Make a belted storage utility basket.....

I've been in love lately with the look of utility storage baskets that have the buckles in front.Even more, I love having  a place to jam all of my "stuff" into that makes the clutter look a little bit neater.  I did price some out on-line and "yikes!"

I knew there had to be a better way to replicate the look with out spending so much. Walking though the thrift store the other day I had an a-ha! moment and made one of these:

I picked up a cheap basket at the store and a few belts from the thrift store.

After cutting off the little doo-hickey beads in front, I put my belts across the top to see which one looked the best.

 I went with the darkest because I liked the color and pattern the best,

 I measured it across the top, letting the top part of the buckle hang over where I wanted it to end up and trimmed it where it met the back of the basket. I hot glued it on. Now make sure you clean up your glue gun strings people, because you know the Craft Wars judges hate those. ;)

I then fastened the belt together and measured it from the bottom.

Then I also trimmed and hot glued. I had no problem cutting the leather with a sharp pair of scissors.

 And there it was! My belted basket!

It looks so cute and ready to hide all of my junk! 

Jen