Those of you who are passionate about travel and DIY might already be familiar with Wild She Goes, a YouTube channel created by a woman named Marina who shares all of her travels and crafts with her community of 151k subscribers.
Marina is incredibly crafty, and one of her most recent videos features some beautiful pine needle baskets which we’re just dying to get our hands on.
In her video, Marina shows us how we can make one of these baskets for ourselves, and it’s actually more simple than you’d think!
Marina recommends resistant thread for this project, and adds that you will also need a pair of scissors, some pliers, a few needles and a gauge to ensure that all of your coils are the same size. Your gauge could be something as simple as a paper straw, as long as it is a thin enough tube.
The first thing you will need is dropped pine needles, which are pretty easy to find at this time of year. You can use any different type of pine needles, as long as they are around 12cm long. The longer they are, the easier it is to work with them.
Marina explains that the brown needles are best to be gathered when they have only just fallen so that they have less imperfections. So when collecting your needles, make sure you take the best clusters from the top layer off the ground.
You want your basket to be spotless and last for years, so it’s important to get those pine leaves clean! To do so, simply arrange the clusters of pine leaves so that they are all facing the same direction, then cover the needles with boiled water and leave them to soak for a few hours.
Once dry, you’re ready to begin creating your basket. Make sure that you check the consistency of your needles- they should be elastic and not break when you try to bend them.
De-cap your pine needles by pulling the ends with your nails, then take your gauge and place enough pine needles inside to comfortably fill it. Then take around 2 meters of thread and make a knot with the thread near the gauge.
Start wrapping the thread around 6cm towards the pine needle caps, then hold the thread and bend the pine needles in half. You can now thread your needle and start stitching the pine needles together, using the pliers if you need help to pull the needle through. Continue to do this until both sides are securely linked.
Continue to use the same method to produce a bigger coil, and keep going until the coil is the size that you’d like it. You can add more pine needles into the gage whenever it begins to feel loose.
To create the walls of your basket, continue to stitch your coil, however begin to place the needles vertically on top of one another. As you reach the top of your basket, you can remove the gauge and continue stitching around the basket until you have enclosed all of your needles. The goal is to have a top as flat as possible!
To create the flat lid, repeat the steps you made to create the bottom of the basket. If you’d like to make a handle to go on top, bend a coil and stitch only at the base, and not through the length. You can then bend it at a 90 degree angle to use as the handle, and stitch the lid of the basket all around it.
Finally, to give your basket those stunning finishing touches, make sure you trim any excess pieces of pine leaves or bits of thread. This will ensure that it looks as sleek and smooth as possible.
Your basket should now be complete, and the great thing about this craft is that you can make baskets in all different colors, shapes and sizes- and they last forever! Scroll down to watch Marina’s video in more detail.
