Learn how to make gifts for family, friends and pets with Annabel Wrigley’s easy-to-follow instructions in We Love to Sew Gifts (Fun Stitch Studio, 2015). From sewing machine basics to embellishments, buttons, and pom-poms, you can learn to make charming gifts to wear, use, and display. The following coiled fabric basket is from “Gifts for Your School Friends.”
What Do I Need?
• Cotton clothesline (can be found in a hardware store)
• Gluestick
• 1/4 yard of quilting-weight fabric
• Basic sewing supplies
Prepare the Pieces
Cut strips of fabric 1/2 inch x the full width of the fabric, selvage to selvage. You should only need around 4 or 5 strips.
Let’s Make It
1. Cut a piece of clothesline approximately 75 inches long.
2. Apply some glue to the tip of a fabric strip.
3. Glue the strip to the cotton clothesline and begin wrapping the fabric around the clothesline on an angle, making sure to wrap tightly and with the fabric strip overlapping each time around the clothesline.
4. When you get to the end of a fabric strip, simply apply some glue and then start on a new strip.
5. Continue wrapping until you have filled the length of clothesline.
6. Coil an end of the cord around until you have a circle that is about 8 coils across. Push pins through at 4 points around the circle to hold the coils in place.
7. Sew all the way across the coil base in a straight line, starting and ending with a backstitch.
8. Sew straight across again, to form a cross. Don’t forget to backstitch!
9. Now sew straight across again between the other lines. It looks a bit like a star now!
10. Now it is time to start sewing the sides of the bowl. Adjust your machine so you are sewing a wide zigzag stitch.
Tilt the coil base slightly on its side and, while holding it on its side, start zigzag stitching the cord around the sides of the bowl. You want each zigzag stitch to catch both sides of the coil so they become sewn together.
11. Try hard to keep the rows of cording touching as you sew around.
12. Continue while holding the bowl at an angle until you have finished. Make sure to backstitch at the end so that the end is super secure. There are so many possibilities with this fun technique. Work with a longer piece of clothesline and make a larger bowl, or maybe make a teeny tiny one to hold some tiny treasures!
More Projects from We Love to Sew Gifts:
• Fleece Scarf Pattern with Pom-Poms
• Handmade Fabric Gift Bags
Reprinted with permission from We Love to Sew Gifts: Fun Stuff for Kids to Stitch and Share by Annabel Wrigley and published by C & T Publishing, 2015.