A Tisket A Tasket.  Time for a new shopping basket!

https://susies-scraps.com/2015/02/01/end-of-day-quilters-basket-free-tutorial/

My jar of strings is overflowing.  I still can’t believe how quickly these accumulate when cutting.  It’s a lot of fabric!

To make this basket will require about 3 skeins of ‘End of Day’ Quiltters cotton rope.  I’m using a vintage Zig Zag machine today.  It’s a Japanese Brother machine from the 1960s with some elements of a Singer 15.  Heavy and strong.  This is also a good opportunity to use up some old overlocking thread.  Loving this blue thread!

Begin slowly making a coil. Sew 17 rounds.

Tip the round so that it is perpendicular to the machine.  Carefully sew the next couple of rounds to change the orientation of the basket.

Keep sewing rounds.

Make sure to keep the basket as steady and straight as possible whilst adding each extra round.

So far this is two skeins.  I need to wrap some more!

Add about 24 rounds.  Then add another 12 or so rounds increasing tension on each new round to gradually reduce the overall lumen / size of the basket opening.

To make the handles.  Allowing an 8″ opening and a 12″ length of fabric wrapped rope create the handles equidistant on both sides of the basket.

Ensure that you are sewing at right angles to the basket so that the handles stand erect and are aesthetically pleasing,  continue sewing for 5 rounds around each handle.  This is a little fiddly.   Dont worry. Just take your time.

Allow about an extra metre or so if you woul like to add a ” Love” message to your basket.  This will need to be hand stitched in place.  Use a double thread.  This is a nice deep basket.  Excellent for holding long items or bottles!  I’m taking this one shopping! 😀