7. Rope Basket with Built-In Handles
Sometimes you need a basket you can grab and go, whether you’re carrying firewood to the living room, hauling laundry across the house, or gathering garden produce. A basket with built-in rope handles solves the problem elegantly.
Materials: Cotton rope, hot glue, fabric strips for wrapping, scissors.
Instructions: Coil the base of your basket as usual. When the basket reaches about a third of its final height, stop and create two handle openings. To do this, leave a 2-inch gap between the coils on opposite sides for one row, then resume coiling above. Once the basket is finished, thread extra rope through each gap to form a handle, wrapping and gluing the rope ends securely inside the basket. A lighter or hot knife helps seal the rope ends so they don’t fray.
Time: 2 hours. Difficulty: Intermediate.
💡 Pro Tip: If the handle gap feels weak, reinforce it by wrapping a smaller piece of rope tightly across the gap on the inside of the basket before continuing to coil.