Upcycle Old Corduroy Into A Hanging Storage Basket To Help Stay Organized

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The struggle is real for homeowners when it comes to gaining storage and keeping countertops clutter-free. Textile waste might not make the top five list of concerns for many of us, but money saving most certainly does. Tackle all four of these issues with a DIY hanging basket unit made from old corduroy clothes. Three adorable connected cloth containers dangle from a dowel, creating storage with a cozy look and feel for nearly any space in the home.

Adult-sized corduroy pants should provide you with enough fabric to make three 6 to 8 inch-diameter baskets. Snip sections of the legs to use as the bodies of the baskets, and leftover scraps can become the baskets' bases and the strips to hold the baskets one above the others. If corduroy isn't part of your wardrobe, you can use jeans without having to adjust the steps at all. However, if you think corduroy's nubby texture gives you exactly the look you want, hit thrift stores to see what you can find.

Once you've picked out the old clothing to upcycle, you'll need a 1 inch-thick dowel between 10 and 12 inches long, scissors, cotton cord or jute twine, straight pins, a large safety pin, a measuring tape, a marking pen or chalk, and either a sewing machine or a strong, reliable fabric glue like the highly-rated Surebonder Fabric Hot Glue Sticks.

Using cuttings from pant legs will save you a bit of sewing. If the hems are still in good shape, take advantage of their condition by making them the open ends of two of the baskets. Cut the lower 5 to 6 inches from each pant leg. For the third basket, cut the leg piece about 1 inch longer than the cuffed ones. Before moving on, you will probably need to adjust the width of this cut, since it will come from higher up on the pant leg. Flip the wider piece inside out. Measure the width of the narrower pieces, mark that width on the wider cut, and run a line of stitching parallel to its original seam.

Unless you're eager to dust off your geometry knowledge, calculate the size of the circle for the base for each basket with the help of an online circle calculator like this one at calculator.net. Use the circumferences of the tubes to find the necessary diameters of the circles. If you're using a cut that still has a cuff intact, measure along the cut edges, because there may be a difference in width between the cuff and the cut.

Attaching a round base to a tube of fabric can be tricky, but snipping tabs spaced ½ inch apart and ½ inch long into the cut end of the tube can make fitting the pieces together easier. Turn the tube inside out and the circle wrong-side out, and pin the tube to the edges of the circle along the tabbed edges. Sew or glue the seam, and repeat these steps for the remaining baskets.

Each basket will hang from two 4-inch strips of corduroy sewn from tubes made of scrap fabric. Measure and cut four 2 inch-by-6 fabric strips and two 2 inch-by-10 inch strips. Fold each strip in half width-wise and wrong side out. Pin their raw edges. Stitch or glue the seam, leaving the ends of the tube open. To turn the tubes right side out, attach the safety pin to one of the open ends, tuck it inside the tube, and work the pin and the fabric through the tube and out the other end. Continue guiding the material right side-out. Repeat this for the remaining strips.

Grab the two 10 inch-long tubes and what will be the uppermost basket. Fold the strips into loops, and pin their raw ends 4 inches apart to the back of the basket's opening. Also pin them with 1½ inch of loop material overlapping the basket. Pin and stitch or glue two remaining strips to the backs of the other baskets. Pin and stitch or glue the raw ends of one basket's strips, 4 inches apart, to the lower back area of the basket with the loops. Similarly pin and stitch or glue the last basket to the base of the second one.

Cut a piece of cord about 12 inches long. Slide the loops of the upper basket over the dowel. Knot the ends of the cord around each end of the dowel, and it's ready to hang in a kitchen or bathroom to keep countertops clear.