Introduction Many years ago, a dear friend blessed me with a beautiful gift: a wonderful basket, woven from elephant grass and colored in bright happy hues. It had an unusual shape, one I had not seen until then. Some research revealed that it was a Bolga Basket, a traditional grass basket from Ghana, skillfully woven by master weavers. The name "Bolga" is a shortened version of the full name of the town Bolgatanga, which is the capital of the Bolgatanga Municipal District and Upper East Region of Ghana, adjacent to the border with Burkina Faso. These baskets are also called Gambibgo Pot Baskets. I love my special basket, which has held up well over time, with all the use it has had! I realised it is the perfect basket for use as a knitting or crochet project bag, with easy access to the contents, with its wide opening and structured shape, especially for larger projects like sweaters, if they require many different colors and / or many balls of yarn! However, I did find that my yarns would occasionally snag on the grass and so the idea for a sewn version came to me. It was no small feat designing a pattern for this shape and developing the idea into a real fabric item. The result is one which I love and have used to make many baskets for my various projects. I hope you will enjoy making your own Bolga Basket! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please Read This Section This pattern is very photo-heavy. I have found that this helps many makers, who may need visual cues to aid them in understanding the process of making. There will be many sewists who will find this unnecessary for them to make the project. However, in order to accommodate sewists with varying skill sets and those who may have special visual-spatial needs, I have decided to take this approach. Please bear with the photos and detail if you are a sewist who doesn't need them, they may be useful for others. There are 42 pages in this pattern. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SIZE OF FINISHED BASKET: Base to top of rim: 8.25" (21 cm) Base width: 12.5" (32 cm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Skills Requirements I would grade this pattern as intermediate to advanced. However, an adventurous beginner sewist will also manage, with a bit of patience and care. You will need the following skills to make this basket: Using a sewing machine to sew fabric pieces together Basic hand sewing (NB: There is quite a lot of hand sewing in this project). Placing grommets into the basket (I do provide step-by-step photos on how to do this) Fusing fusible foam and fusible fleece to fabric Making a bias strip (I do provide step-by-step photos on how to do this) Sewing darts Materials Sewing Machine Basic sewing accessories, including thread, pins and wonder clips, sewing needle, curved sewing needle, scissors, iron, marking pen, rotary cutter, cutting mat, cutting ruler Quilting Cotton Fabric (see detailed amounts below) Pellon Fusible Fleece x 1 packet Pellon one-sided Fusible Foam x 1 packet Tailor's Ham 8mm (approx. 3/8ths" ) moderately stiff cotton rope, total of 90" (2.5 yards) / 2.3 m 4 x ½" / 12.5 mm brass grommets, setting equipment and hammer 1 x 10"/ 25.4mm round brass ring Small amount of polyester toy stuffing and a haemostat (optional) or a kebab stick or chopstick. Teflon sheet You will need the following amounts of fabric to make this basket (40" usable width quilting cotton) Outer Basket Side Pieces, Outer Basket Base and Main Handle Cover: 2/3 yard (60 cm) Basket Lining Side Pieces and Base: 2/3 yard (60 cm): Bias edge, rope covers and small handle covers: 1/2 yard (45 cm)