Organization is a key factor in my life. Without it, I don’t really know how I would be able to function the way that I do. So when I got a flux of silicon molds for some other projects, one of my first thoughts was – where am I going to put all of this?
I normally store my supplies in a Kallax shelf from Ikea that we shoved in the closet. The cubes are perfect for sorting out the materials in a clean way. But the number of molds I bought didn’t really justify buying a basket that would take up the full cube, so I decided to sew one!
Check out the Craft section of MCG for more fun patterns in forever fabrics or more unlimited ideas.
The pattern is extremely simple as you only really need Six pieces of square fabric with some minor modifications. Two pieces will be the outside design, two with be a fabric structure lining, and the last two will be the inside of the basket fabric. The fabric structure lining is used to give the basket a more rigid structure. (I only recently discovered this type of fabric and it finally made sense why some of my other projects had failed).
I was fabric limited when creating this basket, so I ended up making a basket that was a little smaller in size than I intended. For the measurement, A-2B or C will be the width of the basket, 2B will be the length of the basket and D will be the depth of the basket. The equations for the basket I made are:
Width = 2B
Length = A – 2B = C, if C= 2B then A = 4B
To get the proportions of the basket based on what I did, you can specify the width or length to get A = [given number]/0.4663 and B = [given number]/2. If you specify what you want based on depth then, A = [given number]/0.56 and B = [given number]*.4134. But feel free to make the basket the exact size you want, just remember which side will be come which!
Yea, I know math and sewing don’t seem like they would go together but it is surprisingly useful.
The last step is bonding the outside fabric to the fabric structure lining. The one I purchased bonds to the fabric through heat, so I used an iron to apply the fabrics and bond them together. Once the fabric is prepped, then it was time to sew! The inside of the basket and the outside of the basket are sewn separately at first.
Placing the right sides of the outside fabric against each other, the A side and C sides should be sewn together and the trimmed. Then the fabric will get folded to make the cut outs into its own side. This part took me a second, so I took some extra pictures to hopefully make it easier to understand.
Then the whole process is repeated with the inside fabric. When sewing the inside, leave a small space on one of the D sides to pull the fabric through and turn the project right side out. The fabric I used for the inside seemed to fray a bit easier than expected so I ended up using a zigzag scissor.
The last step using a sewing machine will be to attach the inside and the outside. The outside basket will then get places with the right side facing out while the inside basket will be placed around it with the right-side facing in. Like an inverse basket. The top edge of the basket should then be sewn shut.
Now all that’s left is to pull the project through the hole that we left in the inside lining and then close that hole. A hidden stitch is perfect for closing projects from the outside. And while the bag was exactly what I had imagined, it turned out well and now I have storage for my molds!
