I made two flower girl baskets because I have two flower girls! I am VERY pleased with how they turned out.
However, I did have a VERY different image in my mind of how these would come out- a lot less frills for one! Oh well 
I’m going to say this now – this basket will take you a long time. Don’t expect to finish it in an hour. Set aside an entire day to dedicate to making this! That leaves room for mistakes and learning.
You could probably make one quickly if you didn’t use satin fabric, which I used. Sewing satin fabric takes FOREVER to pin and sew. It probably didn’t help that it was the cheap costume satin fabric that frayed like crazy.
It was very difficult to find any tutorials for covering a basket in fabric. The ones that I did find weren’t detailed enough to figure out, and when I tried them, I felt like they looked sloppy.
Earlier, I wrote a post: DIY Flower Girl Basket Tutorials – which has a lot of other different ideas and tutorials for flower girl baskets. If you don’t like mine, check out all of the other ones!
I got the basic idea for covering my baskets from a Waste Basket Cover tutorial from Craft and Fabric Links
I had to alter my pattern a little bit, because the pattern that I used on their site didn’t really make sense for an actual basket. Real baskets have all sorts of bumps, so they aren’t smooth.
Let’s get started, shall we? Be prepared for frustration! Nah, it’s not that bad – once you figure it out!
Materials:
- 1 Basket of your choice – I got mine for 50% off at JoAnn’s, costing me $3.50. I’m sure you could find one even cheaper at a thrift store, but I needed to make sure that both of my baskets matched. Also, my fiance wanted HUGE baskets instead of the normal smaller ones – lucky me! It might have been easier to cover if I had to work with less fabric.
- 1 yard of fabric – You probably won’t use it all – but it’s nice to have extra fabric if you totally screw it up! I picked up some white costume satin fabric at Wal Mart for $1.50/yard.
- 4″ wide contrasting ribbon – I got Offray brand dark red ribbon.
- 1.5″ wide ribbon to wrap around the handle – I got 1.5″ x 12 feet of ribbon and used it all on one basket.
- Fray Check – available at any sewing supplies store
- Hot Glue Gun
- Sewing Machine
- Needle
- Compass
- Pins
- Iron
- Thread
- Sharp Sewing Scissors or Rotary Cutter
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Scrap Paper
IF YOU NEED TO SEE BIGGER PICTURES FOR DETAIL, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO. THEN CLICK “ALL SIZES” ABOVE THE PHOTO.
Instructions:
Step 1: Make a pattern for the outside of the basket – make sure you label everything!
- Measure the circumference at the top of the basket (measure around the top, close to the upper edge). This measurement is “A.” Write these down!
- Measure the circumference at the bottom of the basket. This measurement is “B.”
- Measure the height of the basket, including some overlap on the inside. How far you want your fabric to overlap is up to you. I have a big overlap in one of my baskets, and a tiny overlap for this specific tutorial. This measurement is “C.”
- Add 2″ to A
- Add 2″ to B
- Add 1/2″ to C
Basket Measurements
- Now, adjust your “A” and “B” measurements.
- Divide “A” by 4, and round UP to the nearest 1/4″. Write down that number. (For example, my basket’s upper circumference was 36″. I added 2″, which brought it to 38″. 38″ divided by 4 is 9.5″. No rounding was needed.)
- Divide “B” by 4, and round UP to the nearest 1/4″. Write down that number. (For example, my basket’s lower circumference was 27″. I added 2″, which brought it to 29″. 29″ divided by 4 is 7.25″. No rounding was needed.)
- Take your scrap paper, or any 8.5″ x 11″ sheet, and draw a line across the top of the paper that is equal to your “A” measurement.
- Draw a new line across the bottom of the paper. The line should equal “B”.
- The distance between “A” and “B” should equal “C”.
- “A” and “B” should have their centers aligned.
- Draw two lines, connecting the ends of “A” and “B”. (For example, my top line was 9.5″. My bottom line was 7.25″ and the two lines were 7″ apart, because my “C” was 7″.)
This photo is upside down, but hopefully you get the idea!
- Do the same as you did for the outside for the inside, except for “C”.
- For measurement “C”, only measure to the top of the basket, with no overlap. Then, continue to follow the above instructions for “C”.
