Baskets

Our little baby boy has turned three months old last weekend and things are finally getting normal again around the house. Also my husband spent last month at home on parental leave which was really helpful for me and great for all of us. With his help I was able to start jogging. I was never a big fan of jogging but I felt like I have to do something to keep my body in shape after the second baby and this seemed the easiest solution. So I went jogging two times a week for a month and still try to keep this new habit of mine.
Anyway, the last time I went jogging on Thursday I found great treasures thrown away on the streets. In Germany you can find amazing things on the streets. There is a garbage truck that comes every few weeks and picks up old furnishings that people don’t need anymore. So you just put your junk on the streets the night before and the next morning it’s gone. They do not have garage sales but if you go around your neighborhood or even the city, you can find great treasures. I often see students carrying couches by hand or other stuff. And it is not all junk! Really, sometimes things are in great condition!

Like those baskets that I found when I was jogging. It happened like a cartoon: I was jogging by a big pile (rattan sofa, baskets and a lot more), I noticed those baskets, was jogging backwards, picked the little basket up and continued jogging. Like nothing happened. Just kept it casual… 🙂 Except I looked ridiculous on the way home jogging with a basket. Anyway,  I told my husband about my findings and he went back later with his bike to pick up the bigger basket.

This is how we ended up with these:

My older son helped me cleaning them both. The smaller one was a bit dirtier, so I decided to sew a linen for it. This is how I made it:

I put the basket on my fabric and cut out a circle about the same size as the bottom.
Folded the circle in four, measured the radius and calculated the circumference (105cm) . I also measured the side of the basket and added about 10cm to it (45cm).

With those I was able to cut the side piece: circumference for the longer side and the height of the side for the shorter side (105x45cm).

I made a cut in the middle (ca. 10-12cm) for the handle of the basket.
Folded it (I did the same on both sides), pinned it and stitched it.

Then I folded the upper and longer edge of the fabric, as well and sewed it together. It was a big fold, about 2cm wide.

As the next step, I pinned the circle in the middle of the side fabric. Marked at one-forth and pinned together accordingly.

It looked like this, then sewed together:

 

As the final step I sewed the side seam and it was almost done.

With the help of a safety pin I added a nice green ribbon

and this is how it looks now:
Not bad, right? Now we have an exceptional laundry basket for our baby boy. Yes, we decided to use it as a laundry basket. Why not? It’s beautiful and costs almost nothing!
This is one of the few things that I love about Germany: free treasures on the streets!

 

The other basket was in way better shape but the top of it was unfortunately broken. I cleaned the hole thing. My husband found an article about cleaning and updating these kind of baskets and rattan furniture. So you have to give it a good clean with a paste made of salt and warm water. Then rinse it (I did it in the shower), let it dry on the air, then rub it with oil. We used the oil what we bought from IKEA for our wooden cutting board and it worked just fine.

First I didn’t want to, but then I did repair the top of the large basket by hand-sewing with bast (raffia) and now it stands in our living room and we keep our blankets in it. I love it because it helps us keep the living room more organized. My husband loves it because it brings him back sweet childhood memories. And it didn’t go to waste! Win-win-win!