Easter Baskets - my way. Update!

Edit - Full photo tutorial now complete!

I have a whole pile of Easter/spring crafts to get done and photographed over the weekend. I'm bursting with ideas, thanks to a few friends of mine who got the creative brainstorming going again.

Today I just wanted to give you a cheap, quick project to do - an Easter basket.  I hate buying Easter baskets.  There's so many trendy things each year, character baskets, cutesy felt baskets...I just...well honestly, I only need as many baskets as I have children, I need to spend money on things I'll use more than once, and I need something that will design-wise last into the next few years.  

So if I'm going to be using new baskets this year, they're going to be cheap, homemade, or both.

And as I'm thinking this, I walk through the hardware aisle in Target, and see clearance patterned duct tape. Seriously?  Clearance?!?! As if I needed more incentive to pile it in my cart.  I got the last three rolls of it, a teal with white polka dots.  Nice and springy.

I pinned a duct tape bag a while back (find me here on Pinterest), and I've been thinking about it ever since.  But goodness knows I don't need another tote bag in my life.

And so the duct tape Easter basket was born.  Cheap, simple, and fun.  Your kids could make their own baskets for the Easter bunny to fill this year!

I didn't take pictures as I went along, I was caught up in creating, and I didn't know if it would work.  I'll write up what I did, but if you want a picture tutorial, leave me a comment and if there's enough feedback, I'll gladly put one together for everyone.

Here's how it went:

Materials:

1 roll pretty duct tape

1 fat quarter fabric 

• For those who don't know, a fat quarter is a piece of fabric measuring 18x22 inches, or 1/4 yard.
• I used a fat quarter since you can buy them more places, and it's less work than having fabric cut.  They sell them individually or in packets.
• My kids are usually not patient enough to wait to cut fabric, but they like to look at and pick out fat quarters. Who knew?

A form with a non-tapered bottom 

•  I used a water jug/cooler (this one) for mine, but any straight-sided or tapered down sided form will work.  You don't want to use something that gets wider at the bottom. Some 2 liter bottles (Pepsi brand) will work, but others (Coke) widen at the bottom.

This is what I did:

Wrap the fabric.

• I wrapped my jug in the fabric, with the right side of the fabric facing the form.  You'll want to fold over the edges of the fabric a bit, so you don't see the fabric edges on the inside.  I taped the fabric down to the jug, only letting about 1/3 of the tape width overhang onto the plastic.  You want to see the right side of the tape touching 1/3 plastic, 2/3 the wrong side of the fabric.That way you can peel it off later to take it off without too much hassle.  I had extra fabric length too, when I wrapped it, but I just wrapped it and folded it over.  Keeping it simple.  You can cut it if you want to.I taped down the "seam" where the fabric met, to keep it wrapped. 

Tape the sides.

• Now you start the real taping.  Overlap the next strip of tape with the one before it, and wrap it all the way around.  If you work slowly, you can do a pretty good job of keeping the tape and fabric from crinkling up. Continue taping in stripes like this for the height of the form.  One thing that is important - don't tape too tightly.  It makes it harder to take the basket off!

Tape the bottom.

• When you get to the bottom, the process is a little different.  I cut the excess fabric off, making sure i had enough left to cover the bottom.  Then I overlapped the remaining fabric nicely.  With the tape, I made a sort of asterisk on the bottom, crossing the tape at the center point, and overlapping the outside edge a half inch or so back onto the sides.  Lots of X's.  I did that until it was covered, then taped around the very bottom of the side, to secure the bottom pieces of tape.  

Take it off the form.

• Peel down the top edge of the duct tape until you get to the fabric.  Then slide the basket off the form.  If you wrapped too tightly, you'll just have to scoot and scoot and pull the basket, but as long as the top edge isn't taped to the form anymore, you should be able to get it off.

Add the handle(s)

• I doubled over a piece of tape for the handle, sticky sides touching.  I left a 1/2" or so extra on one end to help me get it in place.  I taped around the outside rim to hold it on, and taped another piece around, folding  it over to the inside, onto the fabric. You can make the handle stand up with more duct tape, but I didn't feel the need to do it.  And you can make the handle however you want - 2 handles, if you want to. Anything goes.  Just try to make sure and center your handle.

Without pictures, it sounds more complicated than it really is!  Sorry I didn't do it!  But I did get some photos of it finished.  That counts for something, right?

I had the fat quarter on hand already, and the duct tape was $1.18...so this was a nice, cheap Easter basket.  :)  Fat quarters aren't expensive anyway (a buck or two per).  It didn't take very long, so you have plenty of time before Easter...and if you're a hoarder like me, you probably already have everything you need.  

 Have a great weekend!