Great Find + Quick Fix #2 [DIY hamper]

Hello! Since I have apparently been on a mini blogging hiatus, I am actually sitting here at my computer ready to roll again! I didn’t actually intend to be MIA for so long, but between a wonderful vacation in Cancun, my 30th birthday celebration last weekend and being sick the last few days, it turned into a couple weeks away from you all. My apologies!

Aside from not feeling so great this week, life really has been wonderful and I have been savoring each and every moment. From the beach & sun, on to celebrating with friends & family over my birthday / valentine’s day weekend. Full-on indulgence. I was even surprised with a short weekend getaway to downtown Chicago the night after we flew home from Mexico. Ted came home at lunch from work whisked me away for the night.  I was “told” we were just having dinner and drinks and relaxing away from the kids, but then was pleasantly surprised by our families and a couple friends when we walked into the restaurant. I thought my parents were at my house with the boys, so when I spotted them inside at a table waiting for us to walk-in, the first words out of my mouth were, “Who’s babysitting??!!?” They even had that covered, too 🙂 I was then surprised a second time at the bar after dinner. Such a fun (and late) night, topped off with breakfast and shopped in the city on Saturday afternoon. After heading back to snuggle my babies, we had a nice Valentine’s dinner at home with my parents and in-laws. It was quite the perfect mix of everything I love! I plan to share some highlight photos next week.

Ok, so enough about me and back to one of my latest projects. This project did make a sneak appearance in my linen closet reveal and I received quite a few inquiries about it. “Where did you get the gold laundry hamper?!”  Well, I made it! Sort of. I spotted the round gold metal piece on clearance at Homegoods awhile back and knew it needed to come home with me. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but I bought it anyways. I am pretty good at that. The fact along that it was gold was enough for me, but the scalloped edges gave it a delicate, but bold look.

It looks as if it originally was meant to be a side table. See the little suction cups for holding the glass?

I could have made it into a table of my own, but I didn’t really need one anywhere in our house, so when I started thinking of adding a few gold touches in the linen closet, I thought this could make a perfect hamper for guest towels and sheets. All I would need to do is sew some sort of a bag insert and set it inside. So, off I went to the fabric store and picked up some basic white material. I believe it is a cotton blend of some sort and it was on sale for $2.99/yd. I didn’t follow any sort of pattern when making the cloth insert, so hang with me and try to follow along!

First, I did measurements around the base to see what cuts I needed to make in the fabric in order to sew the bag.

Then, lay out your fabric. For the circular bottom, I used a piece of ribbon and a marker to trace my circle. Since it was approximately 18″ across, I taped the ribbon around the marker and then cut it off at 9″. Next I folded my fabric in half and then I simply placed the end of the ribbon on the crease of the fabric and pressed my finger down firmly on it to hold it in place. I pulled the marker out taught and then traced the semi-circle.

Next I cut around the black line and opened it up so it was a full circle and set it aside.

The second piece of fabric would measure approximately 59.5″ x 25″. I took my circumference of 59″ + .5″ for seam allowance and 19″ height + 3″ for the fold + 1″ seam allowance (.5″ on top and .5″ on the bottom) + 2″ for slack at the bottom of the bag and made the cuts for the rectangle.

Then, I pinned my circle to the bottom edge of my rectangle and sewed around leaving a half inch seam. Then, where the 2 ends of the rectangle met, I pinned and  sewed up the side of the bag leaving a half inch seam again. Next, I folded the top, unfinished edge over 4″ and stuck a few pins in to hold the fold. After that I turned over that same raw edge 1/4″ and then another 1/4″, pinned and sewed all the way around. That part would be the section that pulls over the edge of the metal frame.

Finally, I flipped the bag right-side out to place inside the frame.

Here’s a shot of the raw edge running from top to bottom on the inside of the bag.

What do you think? Laundry hampers and linen closets deserve to be glammed up every now and then!

Here are a few other gold touches in the closet. I just can’t get enough.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but the lineup is lookin’ good, so please stop back for more! I promise I won’t be taking any 2 week breaks again anytime soon, so thanks for sticking around! Goodnight.