Sew Yourself Cute Fabric Baskets with this Easy Tutorial

Hello and willkommen to Everything’s Famtastic this week! How’s things looking in your part of the world? Here it’s been all a bit hectic. Mostly a typical week actually 😉. But I did squeeze in some more sewing at home. Sitting at the sewing machine is certainly a happy place for me 😊. A definite highlight of the week was Miss 7’s school music concert. It was really sweet- nearly 60 second-graders had been practising a number of song and dance moves for a few months. **so proud**

Do you remember the other week I wrote about how we have begun the mammoth task of decluttering and tidying our house with the KonMari method as inspiration, so far we have been tackling clothes. At last count, 4 out of 5 of us have decluttered and superbly (if I do say so myself) stored our clothes in a more ordered manner in the wardrobes. The billions of books in the house are still terrifying me and will definitely need an all-hands-on-deck approach.

But what I wanted to share with you today- for FREE!-  is how I made those cute fabric baskets I had also talked about in that post.Easy to sew, multi-purpose, use any leftover fabric you have lying around, look great… WINNER!

So, are you keen? Without further ado, start your sewing engines! Here’s what you’ll need to sew your own collection of handmade baskets:

I am going to provide you with the instructions to sew one fabric basket 14cm x 14cm x 14cm (5.5in x 5.5in x 5.5in) in size. All seam allowances are included.

Materials You Need for this Project

Fabric: 2 pieces. Choose from firmer fabrics like cotton, linen, denim, or chambray. (I even used some linen curtains that had been lying around in attic for years and shabby-looking, old business shirts from Hubby. Yay for upcycling!) You can use either 2 different fabrics for contrast and variety or 2 pieces from the same fabric. It’s your project- you choose!

Iron-on Interfacing (like Vlieseline): There are so many varieties out there, (and I have no idea which thickness I actually went with as I have quite a miscellaneous collection of these things these days) but the most suitable is one with a little volume and some firmness (otherwise the basket might just collapse in on itself!) like this one here.

That’s it! Aside from the usual suspects: sewing machine, thread, pins, scissors, ruler or measuring tape, marking pencil/chalk and an iron.

How to Sew a Fabric Basket

Step 1: Measure and cut out your 2 pieces of fabric 58cm x 23cm (22.8 x 9in). With each piece be clear which side of the fabric is the “right side” and which is the “reverse side”.

Step 2: Measure and cut out 1 piece of iron-on interfacing also 58cm x 23cm (22.8 x 9in).

Step 3: Decide which fabric will form the outer side of the basket and which will form the inner layer. Ultimately, the basket will be reversible, but somewhere you are going to have a small visible row of stitches that you may prefer to have inside the basket rather than outside!

Step 4: Iron the interfacing onto the reverse side of the fabric that will form the inner layer of your basket. Remember! When using interfacing to check which side has the rough bumps and place these downwards! These bumps (that you can easily feel with your fingers) will be melted by the iron and are the “glue” that holds it onto your fabric. You don’t want to iron the interface the wrong side up onto your iron!!

Step 5: Pin your 2 pieces of fabric (1 piece now with interface) along the length of one of the long sides, with the right sides together.

Step 6: Sew the fabrics together along this length, using a 1cm seam allowance.

Step 7: Iron along this seam, parting the fabrics and flattening to each side of the stitching. Lay the piece flat open again, right side up.

Step 8: Now fold the fabric in half (across the seam from Step 6) so that the ends are aligned with each other, right sides together, and pin.

Step 9: Like with the previous long seam, sew using a 1cm seam allowance and then iron the fabric along the seam, flattening to each side. Iron the entire piece flat to create a creases down the sides.

Step 10: You will now have one almost-square, doubled over piece of fabric joined by a longways seam and a top to bottom seam; the upper half is the fabric for the outer side of your basket and the lower half will form the inner layer. Pin along the open end of the upper half. Pin along the open end of the lower half, leaving a few centimetres gap. You will need this gap shortly for turning your basket right side around!

Step 11: Sew along the top pinned edge using a 1cm seam allowance. Also sew along the bottom pinned edge, remembering to leave those few centimetres open!

The next steps may sound a little tricky, but they’re actually not. Bear with me and take a look at the photos if it’s not clear what you are aiming for! The following steps are what’s going to make your basket nice and square!

Step 12: You are now ready to form the base of the basket! Select one corner of your project. (It doesn’t matter which one, you will need to repeat this step for all 4 corners.) Pinch the fabric either side the seam and gently pull outwards. Aim to form a triangle shape, with the seam you just sewed in Step 11 centred and lying flat atop the crease you ironed in Step 9. Use a pin to temporarily hold the seam in position.

Step 13: This step determines the size of the base, and ultimately the square shape of your basket. The basket you are sewing will be 14 cm (5.5in) across. The seam should therefore be in the middle of the basket, ie there should be 7cm each side of the seam. Use a measuring tape or ruler to measure 14cm across the seam with the seam centred and mark a straight line across. Pin the fabric in place along this line, ready for sewing.

Step 14: Repeat Step 13 for the remaining 3 corners of your project. You will now have 4 flattened triangle-shaped corners. You can check that the basket will be an even square 14cm (5.5in) not only as you measure each time across the seams at Step 13, but also by measuring between your 2 marked lines on the outer side fabric and between the lines marked on the inner layer fabric.

Step 15: Sew directly along each of the 4 lines you have marked in Steps 13 and 14. These stitches will hold the base of the basket into shape.

Step 16: Leaving approximately 1cm distance, cut the triangle shaped corner alongside the stitching from Step 15. Pay attention to not cut into your basket by removing the row of stitches!

Step 17: You are now ready to **drumroll please!** turn your basket the right way out. Using the gap in the seam from Step 11 (you did remember to leave a gap, right?!?) reach through this and carefully pull all of the fabric through so that all fabrics are now facing right side outwards.

It’s looking almost like the finished product now. Are you getting excited?

Step 18: Carefully tuck the seam allowance of those few remaining centimetres inside the basket, pin the gap closed and sew shut, as close as possible to the edge of your fabric.

Step 19: Tuck the inner layer down into the outer side of the basket, pushing the corners out to form a nice, orderly cube shape.

Voila! Look what you made! Bravo to you! A gorgeous-looking, useful storage basket for your home! (They also make great gifts).

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and don’t stop at just one! I think I myself have created close to 20 by now…

Be sure to tell me in the comments section below how your basket turned out and whether you made any more. What do you use your(s) basket for? Share this post with your sewing-happy friends too!