How to Make a T-Shirt Yarn Basket | No Crochet Coiled Fabric Basket
Have you ever picked up a spool of t-shirt yarn, thought “I should make a basket with this,” and then realized every single t-shirt yarn basket tutorial on the first 37 pages of Google was for crochet?
Me too. So today I’m doing something about that.
Here’s the good news: you don’t need a hook. You don’t need to know a single crochet stitch.
You just need some t-shirt yarn, a needle, some rope, and an afternoon. Plus your favorite beverage of choice.
Don’t forget to pin this for later!
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This is a coiled basket, which is one of those techniques that sounds fancy and turns out to be super simple once you sit down and do it.
You wrap yarn around a length of braided rope, then you stitch each new round to the one below it, and the whole thing grows in a spiral.
I’ve made these with macrame cord before, but t-shirt yarn is a different experience.
It’s flat and about twice as wide, so it covers ground fast. It’s soft and stretchy and forgiving.
And because it comes in beautiful patterned colorways, you can get a whole rainbow situation happening without ever stopping to change colors.
Mine finished at approximately 7″ across and 3″ tall, and it took me only a few hours. It would of been faster if I wasn’t filming it.
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through starting the coil, building a flat base, shaping the sides, and finishing off with a clean edge that doesn’t even need a knot.
There’s a video too, in case you prefer to see how to do it instead of reading it.
Alright, let’s make a basket!
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T-Shirt Yarn Coiled Basket – Printable PDF Pattern!
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Step-by-Step: How to Make a T-Shirt Yarn Basket
Supplies You’ll Need
- 3/8″ cotton braided rope (this is your filler cord, the part that gets wrapped and forms the actual shape of the basket).
- NOTE: 25 feet should cover a basket this size. I bought a 100 feet and it’s made two baskets with a good pile left over, and I saved a bit on shipping. Trust me, you’ll want to make more baskets, lol.
- T-shirt yarn (you’ll use about 250 g for a basket this size. The spool is probably enough for 2 baskets.)
- Large eye tapestry needle
- Sharp scissors
NOTE: T-shirt yarn is stretchy and about 1/2″ wide, so it works up fast and you need fewer wraps between stitches than you would if you use a smaller cord or yarn.
ANOTHER NOTE on width: most t-shirt yarn comes folded, with both raw edges tucked toward the middle and an open seam running down the back, sort of like bias binding. That’s how mine was.
It measured just under 1/2″ wide folded, and closer to 1″ if you open it flat.
I kept mine folded the whole way through, because it lays neater and gives you a more defined wrap.
If you’d rather open yours flat you absolutely can, you’ll just get a wider, flatter coverage and you’ll want to drop down to fewer wraps between stitches.
If you go that route with it opened up, I’d only wrap once or twice between stitches.
Video Tutorial
Check out the tutorial video for this project on my YouTube channel, and don’t forget to subscribe!
Starting the Coil
Grab the end of your 3/8″ filler cord. You don’t need to taper it or tape it, we’re just going to wrap right around the raw end.
Cut a piece of t-shirt yarn about 3 arm spans long (arms spread out wide on either side of your body, and that length three times over). It feels unwieldy at first, but it’s better than stopping to add on new yarn every few minutes.
Lay the end of your t-shirt yarn over the end of the filler cord so the two are pointing in opposite directions and overlapping by about 4 inches.
Now start wrapping the t-shirt yarn around both the filler cord and its own tail, beginning right at the very end of the filler cord.
Wrap fairly tightly here, because a loose start will slip off the end later.
Here’s the direction I wrap, in case it helps: bring the yarn up the front of the filler cord toward you, over the top and away from you, then down the back and around again.
You’ll be traveling to the left as you go. When it’s time to stitch, the needle comes up from the bottom.
If that’s hard to picture, don’t overthink it. The photos and the video make it obvious in about two seconds, and honestly as long as you’re consistent it’ll look right.
Keep wrapping until you have about 3 inches covered.
Fold that wrapped section into a “C” shape, with the bottom leg of the C sticking out a little further than the top leg.
That offset matters, because it’s what lets you overlap the wraps and lock the two legs together.
Wrap over both legs of the C at once, overlapping the wraps you already made on the bottom leg, until the folded end is completely covered.
Then keep wrapping the single filler cord for a few more inches.
Now fold it around one more time.
You’re bending that wrapped section into a tight little coil, and the shape you end up with looks like an upside down lowercase “e.”
Thread the working end of your t-shirt yarn onto your tapestry needle.
