Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Tutorial for clothesline bowls

The intention of this photo tutorial is to supplement the handout and the demonstration given at the Phoenix Sew In. So, not every step will be shown in this tutorial. Please click on each photo below in order to enlarge it and make it clearer.

This first photo shows the kind of clothesline to purchase. I have purchased mine from Kmart, Walmart and Ace Hardware in the past. It's also available at Joanns and 35th Avenue Sew & Vac and may be available at other fabric retailers. The clothesline should be made of 3/16" (7/32") utility cotton and can have a man-made core. Do not use plastic or nylon.






Cut your fabric in 1/2" or 3/4" strips and perfection is not a requirement with this project. Take the end of your cord and begin wrapping with a strip of fabric leaving a little bit of excess fabric at the top of the cord (see photo below). The tighter you wrap, the better to avoid folding and puckering of fabric. This will get easier once you start your second strip of fabric because the cord will be in the machine and the presser foot will assist you to hold it. You can glue the ends or pin. I prefer to use pins.






Once you have your first strip of fabric wrapped, take it to the machine and fold one end down about 1 1/4" The cord should be placed so that the zig zag stitch will nip both sides of the cord (see photo below). The open end of the wrapped cording should be facing toward you and the length of the clothesline should be trailing down your left side. It's important that the open end is facing you because you will be continuously rotating the cord as you sew.






As you come to the end of start of your cord (with the excess fabric at the end), begin rotating the cord counterclockwise. Your excess fabric will now be mushed but will securely cover and hide the end of the cord. Continue to stitch a bit and turn a bit. Once the coil reaches about an inch in diameter you won't have to continue this stop/start sewing.





Wrap your second piece of fabric strip and continue to make your coil going 'round and 'round.




You will have to be the judge of how big of a bowl you want and at that point, you will need to begin the curve of your bowl. There are two methods; the gradual lift and the direct lift and I prefer the direct lift which is shown here. With the needle in the down position, lift the bowl so that it is touching the side of the sewing machine and continue sewing (see photo below).






Keep going round.




After several rounds, your bowl will begin to take shape.












There are a few different finishing methods but the first step is to determine where to end the bowl and mark the spot on the bowl with a pin. Unravel the fabric Bring the cord over to your mark and cut the cording Unravel the fabric so that the cording is exposed and then you are going to want to push the outer core back and expose the inner core.






Cut the inner core at a diagonal and then smooth the outer core back over it so it is kind of flattened down





The rest of finishing the bowl will be shown in the demo.





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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow -- you should get a patent on that