Bags, Wallets, and Zips

fabric berry basket: DIY tutorial

I am in love with so many design blogs. I spotted Fellow Fellow making some paper versions of the classic strawberry basket, and I immediately wanted to make some. However, I’m a little lacking in the awesome paper department. But I do know where I’ve got a great selection of fabric! So I thought I’d share a tutorial for making a fabric berry basket. Now before you get all “You can’t put berries in there! Are you crazy?!” on me, just step back and think of all the storage possibilities!!! And don’t stop at my few size suggestions, play and make your own…lots!

Materials:

  • 2 fat quarters (18″x 22″ pieces) or scraps
  • one yard 1/2″ double fold bias tape (can be bias cut or straight on grain)- handmade or storebought
  • *1/2 yard double sided fusible heavyweight interfacing (Pellon 72F is my top choice and works great)
  • Large & Small Basket Pattern Piece [PDF Download] 

*if you don’t have any Pellon on hand try out another heavy weight fusible or use a combination of interfacings you prefer!

Instructions:
{1/4″ seam allowance used throughout}

From fabric:

  • Cut two pieces, one from exterior fabric, one from lining.

From double sided fusible interfacing: Sizes noted on pattern sheet.

Place lining and exterior right sides facing. Sew pieces together along these lines:

Fuse on interfacing to center part only, fusing to only the exterior fabric.

Clip into inside corners corners.

Turn right side out.  Press!  Slip each of the remaining interfacing pieces into the 4 exterior sides. Press from both sides.  Topstitch along these lines:

Apply bias tape to top edges leaving a slight gap between each side section, if you want to be very precise you can do some measuring (a 1/2″ space between exterior sides looks nice), otherwise just eyeball it!

  • Open up raw edges of binding tape
  • Align with top raw edge of binding on the exterior of the basket. Fold edge of binding tape in by 1/2″.
  • Sew along first fold line.  Overlapping at the beginning/end.
  • Flip binding tape up and over to conceal top raw edge of the basket.  Topstitch binding in place.
I do recommend the larger size for someone who hasn’t had a great deal of experience applying binding.

That’s all, now make more.  Repeat until your entire house is filled then proceed to give as gifts.  If you make any fabric Berry Baskets, I’d love it if you would show them off in the flickr group!

70 thoughts on “fabric berry basket: DIY tutorial

  1. Super cute, Anna! Very clever. I could definitely use a few of these 🙂

    1. Gwen DeSeure says:

      Just saying hi from another Gwen!
      Love these handi little baskets!

  2. Patti McHugh says:

    Anna, what a great idea! Thanks for sharing! I plan on making a lot of different types of storage baskets this week!

  3. Anonymous says:

    that is flippin genius!!! thanks for sharing!

  4. JoyceLM says:

    Thanks for the great tutorial.

  5. Michele says:

    How adorable!

  6. Love your little basket!!

  7. Genius!! I’ve got to add this to my list of things to try!

  8. Anna this is wonderful thank you. I’m thinking larger with some monograms???

  9. diana says:

    you could use heavy wt cardstock or that plastic used for purse bottoms and those ornaments I cant think right know what its called you know what I mean tho

  10. BB says:

    SO cute! Now to raid the stash to make some of these!

  11. Amy Friend says:

    What an adorable idea Anna!

  12. Erin says:

    How cute is this?! Thanks so much for sharing!

  13. Vanessa says:

    brilliant and way too cute!!!

  14. Niki says:

    SO ADORABLE! I think I need to make about 18 of these now. 🙂

  15. Maria says:

    I love all kinds of fabric boxes so will be making some of these. Yours are so cute. Thanks for the tutorial.

  16. gpc says:

    Super cute!

  17. Rosa says:

    It`s pretty nice and sure I`ll make one.Thanks for the tutorial.

  18. Katy Cameron says:

    They look cute with the way you’ve styled them, but you would be the coolest PYO-er ever if you turned up with these!

  19. PYO? Aha! Pick Your Own! Holy Toledo, noodlehead, these are awesome!

  20. Janet M says:

    I have the perfect fabric for these in my stash. Can’t wait to make some. Thanks so much for idea & the tutorial!

  21. This comment has been removed by the author.

  22. Patti says:

    cute!! I know just what I’m going to do with these! Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  23. Patrícia says:

    Anna, I love them! I´m trying to open the pdf but i´m getting na error. Is just me? Thnks Patrícia

    1. Brenda says:

      Not sure if you are having the same problem as I had, but I’ll offer my experience. The PDF would not open for me on my iPad, but it did open on my laptop. Hope this helps. Brenda

  24. sewtakeahike says:

    Simply sweet pattern Anna!

  25. Oh, how delightfully easy! Must do. Have you ever washed pellon? Is it hand washable? Machine washable on delicate? Just thinking about uses…

    1. Anna says:

      Pellon site says machine wash warm although I can’t recall ever washing something that I made using this. I would think delicate in a lingerie bag would work fine. Or try using laminated cotton!

