Rope basket making
Welcome to our rope basket making page to accompany our kit from Rondos Designs! You'll find our video demonstration, tips and inspiration. Enjoy!
Types of basket making
Basket making is such a lovely craft, as the results are so practical, and often very beautiful as well. You might think of wicker or willow baskets when you first think of basket making – these are the most common types of baskets, but baskets can be made out of so many materials, using a range of different techniques!
I’ll list a few of them here:
- Weaving from natural materials, such as wicker, willow or rattan
- Crochet with cord or thick yarn
- Sewing with fabric
- Rope and cord (like our kit)
- Fabric scraps and rope
- Cord sewn together using a sewing machine
- Rolled up sheets of newspaper
- Cardboard, and many more…
See the Pinterest board below for more ideas!
Basket making is a wonderful way to create pieces for your home and handmade baskets make lovely gifts as well. The process is generally quite repetitive as well, which makes it very relaxing. All in all, it's a great craft!
My experience with this kit
To start, I have to admit that I have done this technique quite a lot (I’ve run workshops on it!) so I’m not a beginner, but I did really enjoy this kit. The video instructions are really easy to follow, and take you through the process really clearly.
I also haven’t made a basket with this type of macrame cord before, and I found it really easy to use and it created a really sturdy, neat looking basket.
My top tips for using this kit:
- Take your time (especially at the beginning) to make sure your wraps are really close together so you can’t see the cream coloured rope peeking through (this is hard though, and mine isn’t perfect!)
- If you are right handed, hold the free end of the rope (not the basket end) with your left hand and wrap the cord with your right hand. This is much quicker and easier than if you hold the basket! If you are left handed, do it the other way round.
- Wrap your cord fairly tightly, and pull tightly when pulling the cord through the previous layer. Not so much that it hurts your hands (I’ve seen this in a workshop!) but tightly enough that it makes your basket nice and sturdy.
- When you are building the sides, the shape of the basket will depend on where you lay your rope over the previous layer. For example, if you want straight sides, lay the rope directly over the previous row, but if you want angled sides, keep the rope slightly offset. Just be aware that the sides will tend to slump outwards so be quite firm with the rope to keep it where you want it.
- If you don’t want to build the sides of the basket, you could make a flat coaster or placemat instead!
COMING SOON: Written instructions to accompany this kit
Next steps
If you’ve enjoyed making your basket and want to make more, it’s very easy to buy more supplies and experiment with shapes and materials using the same technique.
The base is usually piping cord, which can be purchased from many fabric suppliers. This is something that works well, so it’s good to stick with that to start with. It would be fun to experiment with wrapping different materials around the rope, such as twine, thick yarn or strips of fabric. Or creating designs in different colours. For example, alternating the colour on each row looks really nice (see the first picture above).
You could also experiment with different shapes and sizes of basket. One that has been quite popular in my workshops is a style where you make the base wider and the sides shorter but vertically straight. You can make your baskets really big or really small! Or you can leave out the sides altogether and make flat placemats and coasters.
Alicia The Crafter shares a range of basket styles using the same technique as this kit on her Instagram page, which is worth a look for inspiration!
If you loved making your basket but you want to explore other basket making techniques, take a look at the basket making Pinterest board I’ve created. There is plenty on there to get your creative juices going!
