DIY: How to Make Fabric Baskets With Riley Blake Designs

by Carissa Rogers on May 23rd, 2012 | No Comments »

Go ahead and try to pick just one or two (or even SIX!) different fabrics from the Riley Blake Designs website that you love! If you are a crafter or a quilter or just a ‘make it up as you go along’—like me—seamstress, you’ll get lost in their yards and yards of wonderful fabrics. I dare you to pick just one!

For this DIY Fabric Basket (or Box) Project, I chose the Verona Collection.
The turquoises and fun flowers won me over, and I was in need of ‘Spring’ fabric in the worst way! I was also in need of a little girl time, so I invited a couple friends over and we set to work making our own little boxes/baskets.

How to Make Fabric Baskets with Riley Blake Designs

In six easy steps you can create these gorgeous fabric baskets. We used several different fabrics in our boxes. What will you make with this fabric?

Supplies:

Fabric
Cereal Boxes
Sewing Machine

Directions:

Step One

Save up a bunch of Cereal Boxes. I know it sounds weird, but they seriously work perfectly to give the baskets shape.

Step Two

Cut out the size of box you want for your finished basket. I wanted little 6 inch boxes, and one friend tried out a larger trapezoid shaped box.
Cut 5 squares of the cereal boxes (all 6 inch square for a 6 inch box). Cut Trapezoid sides and a square bottom for a wide angled box.

Step Three

Trace around the cereal box squares onto your fabric, adding ½ inch for seam allowance for the outside fabric.
Repeat this step for the inside fabric. (You’ll have 5 squares for the inside and 5 for the outside.)

Step Four

Place the 5 outside pieces right side up in the shape of a plus sign with one square in the middle. Sew the 4 edges of the middle (bottom) piece to the 4 side pieces with just less than (scant) half inch seam. Then fold the plus sign in half diagonally (again, with right sides together) and sew the 4 side seams to each other one at a time.
You’ll end up with a square basket/box but it won’t stand up very well. Leave the tops unfinished for now.
Repeat with the 5 inside fabric squares, leaving top seams unfinished.

Step Five

Fold down and iron a scant ½ inch of the unfinished tops of each fabric box (inside and outside). You will fold the right side down, so wrong sides will be touching on the fold.
Turn the outside fabric box so the right side is facing out.
Line the fabric box with your 5 cereal box square pieces. Test to see if they fit well. You may need to trim a bit if your seams were larger than the ½ inch.
Turn the inside fabric box so the right side is facing in (like a lining). Place it inside the cereal box lined fabric box.

Step Six

This is the toughest step: You will pin and sew the tops of the two fabric boxes AND the cereal box pieces together all at the same time! Your needle will easily puncture the cereal box, but you can use a larger needle if you want.
Pin at the corners and even use small clamps to keep the fabric a bit above the cereal box pieces.
It can be tricky when sewing around the corners. Just be brave and pull and twist hard!

Finishing

I was in love with the idea of girly pinwheel flowers. So we made our own!

Cut a 20x3 inch strip of coordinating fabric for a 1.5 inch flower.
Fold in half WRONG sides together. Hand stitch a running stitch along the length of the strip with a knot at the end of your thread.
Pull the thread tightly to gather the fabric strip, allowing it to coil around in a circle. Use the rest of the thread to sew the coiled strip in place. The middle will look unfinished, but don’t worry, we’ll cover that with a fun button!
Hot Glue a decorative button to the middle and then glue the whole thing to your fabric basket/box.

Ideas for your little fabric baskets?
Give them away as gifts to teachers, mothers, friends, or anyone else who likes cute things. Use in a little girl’s room for her treasures or in your sewing room for craft supplies!

ENJOY!

How do you like to use fabric to dress up your home organization?

Tutorials I took inspiration from:

Urban Nest Blog {Full download pdf instructions! Love that!}
Sometimes Crafter {shows the diagonal fold of the plus sign really well!)

NOTE: I was given the fabric for this project to play with at no cost to me. However I was not compensated in any other way and I was free to create and design to my heart’s content whatever I wanted!

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CarissaRogers

Bio: In a former life, Carissa Rogers was a molecular biologist. In her current life, she is the chief researcher of bloggy karma, parenting dos (and some don’ts), new recipes, and for spice she pretends to be a photographer. She started blogging in February of 2008 and publishes her good & crazy thoughts on GoodNCrazy.com. Find her on Twitter and Facebook.