Bottle Bucket Craft Tutorial
We have a handful of these cute little bottle buckets, made from old juice or soda bottles and topped with a rim of crochet and a long looped handle. They come with us when we are out nature-walking, to collect all sorts of treasures. The buckets are very light, pretty much free to make and can be adjusted to have them fit any age/size child. You do need some basic crochet skills though.
This is my first photo tutorial, and I am obviously not a photographer.
You will need an empty bottle, yarn, scissors, a single hole punch and a crochet hook small enough to fit through the holes made by the punch. You can use an awl or even a hammer and nail to make the holes if you need to. Wash out the bottle and remove the label.
Use scissors or a craft knife to slice off the top of the bottle. Exact sizing doesn’t matter, but try to keep it straighter than I did.
Then use the hole punch to put holes along the rim, evenly spaced around and not too close to the edge. Mine have about 1/2 cm between each hole but it’s not crucial that it’s exact.
Now you need to start your stitching. Put a slip knot loop on your hook, and insert through one of the holes.
Yarn over, and pull a loop back through the hole.
Yarn over again, and pull through both loops on your hook. Basically, a single crochet stitch.
Now just keep doing that, crocheting a single stitch at each hole around the rim of the bottle.
When you get back to your starting point, join to your initial stitch with a slip stitch. Chain one, and keep crocheting single stitches all the way around again.
You can do as many rows as you like, depending on how long a “collar” you want at the top. If it is too loose or floppy, you can tighten it up by crocheting 2 stitches together. I didn’t have to with this one. I believe I did 3 or 4 rows with this bottle.
Now you need to start on your handle. With a round bottle, any place will do. If it’s square, pick a spot either at the corners or in the middle of the sides. Up to you. Just do a long length of chain stitches, until it is long enough. We like them long so it can be worn over the shoulder.
Join the chain on the other side of the bucket with a slip stitch and a knot. Weave in your ends, and your bucket is done and ready for collecting. If you are a reasonable crocheter, you could do a bucket in under an hour.
Now you can upcycle those bottles and make a whole brigade of buckets for gathering, collecting or storing stuff.
