Four Go On a Jolly Picnic Adventure

 

Living the dream - we can flatten some grass, us Clevers.

Now Mr Doris, being the eternal optimist and romanticist, has been and gone and gotten this idea into his head...
...the idea being of us four Clevers going out into the perfect English sunshine to sit in a meadow and enjoy a picnic out of a gingham lined picnic basket.

I think he has this image of him sporting tweed weekend attire whilst puffing on a pipe, me in a big skirty dress/bow in hair and the boys in tank tops, shorts and sunday-smart brown lace ups, playing cooperatively with sticks whilst observing the natural wonders of the riverside and saying things like "how queer" and "totally ripping".
And not a screen in sight.
Or even more unobtainable, perhaps, of a Jamie Oliver-style day on the beach with his impossibly groovy mates and their even more impossibly thin wives, with impossibly perfect children eagerly munching on such foodie delights as grilled aubergines smothered with anchovy emulsion.

Actually in reality we're all just shuffling along aren't we?; scratting around in the bottom of the freezer looking for something nourishing at the end of the day, to find a pie, previously made in a moment of alpha-mummy-forethought, to serve with gravy and veg, only to discover it's an apple pie which you'd forgotten to label. Or is that just me?

So being the dutiful thing I am, with my only ambition being to please him. That and to actually be able to see the bottom of the washing basket (I can only dream of aspiring to such dizzying ahievements), I happened upon a manky old £4.50 basket, resplendent with broken handles and dead spiders.
I wasn't going to buy a premade picnic hamper, no suree. Clever Doris likes to make life difficult.
This dream lifestyle was to be ours for the taking...

 

A bit broken (of course), and ready to be taken into the manly workshop: a mending task far too complex for the weak and feeble female.

The Clevers, normally great fans of a seasidey day out, always venture out in the opposite direction on a bank holiday. Being wedged in a car on the A64 on the frst hot day of the year is just too grim for words, as well as being ripe conditions for a divorce and/or social services intervention.
So we decided to travel only 3 miles away to a local rivery/meadowy/no-other-peoply little place we know. Because Mr Doris doesn't like other people...especially chip eating people in nylon sportswear.
But before any jollities could be had - there was the small matter of the picnic basket which needed to be made.
 

 

The fabric lining: it's got to be gingham hasn't it?

 

...and it just so happens that Clever Doris had some in The Craft Cupboard. Fabric was originally a 2nd hand £3 Laura Ashley curtain, chopped up to recover a chair with enough left over for a throw for Clever Maurices bed settee. Said throw now no longer required, so now to be recycled for the 4th time in the form of the picnic basket lining. Stealth recyling that is...

 

 

 

The inner lid was going to hold plates and cutlery so would need reinforcing with a piece of hardboard (cue Mr Doris). The inner base would require a box-shaped liner with straps and pockets to hold eating paraphernalia.

 

 

 

Lid reinforcer: after cutting a piece of fabric approx 5cm larger than the board, I machine stitched the pockets and straps onto the right side. The fabric was then glued (pva) to the board and wrapped over to the underside.

 

 

 

The covered board was handstitched to the lid using strong embroidery thread similar in colour to the basket, using the predrilled holes in the board (c/o Mr Doris).

 

 

 

Inner basket base: I cut a rectangle of fabric to size for the bottom (plus 1.5cm seam allowance), then stitched 4 strips together long enough to go around all 4 sides. After pressing open the seam allowances, the long strip was machine stitched to the 4 edges, creating a topless box.

 

 

 

All 4 corners must be trimmed at a 45 degree angle to reduce bulk.

 

 

 

Topless box shaped liner.

 

 

 

Elasicated corner strap for beakers.

 

 

Once the base liner was complete I proceeded to create a series of straps and pockets to hold essentials. This is quite an exciting part of the process as it gets you thinking about all the possibilites of things you can include. I bought melamine plates/beakers/bowls(lightweight), bone handled vintage cutlery, a small chopping board and miniature jars for salad dressing/salt & pepper. And the most essential piece of kit? - the all important corkscrew/bottle opener of course.

 

 

Base liner attached to inner using running stiches.

 

 

 

And that's kind of it really, except to say that there's still loads of space left for delicious things of deliciousness, bought from the local purveyor of delicious things. 

A picnic basket makes for a much more spiffing kind of picnic - we even had jolly awfully jolly good salad.

 

 

 

After brushing crumbs from their pullovers the Boy Clevers ventured down to the river to look for beavers and get into boyish scrapes while Clever Doris remained on the bank because she's a girl.