fabric easter basket {tutorial}

These baskets are super easy to make and you can whip one up in less then two hours.

My mom made one for me when I was younger and she filled it every year with goodies from the Easter Bunny.  It was something that reminded me of my childhood and I knew right away that I wanted to make one for my kids when I had them.  

I made one for Lila a few years back but it was HUGE.  So I took it apart and made new ones this year for each of my kids.  I hope to keep them around till they are 18 and out of the house!

I'm going to show you how to make one yourself!

what you'll need:

• 10 yards of cotton cording .99/yard.  

• 1 yard of fabric

• hot glue gun

• scissors

Please let me know if there are any things I wasn't clear about or if you have any questions.

•cut your fabric into 2in strips

depending on your fabric you can either score the fabric by making a small 1in cut at the top and ripping all the way down or just cutting it straight down with the scissors.  I personally liked the ripped look but my fabric didn't hold up that well.  The colors looked drab so I just used scissors and cut the pieces.

Next your going to want to start wrapping your fabric strips around the cording.  Start at one end and make your way up.  Make sure to swap securely so that there is no cotton cording showing.  When one piece is all wrapped add a small dab of hot glue and add another piece.  Keep wrapping until you get at least 2 yards covered.  

This is the fun part.  When you can actually see the start of the basket! 

Without the use of glue, just play around and practice folding the covered cording together to look like this.  Once you get it to how you want it to look unroll it and start hot gluing it together.  

Place drops of hot glue around the edge and gently squeeze the cording together and hold for a few seconds.  You want to make sure the glue is dry before letting go.  

Keep going until you get the desired width of your basket.  I counted 6 rows out from the middle on both of mine.

Now you can start on the sides of your basket!

Starting on one side of your oval bottom {without glue} practice how your going to wrap up to make the sides.  If you see on the picture above where the cording isn't secured with glue, that is where I started making my way up to make the side of my basket.  

Once you get the hang of it start using your hot glue.  Place large drops of glue about an inch apart and glue your pieces together.  Hold it gently and press it together to make sure that the glue dries before you let go. If you run out of fabric wrapped cording - start wrapping your fabric around some more yards of cording.  You can do all of it if you want.  I was too impatient and wanted to see some results before I continued!

This is where you get to decide how tall you want your basket.  I went about 7 rows tall.

End at the same side you started going up at.  Now you are going to want to start on your handle.  By practicing first what you want it to look like, start tucking in your wrapped cording under the first row on the side.  See the pictures below to get an idea.  I used unwrapped cording to illustrate how it should look.  

Once you get it how you would like it to look start gluing it together using the same press and dry technique as above. Use as much glue as you can without it showing.  The more glue used the more secure the handle will be. 

I cut the extra wrapped cording once I was done.  I made sure it reached the bottom of my basket to keep it looking finished. Make sure to glue the end so it doesn't unravel and glue it very securely to the side of the basket.  You wont see any of it with your Easter grass in it, so use as much glue as you want.

Here is something I thought of AFTER I made both of the baskets for my kids.  If you want a more secure handle you could always wrap florist wire around the handle before wrapping it with fabric.  

And of course add ribbon, flowers or any other accessory to the basket to make it your own!  I haven't gotten to the fabric store yet but I want to add a light blue bow to the sides of my sons basket.  I had green lying around and used it on my daughters.  

Have fun and happy crafting!

Let me know if you make one of these.  I would love to see them!