Easter Basket Swap Tutorial

Ok, I have THREE ways to cover the yogurt cups, and the first is the easiest.

First I sprayed primer onto my cups. You could use a brush on primer, or don't prime and paint at all. I use soft colors on my things and didn't want the yogurt label to show through. So, First prime, then paint with an acrylic paint. ( I did inside and out,because I am Anal that way :) )

I used Crepe Paper sheets and cut it to the width I wanted. ( Regular rolled crepe paper is too small unless you layer.)I used my ruler to pencil in a straight line for sewing. Now, normally I would use my sewing machine to do the gathering, but it is broken, so I gathered it by hand. You could also use fabric. Once I had the length I wanted, I traced the bottom of the cup onto a matching paper, and cut around the outside of the circle with decorative scissors. This will be hot-glued onto the bottom, after the crepe paper or fabric is applied to the sides. I also made a handle from chenille sticks that I wrapped with crepe paper and glued onto the yogurt cup on the outside.
So, there you have a covered cup that is ready to decorate !! :)
Here is my finished one. I added more crepe paper ruffle to the inner lip of the cup, trim to cover the sewn seam, ribbons, mica glitter, a rosette with a Vintage Victorian Scrap and Ta-Da !! Easy Peasy !! Right ? :)


Ok, Basket number two. Fabric covered. First you want to trace a large circle onto your fabric. Since my Yogurt cup is 3" tall and 2" wide on the bottom, I need something larger than 8 ". 3(one side )+2(bottom)+3(other side)=8. So, I went ahead and made a 10" circle so I would have enough overlap. You could do 2 more inches so that you could hem the tops. I opted to use pinking sheers on my finished edge.
After the circle was cut I traced the bottom of the cup in the center of the circle. This is so when I hot glued the bottom of the cup to the fabric, I could have it perfectly centered. Now, you sewers could do this in an easier fashion, but since I am a poor seamstress, I opted to whip stitch about two inches in and gather. From there I hot glued the fabric to the rim.

Again, you want to add your handle to the outside of the yogurt cup.
Here is the basket, after it has been gathered. At this point I pull up the fabric edges while hot glueing to the rim of the basket. This gives the fabric a tight look. See the Pink one below. At this point, you are done covering the basket. Now you want to embellish. I added gathered tulle to the inside rim of mine, trim around the gathered part, and paper ruffles to the bottom.
Ok, Third way to cover the basket. I wrapped my yogurt cup with a sheet of paper tightly , and with my pencil, drew a line below the bottom of the rim on the outside of the cup.Once that was traced, I cut along the line, and wrapped it around my cup again, and lightly traced around the bottom of the cup to make my pattern.
Once you have your pattern, you can trace it onto decorative paper, felt, etc. to make a cover for your basket. I used a glue stick to glue the paper onto the cup. It will only cover the smooth part of the cup and not the rim, that you need to cover up with your trim of choice. On mine, I added the handle, then paper ruffles, millinery and ribbons.
Ta Da ! Finished basket using third method. :)

I hope this helps you to be creative in making your own baskets for Easter and for this swap :) It is REALLY hard to do a tutorial while holding the camera in one hand and working with the other, lol !! Next time I think Hubby needs to help me ! :)

Hugs,

Rhea