Best out of waste Basket

My daughter made this best out of waste basket for a recent school project. She used a cardboard box, jute string, glue and some leftover cloth and just look at that pretty result. It’s useful, decorative AND it was fun to make. Read on to know how to make your own and get all the best tips, links and much more.

Best out of waste basket -fun DIY for kids

I love best out of waste projects (as most of you probably know by now) and I love brainstorming ideas with my kids for school projects. They are just so good at it! Once the idea ticks all the boxes, we know we are on to a winner. It has to be fun -yet slightly difficult- to make, it has to be a bit different, it should be useful afterwards (preferably) and it has to be possible for them to make it alone. My guidance might be needed but no actual help from my side. Strictly no cheating allowed in this house! 🙂

Do you love best out of waste as much as I do? Check out our other best out of waste projects; Best Out Of Waste Castle, Barbie Doll Throne (best-out-of-waste) or DIY Sorting Hat or simply check out the best out of waste category on top of this page.

My best tips for making a best out of waste basket:

• Have plenty of time and don’t be fooled by the 1 minute online tutorials that make it look quick and easy. It IS easy, but it does take some time to finish. I didn’t time her efforts, as she worked on it over a week or two, but it probably took 3-4 hours in total.
• Use a thick, unbend cardboard box as your base. We used one from itsy bitsy measuring about 30cm by 20 cm. Cut off 3/4 of the top of the box and leave just 7-10cm of the bottom bit. Make sure it’s taped well together so it doesn’t come apart.
• Use two types of jute string. I purchased both on amazon.in. We used Ajanta Natural 8mm Jute Twine and Ajanta Natural Jute Rope 2mm. We used all of the wide string, so if your box is slightly bigger than ours, then you might need more than 10 meters.
• You will also need eyelets and an eyelet punch. I bought them at a local craft store but have also seen them on itsybitsy.com. They are available in both plastic and metal, but in my experience, the plastic ones tend to come off after a while and they are nearly impossible to put back on without breaking the casing again.
• If possible, use old cloth for the inner lining You can use any fabric you want, of course, but to stay true to the “best out of waste” theme you can try to find something old, but useable. Like an old dress or t-shirt. We used old t-shirt cloth for the inner lining of our basket.

Stitching the inner lining for the basket

I have added all the easy-to-follow steps below the ingredients from start to finish. You may notice that I haven’t added pictures of the cloth pieces before we started to stitch them together. We got so caught up with it all, that we forgot the pictures. I have made this small diagram instead, but it may require a little explanation 🙂

 

1. Cut 5 pieces of cloth the same size. Each piece should be 1 inch/2.5cm wider on both sides than the bottom of the cardboard box. (I have simplified this step to make it easier for kids to do. The extra cloth from two sides will just be folded into the lining later)
2. Stitch the 4 surrounding pieces to the middle piece (step 1 in the diagram).The four pieces will end up being the sides.
3. Stitch the sides together on all four sides (step 2 in the diagram). You will now have a small “bag” with a rectangular bottom.
4. Fit “the bag” into the cardboard box and fold the top of the cloth over the sides. Fold the cloth up for the casing. Secure it with pins.
5. Make marks for the eyelets and hammer them in (more about this step in the full guide below).
6. Stitch the casing.
7. Attach a safety pin to the 8mm jute string and pull it from one eyelet to the other. Finish off by making a neat bow.

 

We used the same casing method for the Balloon Bag: Ideal For Storing Toys. And that time I remembered the pictures, so if this doesn’t make sense, please see how to to it in this link.

You can use this jute basket for so many different things; fruits or other dry food, baby clothes, socks or diapers. We also used it for the return bags at our Harry Potter party.

Hope you liked this best out of waste idea. See the full tutorial in the steps below. 🙂