Learn to make a very sophisticated Easter basket using textured and unusual yarns. This is a perfect Easter craft for using left over yarns that you may have tucked away in the drawer full of discards. I have so many supplies like this! I just hate to be wasteful and not use them somehow... The supplies you will need include: chenille stems (all white), yarn, cardboard, small nail and wire clippers. I made this basket for 2019, but I'm just now getting around to posting it here, sorry.
Selecting the yarn for this craft will greatly determine how your finished piece looks!
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Cut an oval from heavy cardboard for the bottom of your chenille stem basket.
Use a nail to punch holes along the outer edges of the cardboard bottom.
Bend the ends of each chenille stem around and up through the holes. The length of these fuzzy wires will predetermine the height of the sides of your basket.
At this point you may wish to wire the bottom of your basket with an extra wire or chenille stem if you intend to display it on an Easter egg tree. To wire the bottom push a stem up through and back down into two holes strategically located in the bottom cardboard.
Now continue to weave yarn in and out of every other chenille stem. The yarn you choose to use for this weave will greatly shape and affect the appearance of the basket; so choose carefully.
Shape a wire oval the same size of the base to twist the tips of the chenille stems around at the top of your basket.
Weave additional yarn around the top edge to cover the top edge till smooth.
Wire loops at both ends of the basket using covered wires.
Bend another wire for the handle and twist this through the wire loops at both ends to shape the basket handle.
Cover the basket handle with more yarn.
Left, Cut an oval from heavy cardboard for the bottom of your chenille stem basket. Center, Use a nail to punch holes along the outer edges of the cardboard bottom. Right, Bend the ends of each chenille stem around and up through the holes. The length of these fuzzy wires will predetermine the height of the sides of your basket.
Left, The wires inserted into each nail hole. Right, see what the bottom looks like.
Left, I decided to glue a second layer of cardboard on the bottom of my basket to make it stronger. Center, At this point you may wish to wire the bottom of your basket with an extra wire or chenille stem if you intend to display it on an Easter egg tree. To wire the bottom push a stem up through and back down into two holes strategically located in the bottom cardboard. Right, Now continue to weave yarn in and out of every other chenille stem. The yarn you choose to use for this weave will greatly shape and affect the appearance of the basket; so choose carefully.
Left, I chose to switch out my yarn types to make a stripe. Center, the bent oval stem for the top edge of my basket is the same size as the cardboard bottom, however, you could adjust this to be larger or smaller to change the shape of your basket. Right, I covered this with yarn before and after attaching it.
Left, See the chenille stems wrapped around the wire edge. Right, see that I wrapped the edge of the basket again with yarn to cover the exposed stems.
Below, I've included an article from 1898 describing two sisters that made their living from the meticulous crafting of pine needle baskets. These baskets were first crafted by indigenous peoples long ago but American women soon learned the art of weaving these little beauties during the late 1800s. Pine needle baskets are still highly sought after by collectors today; perhaps you may find inspiration here to continue the art of weaving a few treasures for your friends and family this Easter?
Basket Making for Profit, Two New York Girls Have Discovered a New Road to Fortune Which Other Women May Follow, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 1898
If you have ever bought a basket of candy in Mexico your attention has no doubt been attracted to the dainty basket as much as to the sweets. The Indians and Mexicans and the "cracker" women of the mountains of the South are expert basket makers, but it is only quite recently that a young woman of New York, trying to solve the difficult poroblem of how a woman may support herself, was attracted to this employment.
a pine needle basket
While visiting at Aiken, S. C., Miss Mabel Compbell and her sister Stella observed the pretty baskets made of pine needles that were sold at the hotel by the country women. Miss Stella made a little basket after spending a day with the women who taught her, and before she left Aiken became quite expert. The following year Miss Mabel went out West, 'way out in the Indian country, as teacher in a family. The Indians in the neighborhood made many beautiful baskets. At Christmas she sent her sister Stella the prettiest basket to be found. Miss Stella was a typewriter, but disliked the work very much. She suggested to her sister that she learn all she possibly could concerning the making of the baskets, which she did, and also about the curing of the grasses, and in fact, invented many patterns of her own. She forwarded her sister a dozen of the baskets which she had made herself, and a lot of colored grass, in order that she might try her own hand at the art of weaving. Miss Stella combined the Indian and Southern material into a basket of an original design, which she sold to a florist for a good price. Afterward Miss Campbell went to Asheville, N. C., and pursued her quest for information concerning basket making. She returned to New York to find her sister had lost her position, her employer having gone to the war. Florists were consulted, and their orders were so large that it was decided to give all their time to the work.
A month ago they were obligated to engage a young woman to assist them, and they regard the business as in quite a flourishing condition. They have many more orders on hand than they can fill at present. The baskets are in great demand in other cities than New York--in fact, the largest order they have had to fill came from Washington-and the baskets will be used wherever flowers or fancy candies are sold. They anticipate orders from Chicago and Boston. When the winter season begins it is probable that they will take several girls into their employ, and will be obliged to go into larger quarters. Their summer home is a cottage in the Adirondacks, and they work in an ideal way, out on the veranda, or even taking the work into the woods, sometimes staying for several days at a time.
