Easter Basket Making

Total Time Needed:: 2-3 Hours

Make your child's Easter morning hunt eggs-tra special with a colorful basket she can craft herself.

Materials

Long strips of 1/2- to 3/4-inch-wide cotton cloth torn across the grain
A blunt, wide-eye tapestry needle

Approximately 7 yards of 3/8-inch stiff rope
Scissors

Instructions

Thread the needle with a strip of cloth, pulling a few inches of the material through the eye of the needle. Do not tie a knot in the cloth. Starting at the very end of the rope, help your child begin wrapping the free end of the cloth strip around the rope, making sure to overlap the cloth each time around to hide the rope.
Once she has covered several inches of the rope, help her begin coiling it into a tight disk. She should bind the coils together by passing the needle and cloth strip through the inner coils of the rope and pulling the cloth very taut. Make a second wrap over the first to secure it firmly.
Continue wrapping the rope with the cloth strip, binding the covered rope to itself every inch or so. To add a new color, simply begin wrapping a new strip around the rope, covering the previous strip by * inch.
When the coiled disk reaches a diameter she likes, your child can build up the sides of the basket by stacking the covered rope on top of previous coils, securing it in the same manner as before.
When the basket is as high as she likes, help her create a handle. First, secure the rope in place by binding it to the last coil of the basket. Then arch the wrapped rope over the basket to the other side. Form a small loop to sit just inside the rim of the basket and secure it in place by binding the cloth to the top coils of the basket. Reversing direction, arch the rope over the basket again, twisting it around the first part of the handle. Cut the covered rope (a parent's job), leaving it long enough to make a small loop at the end, like the one on the other side of the basket. Bind the rope to the basket and secure the end in place, tucking in any stray fabric ends.