051:365 A Tisket a Basket
Today I finished a small video and craft project illustrating how to make a colorful basket out of salvaged cloth strips using RipStop Nylon from The Scrap Box, so I just did a small schematic-style sketch of the finished product so I could post my how-to video today:
Here’s written instructions:
You will need:
A BIG Crochet Hook
And lots of scraps of fabric. Seen here: recycled Ripstop Nylon from The Scrapbox (scrapbox.org)
1) Tie the strips together with square knots, use a butterfly to wrap the strips and keep them neat. Because this particular version uses ripstop, which is extremely slippery and likely to come untied if you trim the ends, you will either try to tuck in the ends of knots connecting the strips as you go, or do them all at the end. They will create a soft fluff inside that cradles the candy or the egg you put into the basket. With non-slippery materials, you can cut the ends shorter or tuck them into the crochet work as you would with yarn.
2) Start crocheting: Cross the end of the strip over itself, reach through and pull the loop into a chain stitch
3) Use the crochet hook to create a chain of three loops
4) Join the ends of your chain
5) Then crochet into BOTH holes created by the chain-stitch loops the “wrong” side is out because it looks more like basket weave.
6) Once you have 9 stitches for the diameter of your spiral-circle, do a row of double crochet to expand the dish.
7) After the double-crochet row, do a row of single-crochet into EACH loop of the double crochet stitches.
8) Then single crochet into each loop until it gets to be the size you want. Since the irregular size of the yarn makes the gauge hard to determine, it could be anywhere from 6-12 rows before the basket is the right size. Keep checking.
9) When the basket is the size you want, switch crochet directions to put the chain part of the single crochet stitches on the outside. This will create a decorative border.
10) After the border-row is finished, make a chain of about 18 stitches and attach to the opposite side of the basket with two single-crochet stitches.
11) Single crochet back across so that the handle has a more solid shape.
12) Tie off decoratively. With ripstop, it’s slippery, so just make a pretty bow or other knot. With other fabrics, tuck in ends as you would with yarn.
Voila! It’s a basket
And Below, please check out the embedded video!
How to Make a Colorful Basket from Scrap Fabric from allida lily on Vimeo.