Bike Bucket-Basket

I took the bike to the bike repair guy and got it all tuned up as well as a new tube for my back tire.  It rides so smoothly even over our bumpy gravel roads.  I had looked for a new basket here and there and just didn't find what I was looking for so I concluded that I would try to make my own basket -- maybe with fabric.  I was surfing around for ideas and came upon a Bike Basket idea at Noodlehead.  This tutorial is for a child's bike, but I knew I could apply the same principles and make a larger basket for my bike.  I traced the bottom, back and sides of my old wicker basket to make a pattern and went to stitching.

This is what I came up with.  A sturdy denim basket with a groovy 70's style fabric liner.  I like it.  I skipped the instruction to add heavy interfacing to it, but I am going to insert some sewable boning in the top edge so it is stiff and stands open more like it should.   I also want to make a fabric flower for it, but haven't decided on how I'll do that yet.  There are some fun ideas here, here, and here.

I sewed the old leather straps from my wicker bike basket right to the back of my denim bucket-basket and it is good and secure.  I didn't think velcro would hold as well for the amount of stuff I generally put in my bike-basket.   Things like mail, water bottles and snacks to take to the hayfield.

More beautiful blooms are popping up in my gardens.  I love summer!  And flowers!

Star-gazer lilies in shades of pink and burgundy. 

Can you see my grandangel in the background?

Wildflowers -- poppies, coneflowers, bachelor buttons...

...and out on the prairie the prickly pear cactus are still blossoming.

"I expect some new phase of life

this summer,

and shall try to get the honey

from each moment."

~Lucy Stone