This was a 2020 finish but am just getting round to sharing it now. My hand sewn basket was a learning experience and the result truly has that handmade, rustic look. You are either going to love it or pity me!

There are plenty of tutorials out there for machine sewn and hand sewn rope baskets. I've made many machine versions but really wanted to try sewing one by hand. It has a different look that I really like and honestly I will make one again but here's what I found...


The base is really fun to stitch, it creates such a beautiful effect and I was very happy with that. I used Aurifloss to stitch the basket, staring with a beige colour and then switching to neutral white/cream for the main part of the basket.

So far so good...


As the edges start building up you begin to see the bowl forming, basically you are just wrapping the rope around and uses stitches to secure it to the rope next to it (or below it as you increase the sides). Occasionally I stitched over two rows of rope to help strengthen it a bit.


And then it started getting a waist!! Clearly I wasn't focusing and I allowed the rope edges to cave in, I hadn't put any effort in when wrapping the rope to make it flush with the rope below. I hope that makes sense, the diameter was getting smaller because the wrapped rope wasn't being perfectly stacked on top.


Once I realised that was happening, I countered it by doing the opposite, concentrating on pushing out the diameter while wrapping the rope on the top edge as I stitched. So ultimately I have created a slightly pear shaped rope basket!

It took about three spools of Aurifloss to stitch and sorry I don't know how exactly how much rope I used - it was made with leftovers - but I can tell you it's cotton washing line rope, readily available on Amazon, Ebay or similar.

I don't hate it, in fact I've grown to really love it - imperfections and all. I am proud of the handles and the finishing, they look pretty cool. 



The base might still be my favourite bit though!



I can't pretend my hand didn't ache at various points in the making of this basket, you are only catching the rope so it isn't hard work but there's a lot of stitches - if you make too few then you'll have large gaps in the side so consistency is important. Next time I think I will stick to shorter bowls rather than baskets, this took a long time to stitch! 


Having said that it's being used all the time, it stores all the kids hairbrushes! That was the intention, I made it to store hairbrushes. Not the most exciting use but certainly practical and now the brushes are hidden inside my tall, shapely rope basket.