New Year’s is right around the corner and with it comes a fresh start. My normally disorganized self suddenly gets the urge to organize “all the things”. This year to get a jump start on my New Year’s organizing, I thought I’d create a few fabric baskets to hold some of the trinkets in my sewing room.
Today I’m going to share with you how to make them with this fabric basket sewing pattern. If you have a Cricut Maker machine, this project will be extra quick and easy as I’ve also included a free Cricut Maker sewing pattern download for you! You can cut out the entire thing on your Cricut Maker! Fabric, interfacing, words and all!! I work as a Brand Ambassador for Cricut, this is sponsored content.
How to Make Fabric Baskets:
Last Fall as I was prepping for my booth at Quilt Market, I needed a few baskets to hold some of my printed patterns in my display area. I was going to go and buy some when I arrived in Houston, then at the last minute, I decided that I could easily make some instead. The baskets were so quick easy to make that I just kept making them! (You can see the photos from my booth at Quilt Market on THIS POST).
I’ve taken that same fabric basket sewing pattern and adapted it so that it can be made in multiple sizes AND it can be cut out using the Cricut Maker. If you don’t have a Cricut Maker you can still make these fabric baskets but you’ll need to draft your own pattern piece (which isn’t hard).
If you do have Maker machine you’ll be able to download the pattern piece, upload it into Cricut Design Space then resize it to make a basket ANY SIZE YOU WANT!
I created a little set of baskets this week. I decided since I was being “all organized” that I’d go ahead and add some labels to the front of the baskets. This step is optional, but I think makes them kinda cute and fun. I used my Cricut to cut out the iron on vinyl letters for the front of the baskets as well.
I went ahead and included a free Cricut cut file for you with the following words; Scraps, Pins, Clips, Thread & Markers. Hopefully, that’s enough labels to get you going to organize your sewing space!
I elected not to add a handle or a strap to my baskets, you could easily though. Just add a bit of cotton webbing to the sides before you stitch the basket together.
Okay, are you ready to start?
Free Fabric Basket Sewing Pattern:
Supplies For the Baskets:
-Pattern Piece SVG file for Cricut Design space – download it for FREE by CLICKING HERE.
-1 Fat Quarter of Fabric or ½ yard for Basket Outside
-1 Fat Quarter of Fabric ½ yard for Basket Lining
-Large piece of Shape Flex Interfacing
-Large piece of Decor Bond Interfacing
-Matching Thread
-Recommended: Walking foot for Sewing Machine
-12″x 24″ Fabric Mat for Cricut Maker
-Fabric Marking Pen for Cricut Maker
For the Labels:
-Scrap of Canvas
-Heat N Bond Lite
-Cricut SVG Cut files of Words – download for free by CLICKING HERE.
First, let me tell you how to make a pattern piece if you don’t have a Maker machine.
Option One: How to Draft your Fabric Basket Pattern Piece (if not using a Cricut Machine)
If you are using your Maker, just skip to the supplies section below.
Basket Size Chart:
Dimensions based on ½ seam allowance. I’ve given a range for the finished basket size since there are subtle differences with seam allowance, fabric thickness, and pressing techniques. Two people can make the same basket and end up with two different sizes depending on those items.
For a Small Basket (CLIPS) which measures approximately 3 ½ to 4″ wide x 4″ x 3″ Tall:
The pattern piece is 9″ wide by 6″ tall with 2″ x 2″ square cutouts in bottom corners
For a Medium Basket (THREADS) which measures approximately 4 ½ to 5″ wide x 5″ x 4″ Tall:
The pattern piece is 12″ wide by 8″ tall with 3″ x 3″ cutouts in the bottom corners
For Large Basket use the diagram below:
You need to make a “t” shaped pattern piece. Use the diagram below as a guide. This particular pattern piece is the same one that I used to make the larger baskets. It yields a basket that is 6 ½″ to 7″ wide x 8″ deep x 6″ tall.
Cut from your pattern piece: 2 pieces for basket outside, 2 pieces for basket lining. 2 from shape flex interfacing and 2 from decor bond interfacing. Iron the decor bond interfacing on to the wrong side of the lining pattern pieces, and the shape flex interfacing onto the wrong side of the basket outside pieces.
