How to Make a Lining for a Laundry Basket

Every laundry basket should have a liner. With a washable cloth liner in your laundry basket, you can easily transfer dirty clothes to your washer by simply lifting the liner out of the basket without having to touch the clothes. If you use a wicker basket for laundry, then a liner also protects your clothes from snagging on the inside of the basket.

Things You'll Need

• Butcher paper
• Pencil
• 4 yards cotton muslin or other washable cotton
• Pins
• Scissors
• Thread
• Fabric pen
• Safety pin
• 6 yards decorative ribbon

Instructions

Make a Liner Pattern

1. Place your basket on the butcher paper. Trace around the bottom of the basket using the pencil.

2. Lay the basket on one of the wide sides on the butcher paper and trace around the side and bottom edges. Do not trace across the top of the basket.

3. Remove the basket from the butcher paper. Using the ruler, trace a 5 inch vertical line up each of the top corners of the pattern. Draw a horizontal line to connect these lines. This top edge of your pattern will create a flap that will fold over the top of the basket and lie on the outside.

4. Lay the basket on the butcher paper with a narrow side (one of the sides with a handle) down. Trace around the bottom and side edges. Make a dot with your pencil to mark each end of the handle.

5. Remove the basket. Extend each side of the liner pattern an additional 5 inches up. Draw two additional 5 inch vertical lines that start at the points that mark the end of the handles. Draw horizontal lines connecting each corner of the liner pattern to the end of the lines coming up from the handles. Leave the area above the handle blank. Your liner will have an opening for the handles.

6. Add a 1/2 inch seam allowance on all sides of each pattern.

Make Your Liner

1. Pin the pattern pieces onto the cotton fabric.

2. Cut four fabric pieces to match each side pattern panel so you have four wide pieces of fabric and four narrow pieces of fabric. This will enable you to make a double-layered liner with hidden seams.

3. Cut two pieces of fabric to match the bottom pattern panel.

4. Pin four side pieces together, using two wide pieces and two narrow pieces with handle openings. Alternate wide and narrow pieces and make sure the wider (top) side of each piece is on top. Stitch together using a 1/2 inch seam. All the raw edges of the seams should face the same direction. End each seam 1/2 an inch before the bottom of the fabric.

5. Pin the bottom piece to the sides and stitch with a 1/2 inch seam. Make sure the seam faces the same direction as the other seams.

6. Clip the corners of each seam and press all seams open.

7. Repeat steps four through six for the second set of sides and bottom pieces. This will be the second layer of your double-layered liner.

8. Place the top edges of the two layers of the liner together, right sides together, with the seams lined up, and pin in place.

9. Measure 1 1/4 inches down from the top edge of the fabric and 1/2 an inch in from the side edge of the opening you left for the handle and mark with a fabric pen. This will be the opening for the drawstring casing.

10. Sew the two liner pieces together around the top edge, using a 1/2 inch seam. Leave openings at your marks for the casings. Leave an opening of approximately 10 inches on one of the longer sides (a side without a handle opening) to turn the liner right side out.

11. Turn the liner right side out.

12. Press the top edge of the liner, folding the opening down so it matches the seam.

13. Topstitch around the entire top edge, closing the opening you left. Sew another straight stitch 3/4 of an inch below the topstitching. This will create the casing for the drawstring.

14. Hand-sew the two layers of the liner together at the four bottom corners.

15. Cut two lengths of ribbon of about 3 feet each. Run one ribbon through the casing on each side, using the safety pin to draw it through.

16. Put the liner in your basket and tie the ribbons under each handle.

References

• Martha Stewart: Laundry Basket Liner