A party of young ladies visited them the other day, and, while it was impossible to fill the order they wished to leave, a bright suggestion of one of the girls was well received. She said she would like to take a course of lessons in the art of basket-weaving to add to her other accomplishments, embroidery and painting. Miss Campbell thinks it will be profitable to have classes in New York this winter.
Miss Campbell, when asked if the work is hare, shrugging her shoulders, said that she had never seen anything worth while that was not hard. There is some drawback to everything, but this work is not so confining as other work taken up by women. It can be accomplished at home for one thing, it is clean, and it does not strain the back or muscles. It must be learned like everything else, the principal requirement being the ability to invent new shapes. Miss Campbell and her sister have found it pleasanter and much more remunerative than either teaching or typewriting, those occupations most affected by the women who are not so fortunately situated as to have homes of their own and a competency.
This miniature basket is woven using a braided rag rug method. To make a basket the size of the one pictured here you would need:
A braided length of yarn measuring approximately one yard; use three colors of any yarn or embroidery floss that you may have on hand.
You will also need thread and a needle.
masking tape
You will also need some kind of a spool like form; I used a toothbrush container.
Above is a pictured sequence for making the basket. If you click on the photo it will look larger in a new window. As you can see in the second frame, you will need to work the braid in a spiral pattern until it is roughly the size of a small coin. Whip stitch the shape as you go with the needle and thread. The color of your thread will be exposed so choose that shade wisely. I chose a shade of pale grey because I liked the way that it looked. Some of you, however, may choose to conceal your stitches by matching them to the yarn colors.
Loop the two ends of a piece of masking tape together and press it firmly to the end of your basket's temporary form and then mount the coin sized bottom of your miniature basket onto the the form. Now, as you spin and sew together the sides of the braided yarn to itself, the shape of the basket walls will begin to form. Soon, you will have a tiny basket fit for an egg. After you have crafted the basket to the size that you desire remove it from the temporary form. Add a handle by looping the remainder of the braided yarn from one side of the basket to the other, sewing these in place. You can always add more braid into the basket design with a threaded needle should the basket appear longer on one side.
Far left, cut egg shapes from cardboard. Center, notch around it's edges. Right, weave yarn back and forth to make a design all your own.
A simpler weaving exercise may be accomplished by younger students by weaving yarn around the perimeter of a cardboard egg. In this way teachers or parents can also involve children of multiple ages, both young and older, in participating in decorating an Easter egg tree or display.
This is a time consuming project that has wonderful results when completed. I recommend this craft for students in 3rd or 4th grade. It will take time for them to create their pictures and to also carefully follow instructions. Never avoid teaching art assignments to older children for any of these reasons. Perseverance is a rewording human attribute to develop and nurture in the young. They will make something they can be proud of and teachers will learn to adapt processes to challenge their aging protégé.
Far left: I cut a basket stencil to fit the largest piece of standard sized construction paper I could find. Working large for this art project makes it much easier for a small child to craft. Adults may scale the activity down and create interesting Easter cards using the same weaving process with ribbons if they'd like. Center: Here you can see; I've traced around my stencil and added long wavy lines down the front vessel part of my basket design. I then cut along these lines that imitate the 'warp' part of the woven design. Proceed then to use long strips of construction paper to mimic the 'weft' process by which the construction paper basket is woven. Far Right: After I have woven my basket, I will paste down and tuck in loose edges of the design on the front side of the basket to hide any imperfections.
Far Left: Turn the woven design over and mask the back side of your picture before cutting it out. Center: Cut out the basket carefully; remember to leave approximately 1/8 of an inch around the edges of your flat woven basket as you go. Far Right: The finished basket is now glued along the edges only and adhered to a bright white background. Only the edges of the basket and the handle of the basket are glued, so that additional paper elements may be added into the inside of the flat woven picture in the end.
Cut some grass to add to the bottom of your woven Easter picture. Measure from the bottom of your background paper up to the point where you would like the grass to cover the bottom of the basket. Double this measurement and cut a strip of green construction paper out that will run the length of the white construction paper. Fold the paper in have horizontally and cut narrow slashed along the folded edge only. Be careful not to cut all the way to the other edge of your folded paper; leave about 1/8 of an inch of an additional boarder. Unfold your grass border. It should look something like the one pictured above. The cuts do not need to be as regular as mine.
Now refold your green construction paper and staple it to the white construction paper along the bottom edge.
Left: Cut the loops in half. Right: Give your grass a bit of a fringe with the sharp edge of your scissors.
Now you can cut and color some bright eggs, peeps, and a chocolate bunny to add to your woven Easter picture. I also stuffed the basket with green, paper, Easter grass in order to enhance the three dimensional effect. Glue the paper embellishments on the complete picture.
