ReSew Giveaway and Tutorial!

felted basket
This little basket was made from the leftover scraps of two wool sweaters I just couldn’t throw out. The basket is completely hand-sewn; no sewing machine needed! I opted for a solid color on the inside of this basket and a colorful stripe on the outside, but you can choose whatever color combinations you like. You can also make the basket from just one sweater, with the same fabric on the inside and the outside of the basket.

To make the basket, here’s what you’ll need:

  • Two 100% wool sweaters (or just one)
  • Scissors or rotary-cutting equipment
  • A ruler
  • Measuring tape, or rotary ruler
  • Long pins
  • Thick thread or thin yarn to coordinate with your sweaters (I used perle cotton thread)
  • A large-eye needle
  • Sewing thread to coordinate with your sweaters
  • A piece of corrugated cardboard, about 9″ x 9″
  • Buttons (optional)

Note: Your wool sweaters need to be “felted” so they won’t fray when cut. To felt a sweater, simply machine wash and dry it, using cycles you would normally use. You may need to wash your sweater more than once for it to fully felt. When you can’t see the stitches in the sweater any longer, you’ll know it’s felted enough to cut into it without any unraveling.

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Written by Kelly Rand

Kelly covers visual arts in and around Washington, DC for DCist and is editor of Crafting a Green World. Kelly has also been published by Bust Magazine and you can find her byline at Indie Fixx and Etsy’s Storque and has taught in Etsy’s virtual lab on the topic of green crafting.

Kelly helps organize Crafty Bastards: Arts and Crafts Fair, one of the largest indie craft fairs on the east coast and has served on the Craft Bastard’s jury since 2007. Kelly is also co-founder of Hello Craft a nonprofit trade association dedicated to the advancement of independent crafters and the handmade movement. Kelly resides in Washington, D.C. and believes that handmade will save the world.

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