30 July, 2016

Fabric Wrapped Rope Bowl



Complete with threads hanging off.

Benta and Janine challenged me to tackle fabric wrapped clothesline bowls.
I dreamed about it.

A red, white & blue bowl....



Actually, they didn't challenge me. They just thought about it. lol

This is how I start my bowls. I wrap it tight into a spiral and push straight pins in to secure.
This particular rope is a cheap one -- $5 for 100 feet, which will make a good sized bowl. It's cotton braided around a styrofoam core. I didn't have any problems sewing on it but I did use a size 14 needle. Anyhoo, my pins won't pierce the styrofoam so I insert them just enough to grab the cotton bits. The pins help to keep the spiral flat while starting the sewing.

I also put a spot of Fraycheck on the end so it doesn't 'fluff' up. You could use any glue.

I make my spiral about 2 inches in diameter and then zigzag around in tight circles and even going back over the initial circles twice and then start going round and round. It's important to have the tail come off on the right hand side so you can zigzag in a continuous spiral.




 I really didn't want to mess with strips of fabric, getting tangled trying to wrap the cording.
And I was right. It is a bother.

So, in my dreams the other night, my bowl was designed with three rounds each of red, white & blue. With the rest of the bowl being the natural cotton clothesline.

I robbed my scrap basket - no real fabric was harmed in the making of this bowl. However, blue became turquoise, because there is no other color of blue in my scrap basket.

And just plain white up to my fabric strip colors felt wrong, so I switched threads and bobbin and put some red into the bottom of this bowl when the base was still flat.




 I really like my knot finish on this bowl too.   Three stripes, three knots?


 Overall, I like this bowl.    I'm not in love with it though.

It feels unwieldy big. And the contrast between the natural white and the fabric colors is more intense. Just using thread feels more modern and trendy.

I do like how the handles were even set off the top.


I can't say that I'm done with these bowls. They are amazingly fast and give such awesome results. They feed my need to make a craft in my small amount of free time. This fabric wrapped bowl took just over two hours. Just using thread is half the time. Big bang for my creativity.


I still need to trim thread tails and this bowl will go on the completed pile.



 My friend in Japan sent me an awesome t-shirt: SEW Elaborately Days - complete with vintage sewing machine.

Last, but not least, Fabric sale tomorrow in the church parking lot (??!!).
I'm gonna take my bike (3 miles into town) so I can behave myself.
With my tiny biking backpack.

hahaahahahahahahahahaha.



11 comments:

  1. I'm back in blogland after about a month off. I've been following along a bit though...I LOVE your bowls-they are awesome! I'm wondering if my simple machine could handle doing this....

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    1. Your machine could! Do you need me to send you some rope?

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  2. Well done! Great scrappy v OCD challenge! Think I'll switch to a thicker needle, don't know what I didn't think of that after the third, fourth or fifth broken needle!!!

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    1. That must mean you made one... The styrofoam core is tough to sew thru. My size 14 had no trouble.

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  3. I love your fabric bowls. One day I'll get around to making one.

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  4. It doesn't get any better than a lovely patriotic bowl. Beautiful!
    I am soooo envious of your church fabric sale. I imagine your backpack is pretty huge...

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    1. Sales advertising fabric can be a crapshoot. They don't follow the ten cents on the dollar pricing of garage sales and generally expect people to pay too much for basic fabric. However, they do tend to devalue the quilting rulers and other tools. I can always go hone and get my car if I'm lucky.

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  5. I like how you showed how to start a bowl. If you wanted an oblong bowl, you would just start with a longer shape, right?

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    1. I guess I'm up to the challenge of oblong. I believe I would start with an oval/ovoid shape rather than round....

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  6. You're becoming the queen of bowl making! You should enter them in the county fair! I love the red, white and blue one and the knot handle is neat. Enjoy the last third of summer. It's going fast. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  7. Gosh these are getting very "artistic". Like the knots - a lot! Wish I'd known about the fabric sale earlier. My father's ancestors were settlers in the Barlow area, so Canby(land) has always been our "hometown".

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