Bring the needle up through the little eye at the center of your coil, going from the back to the front, and pull it all the way through.
Straighten out your t-shirt yarn before you keep going.
It twists as you work, and you’ll need to stop and untwist it every so often through the whole project. It’s worth doing, because flat yarn is what makes the finished basket look neat instead of lumpy.
Now go back to wrapping. You’ll do somewhere between 3 and 5 wraps around the filler cord in between each stitch. I did 4 here.
Making the Basket Bottom
After your wraps, sew back through the center of the coil the same way you did before, from back to front.
Then wrap again, then stitch through the center again. Keep repeating that all the way around the coil.
You’ll end up with a set of stitches radiating out from the middle like spokes on a wheel.
I like to make sure the spokes go all the way around evenly, and the last spoke ends up being a little bit longer. I ended up with 5 spokes total.
Once you’ve gone all the way around the center, stop sewing into the middle and start sewing into the previous round instead.
Insert your needle through the previous round from behind and pull it through.
Keep going exactly like that, 3 to 5 wraps and then a stitch into the round below, building the base outward in a flat spiral.
Stop when the bottom is as wide as you want it. Mine ended up around 7″ across.
Did you run out of yarn?
It’s bound to happen eventually. Here’s how to add on more:
Leave a couple inches of tail from the old piece, cut a fresh 3 arm span length.
Hold the end of the new piece over that old tail going the same direction and hold both of them against the filler cord.
Start wrapping with the new piece of yarn, going back to your wrap and stitch pattern, and while you go, you’ll wrap over both ends to hide them.
Keep your new wraps snug against the previous ones so the join disappears.
I didn’t change colors at all on this one, because my t-shirt yarn was already patterned and that gave me plenty of color variation on its own.
If yours is a solid, this is where you can swap in a new color if you want.
Making the Sides of the Basket
Once your base is the size you want, it’s time to build up.
Instead of laying the filler cord out beside the previous round, you’re going to start stacking it on top of the previous round.
Position it up there, make your stitch, and keep going. After a round or so the sides will start to form on their own.
How much you pull it in decides the shape:
- Pull the filler cord in more, stacking it right on top of the round below, for straight up and down sides. That’s what I did.
- Pull it in less, letting it drift outward as you build, for a bowl shape with sides that flare.
Other than the position of the filler cord, nothing changes. Same wraps, same stitches, same joins.
Once in a while you’ll go to make a stitch and find a stitch from the previous round sitting right where you want to go in.
When that happens, just add one extra wrap to shift over, then make your stitch. I did 5 wraps in a few spots because of that.
On wrap count: 5 is the most I’d do between stitches, because more than that and your basket won’t hold together well.
You can absolutely do fewer if you want, and it’ll just give you a slightly different look with more visible stitching.
Keep going until the sides are as tall as you want them. Mine finished at about 3″ tall.
Finishing the Basket
When you’re happy with the height, cut your filler cord on a really long diagonal.
Go as extreme as you can here, because the more tapered that end is, the more smoothly it disappears into the basket.
Now just keep wrapping and stitching along that tapered section, sewing into the previous round as you go, until the whole end is completely covered.
Check for any gaps where the filler cord peeks through, and if you find any, use the end of your tapestry needle to nudge your wraps back into place until it’s fully covered.
To finish off, run your needle under the last several stitches on the inside of the basket and pull the yarn through.
Straighten everything out so it’s laying flat and neat, then trim the yarn close.
No knot needed. The wraps will hold it in place.
And that’s it, your basket is done!
It’s normal to have a slight noticeable spot where you finished off. That’s just how these baskets are, and honestly I think it adds character.
And with this colorful t-shirt yarn it actually blends in really well.
Finished size of my basket: approximately 7″ across and 3″ tall.
In Conclusion
I hope you loved making this as much as I did!
The best part about coiled baskets is that once you’ve got the technique down, you can get creative with it.
Change the base size and you get a different basket.
Change the slope of the sides and you get a bowl.
Add a handle. Or maybe 2 handles.
Switch to a solid color and stripe it.
Use rope, use macrame cord, use fabric strips cut from actual old t-shirts.
It’s all done with the same handful of moves.
I’m planning more of these, so tell me in the comments what you’d like to see next.
A basket with a lid? Something square? A mini one? A big one I’ll complain about making the whole time? I’m taking requests.
If you make one, I’d love to see it! Snap a picture and tag me over on Instagram @marchingnorth!
Want to check out some more free DIY patterns?