- For the bottom and inside circles, measure the diameter of the bottom of your basket and add 1/2″.
- Using a compass, draw a circle the diameter you measured in the step above (plus the 1/2″). If you do not have a compass, draw a horizontal line across the center of the paper. Draw a vertical line down the middle of the paper. Draw an “x” where the lines intersect. Take a ruler and lay it so that it runs next to the “x”. Draw dots of equal distances from the “x”. The distance apart should be equal to the diameter and the “x” should be in the center of the dots (the dots are equal distance from the “x”). Do this several times, pivoting the ruler through the “x” a small distance each time. Connect the dots and you have a circle!
All three Pattern Pieces
Step 2: Pin your patterns to your fabric pieces. If using satin, make sure that you use LOTS of pins!
- You will need 4 fabric pieces from the outside pattern, 4 fabric pieces from the inside pattern, and 2 fabric pieces of the bottom circle pattern.
- To save a ton of time, fold your fabric in half twice, so that you can pin the patterns on all 4 layers at once.
I attempted to show the 4 layers of fabric per each pattern piece
All pinned and ready to be cut!
Step 3: Cut out all the pieces! I recommend a straight-edge and a rotary cutter. It cuts down the time significantly.
Cut out the fabric pieces
Step 4: Iron all of your fabric pieces individually so that they have no wrinkles. Make sure you’re using a low heat setting for satin fabrics.
Iron the fabric pieces
Step 5: Pin two of the outside fabric pattern pieces right sides together on one side. Do the same for the second pair of outside fabric pattern pieces. The inside fabric pattern pieces are also done in the same way, as shown below. Sew where you have pinned. ALL SEAM ALLOWANCES ARE 1/4″. This will make your 4 outside and inside pieces become 2.
- Then, take the 2 inside and 2 outside pieces that you now have, and pin those right sides together. Sew. You should now have 2 fabric pieces TOTAL, including the inside piece and the outside piece, excluding the circles. Before you go any further, make sure that the inside and outside pieces fit on your basket.
Pin the fabric pieces
Step 6: Pin each circle to the bottom of your 2 pieces, and sew. This will give you an outer bowl shape and an inner bowl shape.
Pin the circle to each of your pieces.
Just another view of one - ignore my Hershey wrappers in the background, lol. Crafting makes me hungry!
YOU HAVE FINISHED THE DIFFICULT SEWING PARTS! CONGRATULATIONS! Isn’t it a PAIN!? Especially with satin!!! The circles always took me FOREVER and the pins kept slipping! Grr!
Step 7: Glue the inside bowl (lining) to the basket with your glue gun. You’re probably going to be glue happy (I was on my first basket), but that is BAD! The basket will look more naturally covered if it isn’t glued everywhere. Also, if there is TOO MUCH glue, the satin gets stained and can’t be fixed! Here are my suggestions:
- Make hot glue dots on the outside border of the inside bottom a couple inches apart. Since hot glue dries pretty quickly, you’ll want to do this kinda fast.
- Make sure that the wrong side of your lining is facing down, and secure the circular part to the bottom. Be sure to work quickly!
- If you lay down your circle and it’s totally off, you can gently pull up the fabric and re-glue. I had to do this a couple times. Satin is hard to set perfectly and it’s always moving around!
- After the circle part is down, make hot glue dots at the top of the inside. Glue a few dots and position the fabric in an area, and then keep going around the inside top until all of the lining is glued.
- ONLY glue the edges of the bottom circle and the top of the inside lining. It looks so much more natural letting the fabric form on its own.
Glue the inside bottom circle first.
YAY! The inside is GLUED!
Don't worry about the frayed top - we'll be covering that up with the outside bowl.
Step 8: Now that the inside is all glued in, take the outside piece, and fold the frayed edges onto the wrong side, hot gluing them in place section by section. Hopefully the photos below do a better job of explaining this!
Glue the top edge
Fold over a small amount of fabric onto the glue.
Step 9: Once you finish gluing around the entire top, insert the basket and glue the top edge to the basket. You should be covering the frayed edges of the inside part the best you can. Please check out the photos to see what I mean.
