Laundry Hamper

I used to sew clothes for my girls when they were little. When they were babies, they wore whatever I made of course. Then they got old enough to choose their patterns and fabric. It was so fun until I finished the outfits and they decided they didn’t like them after all. Grrrr!

Nowadays, I sew for inanimate objects. The window never complains that the curtain is too short. The table never whines that the tablecloth makes its legs look fat.

My latest project is a basket liner. I found a basket in the garage to use as my hamper, but my clothes kept getting snagged on the inside. I’ve been kicking the idea around of making drop cloth slipcovers, so I already had a drop cloth bleached and washed for my fabric.

Basically, I measured that bottom of the basket and added 1/2 inch seam allowances on each side. I did the same thing for the sides.

The nice thing about this project, is that it doesn’t have to fit perfect. Who’s ever going to see it? Mine turned out a little big, but that has worked out well. The liner doesn’t fall into the basket when I throw clothes in it.

The drop cloth is pretty ravelly (is that a word), so I serged the seam together.

Originally, I thought I’d tie the flaps together at the corners, but the handle required that I make the side flap narrow. It works just fine the way it is, though.

Here’s a closeup of how the pieces fit together. Because the basket didn’t have sharp, perpendicular corners, seams just end up wherever. It’s all good.

The liner was just too boring, so I added this embroidery stitch available on my sewing machine.

There she is. Seems a shame to throw my dirty undies in it.