Tuesday, September 22, 2009

A Quick, Easy Basket Project

I saw a basket on sale at JoAnn’s. Although the color of the basket itself and the material making up the lining did NOT work for my wedding colors...the price at 50% off DID work for my wedding budget. I had no idea what exactly I would use a basket such as this for, but I knew that several baskets were needed to hold such things as: kid’s activity books, rose petal bags, programs, etc. So a 50% off basket that I could change a little and improve upon so that it matched better? Sold.

This is what I started with. Here are the tools that I used. Recognize that fabric? You might remember seeing a little piece of it here. Yep, it’s one of the patterns of fabric that I used for my guestbook quilt. I loved it and wanted to use it elsewhere, and this basket lining seemed the perfect place to incorporate it.
So an extra ½ yard of material (on sale for 60% off) and a can of black spray paint (purchased with a 40% off ocoupon, of course!) and I was ready to work on it!

First things first, I took the lining off of the basket and proceeded to catch up on Grey’s Anatomy while using my handy seam ripper to tear the lining apart. I’m not silly enough to make work harder on myself, so I knew that I could take the old lining apart and use it as my pattern for the new lining. Lucky for me I did, because I found little strips of elastic around the corners to make the “fit” a little more secure, and I would have NEVER thought to put that on my new lining.
After about 30 minutes, this is what I was left with. Pattern for new basket lining? Check. Then I hit the pause button, and headed outside to see what I could do about the basket. I will tell you that it took several coats, spraying from several different angles, but at the end of the weekend, I was left with this: Doesn’t it look much better? Or at least, much more fitting with my colors?

Too bad the lawn didn’t come out as well...wonder what kind of grief that I’ll catch for not using newspaper? Oopsie!

Once the paint was dry and the pieces were sewn back together with the elastic strips, this is the end result... What do you think? A big improvement? I like it MUCH better!

This was a super fast, quick project that I think I got bang for my buck with. Here’s the cost breakdown, since I know you want it:

Basket from JoAnn’s $3.79
Black spray paint $3.88
½ yard of material $3.25
(Thread and elastic used I already owned)

Total price - $10.92.

This one was quick and easy. Just the kind of DIY project that this bride likes! Did you have a simple project that didn’t take a lot of time, but you really liked once you were done with it?

1 comment:

  1. Would never guess that this is the same basket you started with. Nice job!

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