      1. Kit says:

        Hand wash , hand dry. If you spilled something on it use old toothbrush to scrub it!

  26. Laurel says:

    I just love these!!! Thanks for sharing.

  27. marcia says:

    so kind and generous of you to share, love them!

  28. That’s so cool! You are perfectly right: all the storage possibilities!
    One question: Did you topstich the binding with a regular needle?

    1. Anna says:

      yes! just a regular needle. 🙂

  29. Vicki Posten says:

    So much fun….I will get on this one right away!!

  30. Ej, det var da en meget sjov ide – den tror jeg jeg vil prøve en aften 🙂 Det ser ud til at være en god DIY! Tak 🙂

    1. Sorry – I will try i english! It is a very great little idea – I think I’ll try it som time 🙂 It seems to be a good DIY! Thank you 🙂

  31. Jeni says:

    You’re a genius!

  32. Elsa says:

    Oh, I love this ~ so simple and sweet!

  33. kristin says:

    Eeep so cute, Anna! Fun little gift for a sewing friend too, seems like…

  34. Susan says:

    Anna, sweet, super sweet, for storage a berry basket-great idea :)…………………..

  35. Anita says:

    Very cute basket! Thanks for the tutorial!

  36. amy smart says:

    These are so cute and so, SO clever! I need to make a bunch!

  37. So flipping cute!

  38. FialKa says:

    what a wonderful little thing. Many thanks for the workshop, I will try to do this 🙂

  39. Niki says:

    How on earth do you fuse double-sided interfacing to only one fabric at a time? I can’t wrap my head around it . . .

    1. Anna says:

      There’s a protective film on one side of the interfacing, leave that on, pressing the fabric from the other side. The heat is enough to go through and fuse that first side. You’ll still need to press both sides once you insert the side pieces as well.

    2. Niki says:

      Interesting! You must buy it from a different source than I do — I get it off the bolt at Jo-Ann’s (the Pellon 72F) and it comes with the glue just raw. How weird!! I bet I could improvise with some waxed paper or freezer paper.

    3. Anna says:

      I only have a Hancock fabrics locally, so I mostly get it there. You could also wait until the last step and push the center piece through one of the side openings. 🙂

  40. susan says:

    Good ol’ Noodlehead does it again! I love your ideas!

  41. Kelly O. says:

    what will you think of next! LOVE IT!!

  42. Amy DeCesare says:

    These are just too cute! My sister just gave me one that she made, and I could barely restrain myself from grabbing it, even before I knew it was meant as a present for me. Adorable!

  43. I think I’m going to make a dozen of these…

  44. Anonymous says:

    Duh! Why didn’t I think of this myself? I have put a few projects on hold looking for a basket/box/container with the perfect dimensions. Good thing there are bloggers to do the thinking for me!

  45. QuiltyGirl says:

    Such a cute idea, Anna! (Can you tell I’m way behind on my blog reading??) 🙂

  46. Sarah says:

    You are the little cute box queen. These are adorable!

  47. ayumills says:

    This looks so great, Anna! Now I want to make this so bad!!

  48. Wow that looks totally adorbs.

  49. Kim Kruse says:

    I love vintage berry baskets already, and adding cute fabric to the mix makes them even sweeter. You should totally apply to be one of the instructors at next year’s Sewing Summit so that we can all take a class from you!

  50. Sheryll Seidel says:

    What do you think of using Peltex for this?

    1. Anna says:

      Hi Sheryll,
      There are a few different versions of Peltex (the 72F being the one I used for this proejct and recommend). Here’s a link to the Pellon site, maybe that’ll help a bit on figuring out which peltex you have or like, etc. 🙂
      http://www.pellonprojects.com/?s=peltex&submit=

  51. lilmisskatie says:

    Hi there! I wanted to stop by and thank you for your amazing DIY basket tutorial. Hope you don’t mind but I had to feature you in my collection of DIY Baskets Blog Post. Thanks for sharing your inspiring creativity with us! Hope you have an inspiring day! Thanks! Lil Miss Katie’s =)
    http://www.lilmisskaties.com/blog/diy-projects/item/277-diy-make-your-own-basket-ideas

  52. songbirdfeeder says:

    How cute! These will be great to put homemade jams/jellies in for Christmas presents! Thanks for the tutorial!

  53. Lin says:

    Very cute. I would use them as bread baskets

  54. jean f says:

    I’ve got some of that stabilizer that was used for making fabric postcards, and think i’ll try that!

  55. Hi, will bias tape work, or do I specifically need binding tape? I love love love these baskets! Thank you so much! I wanted to make something like this so you can imagine my delight when I saw your tutorial.

    1. Anna Graham says:

      Hi Francesca, yes bias tape works great. I just updated it now, you can either use bias cut or straight grain for this project. 🙂 Thanks!

  56. Gloria A Weiland says:

    was looking for something like this for Ladies Rally at church. This is perfect,

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