Tutorial Tuesday - recycled wool Easter basket!

I am glad I decided to take the time to make Jack his basket this year. It turned out nice, and we will enjoy it year after year. He really likes it and is hoping the Easter bunny will bring him Panda Puffs (his favorite cereal) and dried strawberries. He's making it too easy for the Easter Bunny ;)

Ok, on with the tutorial! First felt the sweater you will be using, then cut straight across at the armpits, unless you want a shallower basket. You can cut it lower to make it shallower. The size of the basket depends on the size of sweater.


Now you have a sweater tube. If you are planning to embellish this is the best time. I made egg appliques out of colorful scraps and sewed them all around. Now take the narrower end (on mine it was the waist) and fold it inside, so the 2 edges are together and the fold will be the edge of your basket.


Determine whether or not you want a round or oval bottom (you may not have enough enough sweater to make a round bottom, depending on the sweater), hold the folded tube in the position you want and trace it on a piece of paper or cardboard. That will be your pattern, and you can cut a piece to make the bottom of the basket with it. I recommend cutting 2 pieces to double it, if you are not using a thick felted sweater, like I did.


You can now sew your folded tube to your bottom with your "right" sides (the sides you have embellished and/or want on the outside of the basket) in. I was thinking I would have to sew it by hand because of the thickness, but the 3 layers just fit on my sewing machine.


Now cut 2 strips the length, but twice the width (+ seam allowance), you want the handles to be. fold them over right side in & sew them shut. You can pin them if you want, but I just did it to show where you will be sewing.


Now turn your sewn tubes inside out, so the seam & "wrong" sides are on the inside. You can leave them tube-like, or sew down each side to make them flatter, like I did, depending on how you want your handles to look.


Now just sew them on where ever you want the handles to be. There was no way my sewing machine could handle all of those layers, so I sewed the handles on by hand, stitching the usual square with an X in the middle (is there a term for that?). I'm probably going to redo them, since I did a sloppy job of getting them on, but they are still on good, even if I don't. Now it's ready for Easter goodies!