Bedsheet Basket Insert

The easiest way to breath new life into an old item is by adding a handmade touch. A Bedsheet Basket Insert from Cyndee Kromminga can quickly change the look of a laundry or picnic basket. Use an old piece of fabric and save yourself a trip to the craft supply store.


 

Materials:

• Round laundry basket
• Newspaper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Measuring tape
• Old bed sheet
• Straight pins
• Sewing machine
• Crochet thread
• 1/2-inch diameter cord

Instructions:

1. Set your laundry basket on a sheet of newspaper and trace around the bottom. Remove the basket and cut out the circle. This is the pattern for the liner's bottom.
    
2. Using a measuring tape, measure from the inside bottom of the basket, up the side, over the edge and 5 inches down the outside. This is the measurement for your liner's height. Most baskets are wider at the top than the bottom. Measure around the circumference of the basket's top edge and add 1 inch.
   
   
    
3. Pin the liner's bottom pattern to two layers of an old bed sheet. Cut the fabric 1/2 inch larger than the paper pattern. Cut two rectangles from the sheet using the basket's height and circumference measurements.
   
   
    
4. Fold one rectangle in half with the right sides together and the short edges matching. Pin the short edges together. Sew the pinned edge using a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Repeat with the remaining rectangle, leaving a 4-inch opening in the center of the seam. The rectangles are now tubes.
   
   
    
5. Set your sewing machine to a wide, long zigzag stitch. Knot the end of crochet thread still attached to the spool. With the wrong side of the fabric facing up, place one open edge of a tube under your presser foot. Lay the crochet thread on the tube's edge with the knot behind the foot. Zigzag stitch over the thread all the way around the opening. The zigzag stitch will create a casing over the thread. Cut the crochet thread and knot the end. Repeat on one open edge of the remaining tube.
    
6. Pull the crochet thread to gather the edge of one tube until it matches the circumference of one fabric bottom. With the right sides together, pin the gathered edge to the edge of the fabric bottom. Sew the pinned edge using a 1/2-inch seam allowance. Cut off the knots on the crochet thread and pull it out. Repeat with the remaining tube and basket bottom. You now have two cases.
    
7. For ease of instruction Step 7 and 8 will refer to the basket liner as a bag with an outside case and a lining case. The lining is the case with the 4-inch opening in the side seam.
    
8. Turn the outside case right side out. Insert the right-side-out case inside the wrong-side-out lining case. Line up the one seam on each case and match the top edges. Pin all the way around the top edge and sew using a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Turn the bag right side out through the 4-inch opening in the side seam. Hand sew the opening closed.
   
   
    
9. Push the lining inside the outside bag. Press the top edge of the lined bag. Top stitch around the top edge of the lining 1/4 inch from the edge.
    
10. Insert the laundry basket liner inside the laundry basket. Fold the top edge over the edge of the basket. It will resemble a cuff. Evenly space eight straight pins around the cuff, 1 inch above the edge.
    
    
     
11. Set your sewing machine to sew buttonholes. Sew 1-inch buttonholes at each pin marked spot on the edge of the basket liner. Replace the liner in the basket.
    
    
     
12. Cut a 1/2-inch diameter cord 24 inches longer than the basket's top circumference measurement. Using the buttonholes as your stitch holes, whip stitch the cord around the edge of the liner. Adjust the ends of the cord with an even length extending from the first and last hole. Bring the ends together. Cinch the cord around the basket and tie the ends in a bow. Knot the tails of the bow to prevent the cord from unraveling.