May Day Flower Baskets

April 23, 2010
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34 comments

I had vague memories of weaving paper baskets for May Day as a kid, but when I started making these, the memories came flooding back. I love it when that happens. Making them is easy.

  • Take a square piece of paper (I used some old magazine covers), and fold it into 9 equal parts (just draw a tic-tac-toe game and fold on the lines).
  • Cut out the corners and then cut slits up the sides, leaving about 1/2 inch uncut at the tops (see photo below).
  • Then cut strips of paper, and weave them in.
  • When the weaving is done, use tape or glue to attach a handle.
  • Then fill with flowers and give them to a friend or neighbor! (Or send a photo of your child with the basket to someone special.)

They were so excited about picking flowers in our yard and arranging them in the baskets, that they wanted to keep them. So we’ll have to make some more by May 1st to give away.

If you end up making just one basket for your child, then you could take a photo of them and send it to someone special.

34 Responses
  1. Miss Sews-it-all

    Holy cow, I remember these baskets, too! We made them in school – thanks so much for posting the tutorial. I'd love to make these with my tipsy toddler, too!

    Speaking of great projects, have you checked out http://www.WeAllSew.com yet? It's a project dedicated to connecting crafters on the web with each other and with great sewing and crafting inspiration!

  2. Lia

    Yes those bring back memories. It is cool knowing that your kids will have those memories now too. Giving May baskets is an awesome tradition, thanks for passing it on.

  3. Lilou the Frog

    I just discovered your blog and spent very good time to review all articles until the beginning ! I even printed your black and white drawings to stick in my son's room :) You're incredibly creative and I will keep following you from now ! BTW your kids are very cute :)

  4. Joel Henriques

    Thanks everybody!

    I'll have to check out that WeAllSew website. cool!

    And Thanks Lilou. Glad you found my blog.

    1. Herru

      1. Your child is preciously aadlobre. What a heartbreaker!2. Your painted easter basket is stinking awesome.3. I am not as addicted to the internet (although mildly) as my husband is. (Not so much for blogs as for fantasy sports.) We didn’t have internet access on our honeymoon, and he couldn’t stand it so he bought a Hawaii Public Library card and drove 10 minutes to the library every morning to check up on his teams. Don’t even get me started about the travesty of not being able to set his bracket for the NCAA tourney at the end of that week…!

  6. Joel Henriques

    Thanks. Yes my name is Portuguese. It goes way back. There's Portuguese and Jamaican on my fathers side.

  9. Ornella

    Hi Joel!
    I Loooove your blog!!! Everymorning is the first thing I check :)
    sorry but I didn't get the fold a square into 9 equal parts.

    Greetings from Australia!

  11. Joel Henriques

    Thanks!

    Ornella – Sorry, you're right, that is hard to understand. Basically just make a big tic-tac-toe game on the paper and fold along the lines. Another way to say it, would be to fold in thirds, then rotate, and fold in thirds again. I'll change the directions in the post too! Thanks!

  13. Miggy

    I too remember May Day…but it must have been a small town thing because we always did it in elementary school when I lived in Nebraska, then when we moved to the big city {Denver} no one had ever heard of it! Sad. Way to bring it back Joel…way to bring it back.

  14. Joel Henriques

    Thanks!

    Miggy – Yeah, I grew up in a small town too, and that's where we did this. It just sort of popped back into my head this spring. We have so many flowers in the yard. I think it will be a fun tradition for Jack and Tess too!

  16. Oontje

    Hi Joel,

    we tried to make the basket and it worked out fine! A little smaller than yours, maybe, but big enough to hold numerous dandelions and daisies. The kids loved it!
    I put a link to your blog in mine, and some pictures of the basket (not as nice as yours, though).
    Love from Belgium!

  17. Lucille

    I'd forgotten how to make these. I'm making some to hold a friend's birthday gifts. Thank you. You are a fount of ideas.

  20. Joel Henriques

    Thanks everybody! I love seeing all of your baskets! Fun isn't it?

    CHILDHOOD MAGIC – Great palm tree baskets! Nice weaving skills. I love it. Also, I totally love the stick sculpture your son made on the beach. Way cool! We're going to the oregon coast this weekend. I'll have to try something like that.

  21. Meeks

    I have come over from crafty crow. Thanks for posting the instructions, I can't wait to try them with my kids!!

  26. mamizeit

    I love this idea. Memories came back very easily. …. This is the perfect little basket for my little one, who is going to have her 4th birthday next week…thank you for reminding me how easy it is to prepaire these little baskets. :)

  30. le monde d'Is

    moi qui suis une adepte de la récup’, j’adore !!!… j’ai déjà fait des tissages mais, bizarrement, je ne les avais jamais utilisés pour ce genre de choses : voilà qui m’ouvre de nouveaux horizons !… merci pour ça… et pour le reste…

  32. Helen

    These look gorgeous, i will be doing this tomorrow with my sooooooo crafty 5 year old. she’ll love it. thank you :)