Glue the outside on
Don't worry about glue spots or bare spots - we'll fix them!
We'll fix that one too!
Just another view
Step 10: So – we gotta do something with those bare spots and glue spots. This is a flower girl basket, so what better thing to cover them up with than flowers? To make flowers, decide how many you want to cover the inside and outside of the basket. I wanted 6 for the inside and 6 for the outside. For the inside flowers, I cut out strips of 1.5″ x 8″. For the outside flowers, I cut out strips of 1″ x 8″ (This DOES make a big impact on size!) Once they are cut, be sure to use some kind of fray stopper ALL around the edges, so that they don’t fray like mad! I used Fray Check.
Cut out strips and use Fray Check!
These are really uneven - BAD! I wanted to use red fabric for the outside flowers
Step 11: While you’re waiting for your strips to dry, now is a great time to whip out your ribbon and start doing the handles. I thought this would be really fast and easy, but yeah, it’s not as easy as it looks! First, glue the end of the ribbon to the bottom of the handle. Then, wrap the ribbon around that point twice, and glue it again. Now that you have an anchor, you’re now ready to wrap the ribbon around the basket. It’s easiest if you take all of the ribbon off the roll, and make sure that you do a very tight and even wrap. Once you get to the middle top of the basket, glue it in place and cut the ribbon. We’ll fix how the top middle looks later on.
Glue the ribbon on as close as you can get to the bottom
This is what it should look like after winding the ribbon around the bottom twice
Once you get to the middle, glue it in place and cut the ribbon
Chop!
An example of how close and even I winded the ribbon
Do the same thing to the other side of the handle, and glue and chop in the middle.
To do the second weird handle piece, I secured the base in the same way, and went up to the top of the little handle section. I went around the top part of the section twice, folded in the frayed edge, and glued it down.
View from Outside
View from Inside
Another View from Inside
Another View from Inside
First side done! Make sure you glue it down as flat as possible, and on the inside to hide it better
Second Side Done!
Step 12: Now to make the top middle of the handle look awesome while covering the frayed ribbon. Take your 4″ wide ribbon, fold it to the wrong side and glue it down so it doesn’t fray. Wrap the ribbon around the handle and decide how much ribbon you will need. Cut the ribbon accordingly. Glue the frayed part to the underside of the middle top handle.
Fold in the start of the ribbon and glue it down so it doesn't fray.
Glue the frayed side to the underside of the middle part of the handle
Just another view
Then, wrap it around and glue it down. It now looks like a finished edge! All done with this part!
Step 13: Once they are dry, take a needle and thread of the same color as the fabric, and weave your needle in and out of one long side of the strip. Once you reach the end of the strip, pull the thread, which will scrunch it up into a flower! Make sure to secure it by sewing up the bottom a few times and knotting it.
Weave your needle in and out of the strip - don't forget to knot the thread at your starting point!
Pull the thread when you get to the end of the strip
Flower!
Secure your flower by sewing through the bottom a few times and knot it
Houston, We Have Flowers.
Tobor stepped in for inspection
Step 14: Now for the fun part – gluing on the flowers! I covered any wood that was showing in hot glue, and then put the flower on it, making sure that I have every spot of showing wood covered.
First flower ON!
And 2!
I also placed them on the seams of the sides to cover up a glue mess.
The inside of the basket is complete
Step 15: I can’t figure out how to make bows for the life of me. I know, I should be able to! I had to buy two pre-made bows for each basket. I glued those onto the outside of each handle, and glued the flowers I made in between them. I put one flower on the middle seams of the outside, and then eyed the placement of the other flowers.
Offray My Moments Bows
And glued
FINISHED!
Here is a look at the FIRST one I made, which has a different inside and slightly different outside, but I couldn’t replicate it in this tutorial because it actually was the “messed up” one. I kept cutting fabric and adding fabric until everything fit around the basket – so I have no idea about the measurements on it! I love it just the same though, it just has a slightly different inside/outside!
If you have ANY comments or questions, please let me know! I hope that this tutorial was easy to understand, but I can definitely see how you can get confused! I’d also LOVE to see flower girl baskets that any of you have made or if you have a tutorial of your own. Thanks!
