Cloth Lined Burlap Napkin Basket

I'd been wanting to make a basket to hold my cloth napkins in for a few months, and unable to bear the thought of working on any of my half finished projects, decided it'd be the perfect time to start a new one.  I had some burlap I grabbed on impulse from the remnant bin at Joann's as well as some Pelleon SF101 interfacing left over from the Weekender travel bag sea along so I figured that would be a good start.

Now...I haven't worked with burlap before, but this stuff was warpy and evasive!  I started off making a rectangular basket and ended up with a square one.  More or less the burlap was cut in a + shape with the middle of it 8 by 8 inches for the bottom and the branches being 8" by 5". 



 
Interfacing - one 8 by 8 inch piece for the bottom and four 5 by 8 inch pieces, basted onto the burlap +.  I was able to sew the corners together on my sewing machine instead of by hand (yay), then I hand sewed the handles on which were burlap wrapped and sewn around small pieces of the Pelleon.





I made the shell for the lining in a + shape also - 8.5" by 8.5" for the middle section (which is the bottom of the basket) with the four branches being 8.5" by 6.5"  I ended up with a bit of slack in the bottom, but the corners all fit in pretty nicely with a 1/4" seam allowance, and it enabled enough fabric to be folded over the edges of the burlap/interfacing so it about 1" isvisible on the outside. I stitched the lining in with a neutral pearl cotton.  One great thing about this is that if & when I want to switch out the lining all I need to do is remove the pearl thread.

The fabric for the lining is Salt Air Sea Garden by Cosmo Cricket in Summer






So I'm pretty sure I wont be working with burlap again unless I get my hands on a coffee bag.

There are certainly a dozen excuses for me to make more baskets of all shapes and sizes. This project can surely be done better, so I better practice!  And if I do switch out the lining I will probably move the handle down another inch for aesthetics.

Now I just need to make my own coordinating cloth napkins and I'll be set. Muahahaha! I didn't know how much fun a good hobby could be!