DIY Fabric Baskets - A Very Easy Way To Make Them

FABRIC BASKET DIY

I have bookmarked an article that appeared in webmd.com; it is titled – “Clutter vs. Hoarding: When to Get Help”. My infamous hoarding has reached a stage when I know I need some help. Especially since the beautiful concept of minimalism has caught on and I have also had a whiff. But that is not enough for me to get rid of all those extra buttons and bundles of thread and yarn and those jeans which fit me some 10 years ago.

Maybe I need more storage and not help to cure incurable tendencies. Here is a simple tutorial for making fabric baskets for keeping almost everything organized

Other than stacking in the cupboard they are useful for a number of things. For carrying around your frequently used nail polishes

or for keeping your thread when you are embroidering

or for keeping your pet potted plant covered in something prettier.

How to make an easy peasy Fabric Basket

I will describe how I made a small fabric basket that sits nicely on tabletops to carry my small knick-knacks. You can easily make this fabric basket in 15 minutes with all the fabric scrap pieces you surely have around.

Choose the fabric – you need to cut two fabric pieces of length 16 inches and height 36 inches. Tweak the dimensions to suit your purpose. Cut 20 by 50 inch pieces for a slightly bigger basket. Make it even bigger and you can fold clothes inside.

Both the fabrics should complement each other as the one on the inside will also be visible as it will be turned outside 1 inch or so as a beautiful border.

Attach interfacing to the back of these fabric pieces, if you have thin fabric and you need the basket to stand upright.

Step 2

Join the short ends of each tube to form a tube – now you have two such tubes after joining the two pieces individually

Step 3

Now turn the seam you have stitched to the back for both the tubes. Lay one of the tube in front of you as in the picture below, seam to the center back

Fold the fabric tube as in the picture above – bring the sides to the center
– basically, you turn the middle of the side to the inside forming an 8 shape on either side.

Step 4

Sew one of folded edge closed, keeping the folds you made in place.
Do the same thing for the other fabric tube as well

You have two bag shapes in hand now. Keep one of them rightside out.

Step 5

Now keep these two bags right sides touching together – ie you should insert one box inside the other so that the right sides are facing and touching each other

Align the seam and sew them together along the top edge 1/4 inch from the edge. Do the whole periphery except for 2 inches – keep this unstitched – this is the space through which you will turn your basket right side out.

Step 6

Turn the basket right side out through your opening.

The back of your basket will look like this

Step 7

Press the edge and top stitch along the top edge – your opening will also be closed like that and you will have a nice edge as well

If you want, you can make a nice border stitch along this – I have made a simple blanket stitch along the edge – this has served to close the opening as well as add a decorative edge.