Cushioned Laundry Basket Handles

I hate doing laundry, but unfortunately, it's one of those things that must be done regularly (If someone has found a way around this, please let me know ASAP!). My husband hates it more than I do, so unless I want to hear more whining and complaining that what's already going through my own head, I do it.
We are on a budget and I prefer to spend my money on Mountain Dew more fun stuff, so when it comes to laundry baskets, I go cheap. Nothing fancy. Unfortunately, the cheap molded plastic is not very nice on my hands when I'm carrying loads of laundry up and down the stairs. It can be quite painful. So the other day, I decided to fix up my laundry baskets with some padded handles.

Supplies & Equipment

• sheet foam stuff (no idea what it's really called; look at the pics or find a substitute)
• fabric scraps
• Mod Podge
• fabric scissors/rotary cutter and mat
• scissors (probably not a good idea to user the fabric ones on the foam, even though I did use my rotary cutter on it!)
• hot glue gun & glue sticks
• pain-inducing laundry basket

I had some sheet foam stuff left over from some package that came in the mail - perfect. I cut it to width (~5") and measured how long it would need to be to fit the handle. Starting on the inside of the basket, I wrapped it around the handle and tucked it up inside the molded handle. Six inches. However, one layer of foam wasn't quite going to cut it, so I cut two for each handle and Mod Podged them together. If I were to do this again and had plenty of foam, I might even go for three layers, for extra cushion.
Of course, I couldn't just leave them plain; they needed to be pretty. I'm not much of a sewer, but I do have a small fabric stash, and I found some old shorts and a shirt my sister had given to me for crafting purposes. I laid my foam on top of the fabric and added between 1/2-1" on each side to folder over. These didn't have to be perfect, so I wasn't very exact in my measurements.


I also notched out a square on each corner of the fabric to make folding over on the backside a little easier. I cut out the fabric and Mod Podged it to my foam, then folded over the excess fabric on the back, smoothed the fabric down, and stuck it under some books to stay flat.

	Great use for an old textbook, right?

I took the foam/fabric rectangles out from under the books after a while and let them air dry. After they were dry, I hot-glued them to my laundry baskets, again starting on the inside of the basket and working my way out.
Once it was glued in place, I went back and glued down the corners a little better.
Bonus? They still stack neatly and they add a pop of color to otherwise-boring laundry baskets. Score.

(In my original attempt, I nixed the Mod Podge for staples, and just straight stapled the fabric to the two layers of foam. However, I didn't like the look, and the middle of the foam/fabric didn't stay together quite as well.)