From Jericho, Jesus and his disciples went up the mountains,
and came to Bethany, where his friends Martha and Mary lived,
and where he had raised Lazarus to life. Many people in
Jerusalem heard that Jesus was there, and they went out of the
city to see him, for Bethany was only two miles from Jerusalem.
Some came also to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the
dead; but the rulers of the Jews said to each other:
"We must not only kill Jesus, but Lazarus,
also; because on his account so many of the people are going
after Jesus and are believing on him."
The friends of Jesus in Bethany made a supper for Jesus, at
the house of a man named Simon. He was called "Simon the
leper"; and perhaps he was one whom Jesus had cured of leprosy.
Jesus and his disciples, with Lazarus, leaned upon the couches
around the table, as the guests; and Martha was one of those
who waited upon them. While they were at the supper, Mary, the
sister of Lazarus, came into the room, carrying a sealed jar of
very precious perfume. She opened the jar, and poured some of
the perfume upon the head of Jesus, and some upon his feet; and
she wiped his feet with her long hair. And the whole house was
filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But one of the disciples of Jesus, Judas Iscariot, was not
pleased at this. He said: "Why was such a waste of the perfume
made? This might have been sold for more than forty-five
dollars, and the money given to the poor!"
This he said, but not because he cared for the poor. Judas
was the one who kept the bag of money for Jesus and the twelve;
and he was a thief, and took away for his own use all the money
that he could steal. But Jesus said:
"Let her alone; why do you find fault with
the woman? She has done a good work upon me. You have the
poor always with you, and whenever you wish, you can give to
them. But you will have me with you only a little while. She
has done what she could; for she has come to perfume my body
for its burial. And truly I say to you, that wherever the
gospel shall be preached throughout all the world, what this
woman has done shall be told in memory of her."
Perhaps Mary knew what others did not believe, that Jesus
was soon to die; and she showed her love for him, and her sorrow for his
coming death, by this rich gift. But Judas, the disciple who
carried the bag, was very angry at Jesus; and from that time
he was looking for a chance to betray Jesus, or to give him
up to his enemies. He went to the chief priests, and said:
"What will you give me, if I will put Jesus in your
hands?"
They said, "We will give you thirty pieces of silver."
And for thirty pieces of silver Judas promised to help them
take Jesus, and make him their prisoner.
On the morning after the supper at Bethany, Jesus called two
of his disciples, and said to them:
"Go into the next village, and at a place where two roads
cross; and there you will find an ass tied, and a colt with it.
Loose them, and bring them to me. And if any one says to you,
'Why do you do this?' say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and
they will let them go."
They went to the place and found the ass and the colt, and
were loosing them, when the owner said:
"What are you doing, untying the ass?"
And they said, as Jesus had told them to say:
"The Lord has need of it."
Then the owner gave them the ass and the colt
for the use of Jesus. They brought them to
Jesus on the Mount of Olives; and they laid some of their
own clothes on the colt for a cushion, and set Jesus upon
it. Then all the disciples and a very great multitude threw
their garments upon the ground for Jesus to ride upon.
Others cut down branches from the trees and laid them on the
ground. And as Jesus rode over the mountain toward
Jerusalem, many walked before him waving branches of palm
trees. And they all cried together:
"Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he
that cometh in the name of the Lord! Blessed be the kingdom
of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!"
These things they said, because they believed that Jesus was
the Christ, the Anointed King; and they hoped that he would now
set up his throne in Jerusalem. Some of the Pharisees in the
crowd, who did not believe in Jesus, said to him:
"Master, stop your disciples!"
But Jesus said:
"I tell you, that if these should be still, the very stones
would cry out!"
And when he came into Jerusalem with all this multitude, all
the city was filled with wonder. They said: "Who is this?"
And the multitude answered:
"This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth in Galilee!"
And Jesus went into the Temple, and looked around it; but he
did not stay, because the hour was late. He went again to
Bethany, and there stayed at night with his friends.
These things took place on Sunday, the first day of the
week; and that Sunday in the year is called Palm Sunday,
because of the palm branches which the people carried before
Jesus.
Many people heard him gladly, but the
great city was deaf to his pleadings. "O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem," he cried, "thou that killest the prophets, how
often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not!"
Palm weavers are preparing for
Palm Sunday in the Philippines.
Spring Awakening by Esther L. Morrison "Spring is here! Spring is here!" called Snowdrop. "Who told you?" asked Yellow Crocus, sticking her head out of the ground. "Oh, I saw a robin and the buds on the trees looked as though they would burst any minute," she answered. Crocus yawned and said, "We must call violet." Very soon Violet was beside them. At last Snowdrop said, "It's time for Daffodil to wake up." When Daffodil was awake the flowers' bright-colored dresses looked so pretty together, they decided to have a party. They danced and sang so merrily that some children passing by heard their joyful calls and carried on the message of "spring is here."
