Sunday School or Bible Clubs > Crafts > Toilet Paper Tube Easter Basket Craft

Toilet Paper Tube Easter Basket

If you want this project to take less in-class time, do more of the steps ahead of time, or make it over several Sundays. Cut the toilet paper tube into an odd number of strips--it can be 7 or it can be 9, but if it is an even number, you will not be able to weave the basket properly. Cut the strips down to 1/4 inch (1 cm.) from the bottom. Mark a line for where to stop if you think your kids might cut all the way through, or not quite far enough down.

Sunday School or Bible Clubs > Crafts > Toilet Paper Tube Easter Basket Craft

It doesn’t really matter if the cut strips are different widths, or if they are a bit crooked. If you are worried the kids won’t cut the right number of strips, you can draw lines on the tubes as guidelines, or cut them all yourself ahead of time. If you want to make guidelines for a lot of kids, wrap a piece of paper around one tube, draw the lines, take the paper off the tube, photocopy it, and tape those photocopies to the tubes. Once the kids have cut the tubes, the paper can be removed.

The easiest way to make this bottom piece is to lay the cut tube on top of a piece of paper, draw around the inside of the circle, and along 2 spokes, then cut out. If you mark the 2 spokes on the toilet paper tube before moving it off the paper, it will be easier to glue it in place once it is cut out, since the spokes are not the same distance apart. Otherwise it can be a puzzle as to which two spokes it was supposed to line up with.

Make a bottom to the basket to cover up the hole. Cut a circle to fit the middle hole, and include 2 spokes that can be woven into the basket to hold the bottom in place. The 2 spokes will never be exactly opposite each other because the spokes have to be an odd number.

if you use paper towels to weave the baskets, you will need to cut the paper towels into strips, and twist them before weaving them into a basket.

To prepare paper towels, tear off 3 sheets as one piece, and tape over the 2 seems to keep them from tearing apart as you weave.

Cut the 3-sheet-length of paper towel into 4 strips. The easiest way to do this is to fold it in half lengthwise and cut it, then fold each half in half again, and cut. If you are doing this ahead of class, cut several sheets at once to save time.

Tape one end of a strip to an anchor point, such as a table. Or have the children work in pairs, and one child can hold the end while the other child twists the paper towel length. The children can simply twist the paper towel strip, or... push the loose end of the paper towel strip through a toilet paper tube, and tape it to a pencil or chopstick. Now comes the fun part.

Hold the toilet paper tube with one hand and spin the pencil with your other hand. Keep twisting until the whole length of the paper towel has been twisted. Take the twisted paper towel off of the pencil and table and weave it into the cut toilet paper tube. You will need to twist all 4 strips to make one Easter basket. The 4 strips do not have to be fastened together--it is easier to weave if they are not.

Start with the yarn or paper towel strip inside the toilet paper tube. Weave the strip (or yarn) in an over, under pattern.

Hint: if the kids mess up and skip in places, it is probably not worth taking out and re-doing.

If you don’t point it out, they probably won’t even notice.

Warning: If the toilet paper tube has been cut in an even number of strips, you will not be able to weave a basket pattern. If you cut a few extra tubes ahead of time, you can replace any that kids might have cut in an even number of strips by accident--BEFORE they start weaving!

Cut strips of paper and staple or glue them to the top of the basket--staple each spoke to a strip on the inside so that the basket doesn’t come apart. Staple another strip on the outside to cover up the mess. If the paper isn’t long enough to go all the way around, make it in sections.

Make a handle and staple that on as well. Depending on what you put in the basket, you may want to strengthen the handle so it doesn’t tear as soon as you pick it up. Cut 2 or 3 strips and make them go all the way to the bottom of the basket, or use nylon “rope” as mentioned above.

Keep weaving in the new strips as the old ones run out. Just be sure to begin and end each strip on the inside of the basket. Push each row of weaving down toward the bottom of the basket to get a nice tight weave, but not so tight that you need more than 4 paper towel strips to finish the project.

Weave yarn, paper towel strips, or nylon “rope” onto the toilet paper tube frame. Note: If you use yarn, try to get the fattest yarn you can afford, because thin yarn is going to take a long time to weave. Another option is that cheap nylon “rope” (not twisted, though) that is used for tying packages or bundles of newspaper. It is cheap, strong, and comes in pastel colors as well as white. See how to make the paper towel strips in the photos below.