During Another Craft Phase - Fabric Covered Baskets

During a basketry crafting phase several years ago I decided I wanted to take some of the baskets I had and cover them with fabric.

I wanted to place several fabric covered baskets in my kitchen and one large woven covered basket in my master bathroom.

For the kitchen I wanted to cover several baskets with the same fabric as the curtains and bench pad that I had in my kitchen.

The basket fabric would compliment my curtains and bench and would be placed in the space between the top of my cupboards in the kitchen and the ceiling. I had a lot of room up there and I thought it would look really nice having baskets up there.

I wanted to use handle baskets and since I only had so much room between the cupboards and the ceiling height would be an issue. So, I measured all the handle baskets I thought I would like to see if they would fit. Luckily, most of them did.

I had seen several pictures of covered baskets and thought it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to cover them.
I wanted my baskets to have a gathered inner lining and outer cover with a finished seam in order to create a ruffle along the rims of the basket. Some of the baskets I was using were round and some were oval.

So, I measured the length and width of the bottoms of my baskets. Then I measured the circumference and height of the sides of all the baskets. The circumference was for the width around the rim of the basket and the height was from the top of the rim of the basket on the left hand side to the top of the rim of the basket on the right hand side.

I was going to cut out two large round or oval circles for each basket that would be big enough to cover the entire basket, except the handle.

As I wanted to create a gathered effect and seam allowance for my basket lining and covers I added 1/2" to the circumference of all my baskets. And, as I wanted to create a gathered ruffle along the rim of my baskets I added 1 1/2" to the the adjusted circumference. 

Then to create my patterns for each basket I drew the length and width of the bottoms of my baskets on a large piece of paper. To this I added 1/2" around the circumference and then added another 1 1/2" around this adjusted circumference.

I then measured the length and width of my round or oval circles to make sure that I had added enough to the circumference for the ruffle and enough to have plenty of room for the seam allowance and gathering. After I was satisfied with my pattern I cut two round or oval shapes for each respective basket.

The handle would be added first and would be made out of a long rectangular type tube that I was going to scrunch up when I was finished hand sewing the seam together.

For the handles I measured the length of the handle from one side to the other and measured the circumference of the handle so I would know how long to make my tube and how wide it would need to be.

I added several more inches to the length of the tube so I would get a scrunched up effect and added 1" to the width of the tubes so I could fold each of the ends wrong sides together (WST) and then overlap the edges to create a nice finished seam that would be hand sewn.

I was also going to add wire ribbon bows to the sides of one of the basket, fabric lined bows to the sides of another,  and fringed bows to the sides of the other basket.

Two of the baskets were going to have lace trim around the rim of the basket and one was going to have ruffled trim around the outside and inside rim of the basket.

I was going to create a seam allowance along the rims of my baskets so I would have a nice finished edge for my ruffle. As I was going to machine stitch my two pieces together I needed to provide a slit down the center of each lining to insert the baskets. The slit would be the diameter of the basket from the left hand side of the handle to the right hand side of the handle. The ends of this slit would be turned wrong sides together (WST) and then hand sewn shut.

Once I had inserted the baskets into the lining and cover and then hand sewn the slits together I measured 1 1/2" down from my seam allowance for my ruffle. I tightened my fabric so the bottom of my basket cover was smooth to the bottom and sides and then sewed a gathering stitch  1 1/2" down from my seam allowance.  Then I gathered the lining and cover tightly to the actual circumference of the basket using DMC embroidery thread and secured the thread.

To hold the cover and lining in place I inserted a needle and thread just below the rims of each basket and tacked my lining and cover in several places around the rim.

I hot glued my trims and ruffles around the rims of my baskets. I tied each of the bows I was going to use and then hot glued them to the sides of their respective baskets.

I had also decided to create several small round covered baskets with a lace ruffle trim, which are shown in the picture to the left. I created a .PDF E-Book for making this round fabric covered basket and will be posting that shortly.

During this period I also wanted to create a large woven covered basket to hold towels in my master bathroom. For this I used an old Simplicity #9420 craft pattern that I had purchased years before. This basket is shown in the picture at the beginning of this post and is a great decoration for my master bathroom.