have no idea how to do it again!  This is definitely a "one-of-a-kind" egg basket!