I had a mid-century sewing/knitting basket years ago, and it disappeared in one of my moves. Or, I donated it in a clean-out. It was made with some carpet bag type upholstery fabric.
Last year a friend was moving and de-stashing, and I received a gift of her old sewing/knitting supplies. Most were old, but I sifted through, added to my stash, and donated the rest.
This sewing basket had seen better days, and when I went to sew up some of the undone seams, I realized that there were other bad mends, more tears, and most seams were barely holding on. And the fabric was thin and cheap.
I located some upholstery samples I had thrifted at least 18 years ago. This is why I keep stash. Most of the pieces were too narrow to use, but I found one larger piece and then pieced the rest together. found some heavy lining fabric in my stash as well. Score!
These basket frames are assembled after the fabric part is done, but I did not want to take the frame apart; it was sturdy and I wasn’t going to mess with that!
But it made it tricky. I perservered and while it is not especially neat in places and I was rather random with the thread choices. It is done and back in use. It is now back to holding yarn for my yarn baskets by my recliner.
This is so cool! My mom has a broken one (one of the wooden legs is broken) and was wondering if it was worth fixing and then giving to a thrift shop. Sounds like the answer may be yes!
This looks great! And so useful. I have an empty frame for one that I would like to make into a usable piece. I have tabled it for now because the cats are yarn obsessed. I could maybe add a closure flap to protect everything and everyone.
I love that you had stash to work it up when the moment struck, too. Yay ffor workable stashes!
I have to admit that this redo was a brain twister. The original frame assembled was assembled around the fabric part. How could I make this with the least amount of hand sewing?
And having to piece it from smaller remnants added to the fun. Oh, there was a lining too. The lining ended up too big, so some creative seams were added at the bottom.
Mistakes were made, seams were ripped out, and I think I could have improved on the design.
But, only three hand-sewn areas. The handles and the piece that loops around the bottom rungs to keep it from opening too far.
