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Sewing for the home can be a really satisfying thing because it can inexpensively bring order, beauty, and utility when you most need it. I needed to corral shoes by my front door and when I spied some old metal freezer baskets in my Gram’s garage, I knew organized footwear wasn’t far off. This post shares how to sew a liner for a basket and you can even download the measuring guide so you can make your own!

Chest freezers seem to be commonplace in rural or agrarian households because you need a lot of freezer space to freeze a whole beef or a whole game animal. Older style freezers featured wire baskets that helped separate different cuts of meat and made it possible for a girl to dig out a ham from the bottom of the chest without being buried in an avalanche of steaks. Now, of course, these baskets are often made of plastic which is nowhere near as good. If you come across these wire baskets, I’d suggest snagging one…or four, the way I did. The funky plastic handles can be snapped off and they are sturdy, useful, and now they are on-trend.

Of course, the baskets need a liner if you want to store anything small (like toddler shoes) in them. I had saved a queen sized sheet that tore after many mending jobs but still had lots of good fabric remaining. I imagined using some fabric dye like my tutorial here but realized the cream color of the sheet was a win.

Cutting out a basket liner is fairly simple. You will need to measure a few things, which I instinctively avoid but it’s got to be done. Get out the tape measure and jot down:

• the width of the base + height of both sides + overhang desired
• the length of the base +height of both sides + overhang desired

The overhang depends on what you prefer. If you want the wrong side of the fabric and/or the wire hidden, then you want an overhang to be the same as the height. I like a little wire showing so I did a 3 inch overhang on my 8 inch tall baskets.

I use a soft fabric tape measure (tell that man in your life to put the metal construction-style measuring tape away) and I start at one side of the basket and just measure from left to right; up the side, down the side, across the bottom, up the right side and down the right side. Write your number down and repeat for the other direction.

As for the seam allowance: I am generous and round up to the nearest inch with my measurements and sew only a quarter inch seam allowance and unless you want a very snug, precise fit, that should work just fine. I appreciate precision to a degree but if I can’t finish it before my babies wake from naptime then it goes into the giant stack of unfinished and unsatisfying projects and then I still have a tangle of shoes at the door. For me, I eyeball and round up and it works.

Now you have a set of measurements that dictate how big to cut your rectangle. I cut out the rectangle and then set the basket directly on top of the rectangle, in the middle. You can measure but if you are in the less-precise camp like me, this works well also. You will have 4 squares that will be cut from the corners, as indicated in my graphic.

I made this little graphic to show how to measure your rectangle and what happens after you cut it out.

Print yours here!

CLICK TO PRINT!

Sew the four corner seams. I zigzagged my edges first because I anticipate having to wash my liners but you don’t have to. Hem all the way around the top edge and/or make a casing for elastic or ribbon or whatever cute idea you may have. Often, a hem is all you need for the liner to stay put. Then you are done and can organize shoes, toys, or whatever and be impressed with your own industry and thrift, Wildflowers!

MY basket liner was a little on the wonky side for several reasons. I reused the existing corner seam of this old fitted sheet for one of my corner seams which didn’t exactly (literally or figuratively) add up but I was running out of sheet and I’m not about to be deterred by a little funkiness. I cut the elastic free from the sheet and used that in the casing to elasticize the top of my liner. I knew my basket would be pulled in and out often, and I wanted to help the liner stay in place.

There you have it, Wildflowers! What salvaged materials have you used for organizing? Share in the comments section below!

My Gram, a continual source of sewing inspiration (mentioned here), found this half-finished vest in her fabric stash. I loved the fabric but didn’t need a vest. Because I have been on a back-interest tank kick (like these here) I immediately imagined cutting a deeper neckline and crossing the vest front into a flyaway back. Of course, unless you also stumble upon an unfinished vest in your sewing stash, this can’t really be considered a tutorial. It is really a demonstration of using creativity and bias tape to turn something unusable and undesirable (sorry, but I’m not rocking a vest to school…at least not a floral one…yet) into something cute.  Here’s how I did it:

I took out my pattern piece used (here) and cut (I eyeballed, but you should use a pencil. Do as I say, not as I do, as my mother always said 😉 the neckline and armholes to match. If you don’t have a pattern piece handy you could use a tank you already own in a similar fabric type if you are attempting a similar project. I didn’t slim down the sides because I planned on crossing the back into a flyaway back. This decision took a lot of trying on and off in front of the mirror and pinning the back at the base of the neck to figure out if that would work. It was fun to figure out, and if you think it would be too, then you’re a girl after my own heart for sure.

Because this is a woven fabric, the back of the vest, which I used as the front, was not about to provide a flattering shape to my front. I added darts about an inch from the top of the side seam. This gave the front a more structured and pleasing appearance.

The vest arrived in me with the side seams and the shoulder seams already are sewn. I pressed open the left side seam (ladies’ zippers, seams, etc, go on the left most of the time) and sewed in a salvaged black zipper (from you guessed it, my Gram). After the zipper was sewn in, I used a seam ripper to open the seam sewn by Heaven only knows who sometime in the ’80s. This isn’t a fancy way to put in a zipper but it is simple and effective. Because it is under my arm, in a dark color, and it was a salvaged (free!) project, I didn’t feel compelled to install an invisible zipper. A zipper also allows the garment to be more fitted, which is what I was going for.

Then came my first real roadblock. Once it was on, the front (the old back) was a bit too short. I had zero extra fabric except for the curve I cut from the neckline. Look closely- that’s what I attached to the bottom front of the top. Don’t look too closely- it’s not perfect but there were few options since the fabric is about as old as I am and at this point, I was super excited (read: impatient) to get it done. To finish the edges I used bias tape. Bias tape is very handy indeed and gave a smooth, professional finish to the edge of my project without adding bulk. FYI, bulk is nearly always a bad thing in sewing. My mom rustled up two packages of the white single fold for me (more free sewing notions= winning!) and I attached as shown in the photo. You stitch in the crease of the tape, right next to the edge of the garment. Once you sew all the way around, then you fold the tape over and create a smart looking topstitch around once again. This is one time to be careful with your stitching. It shows pretty easily if you were swerving all over the road if you know what I mean. I had to do the bias tape when my kids were napping and it looks pretty sharp as a result.

Finally, I sewed the top edges of the vest together in the back and sewed about ⅔ of the way down my back.

That’s it, Wildflowers! See how a little out-of-the-pattern-envelope thinking gave me a new school top? Share any similar successful project ideas in the comment section below!