Braided Easter Eggs with Video Tutorial

Use fabric scraps and recycled water bottles to create these lovely braided Easter eggs designed by Cristin Frank. Use colorful fabric to create the eggs and display in a wicker basket for Easter decorating. Watch the video at the bottom of the project.

Materials:

• 1 24oz plastic water bottle
• 2 12oz plastic water bottles
• Large Plastic Easter Egg (approx 2.75” in height)
• Assorted Fabric totaling approx. ½ yard- (small egg will require approx. 54” of braided fabric, 74” for the medium egg and 100” for the large egg. These measurements are just to give you an idea of length, be sure to wrap a tape measure around your egg templates and plan accordingly)
• Glue Gun (Please note that a lower powered glue gun is preferable since the super guns will melt the packing tape and could effect the thin plastic from the 12oz water bottles.)
• Iron (optional)
• Sewing machine

Instructions:

1. Gather fabric scraps from previous projects or crib sheets. For Easter, pastels mixed with bright Springtime colors work nicely.
    
2. Cut fabric in strips. Cut 1 1 ½ “ wide strips for the small egg and 3” wide strips for the medium and large eggs.
   
   
    
3. (Optional) you may want to iron the edges folded in before running through the sewing machine. If not, just use straight pins.
   
   
    
4. Run the fabric strip through the sewing machine to keep the raw edges concealed.
   
   
    
5. Braid the fabric strips. I pinned mine to a curtain for resistance. A clothespin is helpful for holding the braid when you stop or just keeping it tight while you braid.
   
   
    
6. Use plastic water bottles to make the base for the medium and large eggs. For the medium egg, use the upper dome from two 12oz water bottles. The plastic is very thin so it’s easy to cut through with an XActo® blade. Cut off the drinking spout and cover with a piece of packing tape or duct tape. Use tape to attach the two bottle tops at their wide end (middle of the egg base). For the large egg, I used a 24oz Aquafina bottle. This is much harder to cut through. I used a bread knife. For this base, just remove the middle, straight part of the bottle and attach the upper dome part to the bottom using tape.
   
   
    
7. Starting at the top of the eggs, coil the braids around the egg bases, using hot glue to adhere the braid to the bases.

Find this project and many more Easter crafts in the 30-page Easter Crafts: Blogger Edition 2010 eBook.