Upcycling Ties Into a Basket

My husband, Johnny, was gifted many ties several years ago and has never worn them. Ever. I asked him if he was going to wear them and he said no, so I confiscated them. I mean, why let a good tie go to waste, right? But, whatever do you do with a bunch of ties? I did a lot of research and pinteresting, and saw a way of upcycling ties into a basket. Yes, a basket! Well, you could call it a bowl, but it still holds stuff and that’s what I’m going to use it as…either a basket or a bowl.

Gather your supplies:

• 6-8 silk ties
• thread
• sewing machine
• sewing glue (you know, the kind of glue that holds fabric together so you don’t have to sew it)

First, gather your ties. I believe Johnny had 7 ties, so I used all of them.

As you can see, the majority of the ties are red, so the ones that don’t match the color scheme, will become the bottom of the basket.

Create the Basket Bottom

You’ll need 3 ties for the bottom.

Sew three ties together. See the images above and below? I simply match up the skinny ends and sew across. Then, match up the wider ends between ties 2 & 3 and sew those together. Now, you should have 3 ties sewed together with similar ends matching. Now, fold the ties in half lengthwise (you may need to fold the wider ends in half two times so that they match the width of the skinny ends). Pin as you go and then sew the edges together to hold them. I hope this makes sense! You should end up with one long skinny tie/rope.

Once you have the ties sewed together, start at the thick end and start coiling them up, gluing as you go. See photo #1 above for an idea of what this looks like.

When you’re finished you should have a flat base of coiled ties. Set this aside.

Take the remainder of your ties and do the same folding/pinning/sewing process. These are the ones you are going to sew to make the sides of the basket.

Okay. Here’s the tricky part. When the bottom has dried, take your long rope (the one for the sides). Wrap and glue it once around the base and as you get to the beginning where the two ends will meet, stop gluing. Let this dry for a little bit. This is where you will start sewing the rope for the sides to the bottom.

Sewing the Sides to the Bottom

Set the stitching to a zigzag stitch. Taking the tie that you just glued to the bottom, adjust it slightly so that you can start coiling and sewing the sides together. Basically, you want the ties to each side of the need so that the zigzag stitch will grab both sides and pull the together. Sew slowly and carefully. There were many times I had to go back and re-do it because I missed an edge and the two sides weren’t sewn together.

As you get to the end, sew the last little bit of the tie/rope to the basket. That’s it! It takes a little wiggling to get the tie/rope to fit under the sewing machine, but it works. In the end your basket may look like this..but probably a little better.

If you try this project, I’d love to see how it turns out! Let me know if you have any questions on upcycling ties into a basket!