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Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

Date post: 17-Jul-2016
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How to make a soft basket/bowl/toddler cap from a scrap of fleece fabric!
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How to Make a Braided, Coiled Basket/ Bowl/Toddler’s Cap From a Scrap of Fleece! by April Iris McLeod of ThereCanBeOnlyOne Finished Basket from the front and from the top, showing intended use. The “scrap” of camo fleece—this was a bathrobe tie belt.
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Page 1: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

How to Make a Braided, Coiled Basket/Bowl/Toddler’s Cap From a Scrap of Fleece!

by April Iris McLeod

of ThereCanBeOnlyOne

Finished

Basket from

the front and

from the top,

showing

intended use.

The “scrap” of camo fleece—this was a

bathrobe tie belt.

Page 2: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

This project was inspired by the talented sewists in a FB group about sewing! I saw some very beautiful examples

of coiled rope baskets made by the talented group members. They used cotton clothesline and a zigzag stitch. I needed a project to upcycle a piece of camo

fleece. This was a tie belt from a bathrobe. I got just the belt (no robe) from a box of fabric at a yard sale. The

other fabric in the pattern is a scrap of camo from my old Air Force BDUs. I made an ottoman for my son for

Christmas and covered it with BDU camo and have some left over. Here is a picture of the ottoman:

Here is the scrap of camo I used

on the bottom of the basket.

NOTE: The photographs in this

tutorial were taken by me, with

my camera phone under various

lighting conditions—sorry for the

variation in colors!

Page 3: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

So, I took all the stitching out of the bathrobe belt—I was left with a piece of fabric approx. 7 feet by 4 3/4 inches. I cut it in half lengthwise, giving me two pieces 7 feet by 2 3/8 inches. I then cut those two pieces into thirds, lengthwise, leaving 6 pieces 7 feet by .78 inches (a little over 3/4 inch.) I sewed the short ends of three pieces to three other pieces, giving me 3

pieces 14 feet long by .78 inches wide to braid. (The reason for the unusual measurement is I was using an existing scrap and I wanted to use all of it—you may use whatever measurements you like—this amount will give you a

basket approx. 4 inches across the bottom by 5 inches tall (of which I turned 2 inches down to make the decorative edge) the top diameter of the basket

is approx. 6 inches. Adjust your fabric accordingly.)

Page 4: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

This picture shows one of the 14-foot long pieces – I had three of these and the next step is to braid the three pieces together.

When braiding fabric, I find it easiest to sew the ends of the three pieces together at the beginning and place the fabric strips under a clamp of some sort—or , you may put a tack through the fabric, into a table, etc., to hold it steady while you braid. Do not pull too

tight, but keep a steady pressure on the fabric. Your strips will tangle on the long end while you are braiding—I find it helpful to

stop every 15-20 inches, put a safety pin through all layers, untangle the ends, clip the edge (right by the safety pin,) then begin again. Repeat this process until you get to the end. The

following pictures show these steps.

Page 5: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

I ended up with approx. 11 feet of braided fleece. Your measurement may be different, depending on your fabric and how tight your braid is.

Next, I took the fabric to my machine. I used an inexpensive Brother 21-stitch machine. I used a number 14 universal needle and a stitch length of

3.5. The first step on the machine was to sew across both ends, backstitching and stitching a couple of times to secure the ends. Next, I

began making the “coil” by folding about 1 1/2 inches of the braid next to the end of the braid as shown in the first pic below, then using a wide

zigzag stitch, I began stitching the braid together. I continued coiling the braid, keeping it flat to make the base of the basket about 4 inches across.

Page 6: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

When I had the base the size I wanted, I started bending the braid upwards and pulling a little tighter as I stitched—this

started shaping the side of the basket.

At one point, I realized I needed the bulk of the basket on the other (left) side of my needle and I was able to simply turn the basket to the other

side! Lucky Me ;-)

After the sides were about 3 inches tall, I started loosening the outer

braid strand to make the basket go “outward” like a cap brim (you will see this can actually be used for a

cap—this one would make a toddler-sized cap.) I continued to the end of the braid—about two inches outward.—this part becomes the “turn-down”

on the basket.

Page 7: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

The next 3 pictures show the end of the braid. I pulled the last inch diagonally across the edge of the basket. I stitched across

the end, then trimmed it close to the stitching.

Here is the basket at this point—if you stop here you have a toddler cap! It has just enough stretch ;-) But, I wanted to make a “catch-all” basket and I wanted to reinforce the “bottom,” so I used two circles of leftover camo

stitched together—see pics on next page.

Page 8: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

Here are 2 circles of camo fabric (from my old Air Force uniform,) cut to about 4” across. I stitched them right sides

together, turned right-side out, then stitched close to the edge.

I decided to use the “free motion” or “darning” feature of my machine. For this machine, that meant removing the presser foot and putting a plate on top of the feed dogs (some machines have a button or lever to lower the feed

dogs. I wanted to experiment with this feature to attach the camo “base” to the basket.

Page 9: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

I turned the basket inside-out for ease of stitching the base on. I placed the base in the “bottom” of this “inside-

out” basket and, holding all the layers as tight as possible, I stitched a very random design just to make

sure it was well attached to the braided part of the basket. At this point, you may embroider a design or initials on the bottom, but I just did random stitches

across the circle. (Note, my machine can be used with a regular embroidery hoop, but, in this case, there was no

room—this is the same setup as for

darning.

The last step in attaching the circle was reattaching my

presser foot, removing the darning plate, and zigzagging all the way around

the base. Then, turn the basket right-side

out.

Page 10: Camo Braided Basket Tutorial

Here is the bottom of the basket.

I pinned the “brim” down evenly around the outside

of the basket, then, using a straight stitch, sewed

straight down where each pin was.

This pattern, design, and tutorial, including all text and images are the intellectual property of April Iris McLeod and ThereCanBeOnlyOne. It

is freely shared for personal use, including gift-giving. You may not use this pattern or these

instructions for monetary or other gain.


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