Basket Liners [Tutorial]

I wasn’t planning on making a tutorial for these basket liners. I’m tired, they aren’t particularly fancy or interesting, and I am distracted by baby-ness. BUT….My little sister requested one, and since she was sweet enough to thrift for baskets for me, I couldn’t say no to her. So here is the basic gist of it for you….

You will need:

• a basket
• fabric (I used muslin, and doubled up the lining to make it more opaque.)
• 1/2″ elastic
• the usual – thread, pins, etc….

It starts with a basket – handles removed.

Measure from the center of the basket bottom, up the side and over to where you want the liner to end. Add a seam allowance and 1″ for the elastic casing.  This measurement is height of your liner. (Multiply the height by two if you are doubling up the lining like I did. )

Measure around the outside of the basket. Add to this measurement a little “ease” (1/2 to 1 inch) and two seam allowances. This is the width of your liner.

Cut out a piece of fabric according to the width and height measurements. Fold it in half width-wise right sides together and sew the “height” sides together making a tube.

If you are doubling the lining, fold the tube down within itself wrong sides facing. The folded edge of the tube will be the top of the lining. (Although, the top edge is shown at the bottom in this photo. My apologies.)

Fold over the (folded) top edge of the lining 1 inch to the outside of the tube.

Sew a 3/4 inch casing along the folded edge for elastic. Leave an opening for inserting the elastic later.

Sew the bottom edges of the tube together.

Measure the shortest width of the basket bottom.

Then, sew a “dart” across the bottom corners the length just measured. This seam is perpendicular to the bottom seam.

Now, the lining has a bottom to it that is roughly the same size as the bottom of the basket.
view from bottom:

view from top:

Insert elastic into the casing, and adjust it fit the basket.

And that’s it!

I hope you enjoyed it, Rachel (and everyone else)!
Let me know if you have any questions.

(More details on the lined basket project in this post.)