Home » Repurposed Items » Miscellaneous Household Items » How to line a vintage picnic basket

How to line a vintage picnic basket

ByGail Wilson Published on Updated on
2 Comments

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

This isn’t a repurpose, it’s more of a fix up of a vintage picnic basket.

My daughter Jamie was really wanting a vintage picnic basket. I was shopping at my favorite Peddler’s Mall, and found this one. I took a pic with my phone and sent the picture to her via e-mail. This basket was selling for about $13.00. She wasn’t really impressed.

I walked a little further, and found this sweet basket for $9.85. I sent her this picture, and immediately she texted me back, “get it”.

As the title states, I really don’t like to sew. I have never sewn a basket lining before. I made a prototype with this very inexpensive green fabric. One of Joey’s specials at $2.96 for about 5 yards. I turned the basket over, laid the fabric on the basket wrong side out, and pinned the heck out of it! I had pins everywhere. I then sewed it, and made some little ties for it. I also made a prototype for the cover of the lid.
I was a little nervous because she had bought designer fabric and I didn’t want to mess it up.

This is the finished product. Louie (the grandog) is checking it out to make sure his “mops” did a good job. If Louie were smaller or the basket larger, we could put him in there just like Toto on the Wizard of Oz. Louie spent about 6 weeks with me, because my daughter Jamie had a lot of travel plans. He has gone back home now, and I miss him. However, Miss Kitty and Matt Dillon may be glad he’s gone.

There was quite a bit of fabric that I cut off the parts that I pinned. Four corners, four pieces of fabric. I did a little hem in them for napkins. But after I made all four of them, I decided to use them in a different way. I sewed two of them together on 3 sides to use as a little pouch for paper plates and napkins. Another one, I folded over to make a pouch for plastic cutlery. I used adhesive Velcro on both so that the things wouldn’t spill out.

I padded the lid with cotton batting. While I was doing that, I noticed that there was a faint pencil marking of $1.89 on the lid. Apparently that is what it cost originally. At the last minute (the day before Jamie was arriving for a visit) I decided to make a divider shelf. I used a piece of hardboard, cut to fit the shape of the inside of the basket. I used a paddle bit to cut finger holes near the center to lift it out. I used dowel rods to have it raised about 4 inches off the bottom. I covered it with the printed fabric (lid). To do this, I used spray adhesive that works great, just try not to get it on your hands! When I do get it on my hands, I use baby oil to remove it.
After finishing the basket, I went to the Dollar Tree and bought all kinds of goodies to fill it.
  1. a journal
  2. salt and pepper
  3. cutlery
  4. plates and napkins
  5. sunscreen
  6. cork screw
  7. a small basket to put the cutlery in

Jamie was very happy with how it turned out. I hope that she has lots of fun on her picnic adventures!

Gail Wilson is the author and mastermind behind My Repurposed Life. She is obsessed with finding potential in unexpected places and believes that with a little hard work and imagination, any old thing can be made useful again, including herself!
Gail reinvented herself during a midlife crisis and has found purpose again. She hopes you will find new ideas for old things and pick up a few tools along the way.

2 Comments

  1. Oh I bet your daughter was thrilled with the end result… it is gorgeous… I am sure she will treasure that for many years.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.