Craft Tutorial: Newspaper Basket Weaving

This spring on the blog we'll be focused on projects that require minimal supplies (bonus points for using items around the house!), so you can get your creative DIY juices flowing without leaving the comfort of your home.

If you’ve got some time, some newspaper, and ever considered taking our basket weaving class, then this is the craft for you! 

Warning: It's slightly addicting and once you learn the technique, you can use it to make baskets of all sizes. Perfect for spring cleaning and organization! You can also use the same technique to make them from magazine pages, which are super cute and necessary for all your craft supplies.

Newspaper Basket Weaving Tutorial

Gather your materials:

• Newspaper (or other big sheets of paper)
• Scissors
• Some sort of binding: double sided tape, regular tape, stapler, etc
• Tablecloth or covering of some sort (optional)

 

Let's get started!

1. If you're working on a light colored surface, protect it with a table cloth because the newspaper ink may rub off on it. You’ll start to see it on your hands after a while too! But don’t worry... it'll wash right off!

2. Take a piece of newspaper folded in half. Cut the folded edge off which now gives you two separate sheets.

3. Take one of the sheets and fold it long ways in half. Then fold it long ways in half again. Each time you fold, keep the edges of the paper aligned and crease firmly. Fold it once more in half long ways and crease edges firmly with your hands.

4. Use a tiny piece of tape to secure the edges together in the center to keep your strips from unfolding.

5. Make at least ten of these strips for the bottom of your basket.

6. Once you have ten strips, it’s time to start weaving the bottom of your basket! Lay down five strips next to each other. Next, we're going to weave in the remaining five strips the opposite way. Weave in these strips by feeding them one at a time going over, under, over, under, and over the original five strips.  For the second woven strip, start with the opposite direction (under, over, under over, under). Repeat these steps with the remaining strips.

7. After they're all woven in, adjust strips so that they're as close together as possible and each side has roughly the same amount remaining sticking out.

This is the bottom of your basket! You can increase or decrease the size to make a larger or smaller basket.

8. Crease the strips as you fold each of them upwards at the place where the basket bottom ends and the basket side begins. 

9. Next step is to make eight more strips! Make them with the same folds as step 3.

10. Weave in one of these new strips across one of your basket sides using the same pattern as before- over, under, over, under, and over. 

 11. Align your woven strip with the edge of the basket side and attach it there with tape or a staple. You'll have a large amount of the strip remaining, which is what you'll later use to continue weaving around the basket. 

12. Weave in three more pieces so you have four strips total going up that one side of your basket. You'll likely need to tuck in pieces of tape periodically to keep your woven strips in place. 

13. Now take those remaining lengths and weave each of them through the adjacent side of the basket. Repeat until all four strips have been woven across the two basket sides.

14. Now it’s time to “finagle” your basket! As Andie, our basket weaving instructor, says, basket weaving is all about finagling! Tug strips lightly to pull into place and to reduce any gaps. You’ll see a basket begin to form!

15. Now it’s time for the other two sides! Repeat steps 10-14 to build them up.

16. Once you’ve gotten all your strips woven and finished your finagling and taping, it’s time to connect your corners! Use a combination of double sided tape and tape to secure them in place.

17. Lastly, you'll want to fix the top of your basket. For strips popping up from the inside of your basket, cut them so they’re even with the top of your basket. For strips that are popping up on the front of your basket, fold over and secure on the inside of your basket.

Yay! You made a newspaper basket!! We’d love to see your creations!

Tag us on Instagram at @assemblycreate!

If you enjoyed this craft and want to learn more basket making techniques, check out our new Coiled Basket Making Class + Kit.