Fixing or Renovating a vintage Sewing Basket

I was shopping in a second hand store and a guy that I met there and became friends with over time, showed me this little cute sewing basket for sale and mentioned that ones that are in good condition can go for quite a bit on eBay or Etsy. 

I haven't sold on eBay in over 15 years and things have changed so much and even back then, I don't know that it was worth the work having to go to the post office and get quotes on shipping and then difficult customers etc made it hard to enjoy selling.

Now, everyone can sell and unless you have the same thing listed over and over, it takes too much time to list each item and answer emails etc. It used to take me an hour to post each different item writing descriptions, uploading pictures etc. 

I thought the little basket was cute and could make a cute gift. I know several avid seamstresses in my life and thought it may make a cute gift for their "Sewing cubby" area. I keep my eye out for those type things. It was $2 and I thought that was a reasonable price for a vintage, designer basket so I purchased it. 

I knew I could fix it up and make it look presentable so once I arrived home, I fixed up half of the basket to show how it could look when finished. I then made a video showing how I did fix it up. Mind you, if any of the woven material was broken, I wouldn't have purchased it but because is was just cosmetic stuff that was wrong, it was easy for me to fix up.

Basically, you can just get a permanent marker that closely matches to the item you are fixing up. I use variety packs of Sharpie and it has basic colors and back in the day, they didn't have all the color varieties available so the basic colors usually are enough for books, game boxes, and any vintage items. 

You can see in the pictures near the top, the right half was fixed up and the left was not. I pushed the wicker / chording into place and then used the sharpie to color the scratches on the color and it matched very well as you can see. 

I then used a screwdriver and a hammer to tap the nail in the bottom that was out a bit back into place by putting the tip of the Phillip's head onto the nail and tapping the handle with the hammer so it didn't damage the wooden bottom of the basket. 

I used regular Elmer's glue to glue down the decorative edging that had come loose and also the tag in the back of the box was loose. Be careful not to use too much glue as it will make the fabric stiff. Just a fine line of glue works.

Hold it into place for about 30 seconds and it should be good to stay at that point. If you use too much glue, you will have to hold it much longer.

If there are tiny holes or rips in the fabric, you can run your fingernail over the hole and it will usually disappear but if there is a tear or rip, you will need to use a dab of glue on the underside if possible to get the fabric stiff and stable so that it won't run or rip further. I also show that on the video. 

I use slightly damp WHITE paper towels to wipe out the inside of any fabric basket or container. The dampness gets any lint or fibers / hair to stick to it and does a great job cleaning. However, DO NOT USE any colored paper towel or cloth as the colors may die the project and it usually stains it so take care to only use WHITE.

I describe more about cleaning the fabric on the video and hope that it is clear. If you have any questions, let me know!

Have a BLESSED Day!