Basket Weaving

Today I'm sharing a 'new' creation.  Last Sunday I took a course in how to use old milk cartons (or juice, yoghurt or Swedish 'fil' milk - basically, any Tetrapack brand 1 litre or larger cartons) to weave into a basket.  I made a bread basket but the lady who taught the class regularly makes handbags and totes in all sorts of sizes and patterns.

Side View

For this basket I used 1.5 litre milk cartons and it's a 4x3 base size.  The technique is reasonably easy to get started with, although joining up the corners and finishing the round is a bit trickier.  I reckon total construction time for a first time go was about 4 hours.

Top View

We're going to teach our grade two students how to make smaller versions of these for a fun spring project next month, complete with wrapped string eggs to place inside.  We're a bit mad for it, I'm sure - if only for the sheer volume of cartons we're asking families to bring in, which then need to be cut down to into stripes.  Eek!  I'm guessing I'll be mad as a hatter by the end of it all.  Wish us luck!