Skip to the CONSTRUCTION section below.
Option Two: Cutting Fabric with the Cricut Maker
Begin by uploading the sewing pattern piece to the Cricut Design space. It will load in at 16″ wide x 10 ½″ tall which will fit on the large fabric cutting mat. If you want to make the basket in another size, just resize the file. As a general rule, the width of the pattern piece divided by 2 less 1″ is the finished size of the basket (i.e. 16″ wide pattern piece yields 7″ wide basket).
You can not make any part of the pattern piece larger than 11 ½″ wide.
Size your Pattern Piece:
After you have sized your pattern piece accordingly. You’re going to add a few marks to the pattern piece. These will help to aid you as you sew the baskets together.
To do this, click the shape box on the lower left-hand side of the Design Space software. Click on add scoring line.
Add Stitching Line for Fabric Pen:
Draw a scoring line across the top of the pattern piece exactly ½″ down from the top edge of the pattern.
After you have drawn the line, go over to the line attributes box (on the upper right-hand side) and click the circle icon. Change the line from a scoring line to a Write line and select Fabric Marker from the drop-down list.
After that is done, click on the two pieces and then click “attach” on the layers panel. This will make your line and your piece cut and mark at the same time.
Next, click Make it.
Cutting:
You will need to cut this exact same piece 4 times. 2 for the front of the basket and 2 for the lining of the basket. If you have a small enough piece that you can fit both on one 12″ x 24″ mat then you only need 2 mats.
You will most likely need 4 mats. So in the dialog box in the upper left-hand corner, change the copies to 4.
Okay, for the next steps I’m going to recommend something different than what I did. I cut out the interfacing separately. Looking back I think it would have been easier to iron the interfacing onto the fabric THEN cut it out. The “glue” side of the interfacing didn’t stick well to my mat, and it has to be iron on anyway, so I think it’s a bit faster to do that first.
So next, cut your basket outside fabric, lining fabric, and interfacings to 12″ wide. The length doesn’t matter, the extra will just fall off of the mat at the end.
Prepping the Fabric:
Iron the Shape Flex interfacing onto the wrong side of your basket outside pieces. Iron the Decor Bond interfacing onto the wrong side of you basket lining pieces. (My photo does not show the interfacing)
Place the fabric, right side down onto your pink fabric mat. Following the prompts on your screen, load the mat into the machine and cut out your first piece. You’ll want to choose “cotton medium” as your fabric type and make sure your marking pen AND the rotary blade are installed on your machine.
Load the mat, cut your piece. Repeat until you’ve cut out all 4 pieces.
Construction Steps:
If you are attaching labels to the front of your basket. Using a ruler measure how wide you’d like your label to be.
Then using Iron on Vinyl and cut out the letters you’d like. All of the “words” are in the file. Just hide the ones you don’t want to cut out.
Once you’ve cut out your words (for more tips on working with Iron on Vinyl, see this post).
Cut out a piece of canvas that fits the label. Apply a scrap of heat n bond lite to the wrong side of the canvas. On the right side of the canvas, attach the words using your Cricut EasyPress.
Peel off the backing from the heat n bond and iron the label to the front of the basket. (Make sure you don’t touch the iron on vinyl with your iron)
Stitch around the edge of the label to adhere to it.
To sew the basket together:
Place your basket outside pieces right sides facing. Stitch down the two sides and the bottom with a ½″ seam allowance. Don’t stitch in the ‘box’ in the corners.
Press the seams open.
Pinch the corner to make a pleat. Stitch with a ½″ seam allowance.
Repeat for the other side.
Trim seam allowance down to ⅛″.
Using the marked line as a guide, press the top edge of your basket outside piece under ½″.
Set aside.
Repeat for the bag lining pieces.
With your basket outside piece right side out, slip the basket lining into it, matching side seams.
Top stitch around the edge of the top of the basket to finish your basket. I find it helpful to use a walking foot on my sewing machine for this step.
After you have sewn your basket, you need to press the creases into it to give it a “box” shape. Press each of the 4 corners well and the bottom edges.
That’s it! You’re done!!!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
