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How to Make a Rope Bowl

How to make a rope bowl

How to Make a Rope Bowl

Rope bowls are quick and easy to make, and offer a handy way to keep knickknacks together. Just grab some scraps, a jelly roll or a honey bun, and some cotton clothesline and we'll show you how to make a rope bowl!

What you’ll need to make these rope bowls

  • Sewing Machine
  • Wonder Clips
  • Strips of fabric
  • Universal Sewing Machine Needle (100/16)
  • Cotton clothesline (100ft 7/32”) - available at Canadian Tire 

Choosing Fabric

The fabric used here is a Hoffman Bali Poppy pack of batik strips. A Bali Poppy has 20 strips per pack: enough to make three bowls (we used half of the 12 strips cut lengthways). You could also use a Moda Honeybun or even scraps from your collection to make these bowls.

Preparing to Sew

To minimize fraying, you want to make sure you have pinked (zigzag) edges on your fabric strips. If you have Moda precuts, these should be already cut like this. If not, you might want to pink tall four edges with pinking shears or a rotary cutter with a pinking blade—or if the fraying doesn’t bother you at all, go ahead and keep those edges straight! Cut the strips lengthways before you begin to make them narrower. They do not need to be neat or even. Set your sewing machine up with a new, heavy-duty needle and polyester thread. You will want to set it to a regular zig zag stitch. It will be beneficial to test out the width of the stitch before you get going, and you can also increase it a little if that will help you sew the rope side by side without slipping.

Start Sewing

10 metres of clothesline is enough to make the larger bowl, so if you have a new pack of rope, you should have plenty to make a really big bowl.

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Start off by taking the end of the rope and your first fabric strip and positioning them together.

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You want to make sure you wrap the very end of the rope with the fabric at a 45 degree angle, and then continue to wrap tightly for a few inches at a time. Hold the fabric to the rope with wonder clips.

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To start to shape the bowl, tilt it upwards.

You may be limited by contact with your machine, so if you want steeper sides, you will need to make the base larger and tilt at a sharper angle. Continue to wrap the fabric and turn the bowl as you do this.

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Another design idea: If you like the look of the rope, you can sew it without wrapping it with fabric, or you could make a bowl like the smaller one pictured.

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To make this style, you won’t need to wrap any fabric round the rope initially, instead gradually add 3- 4 ½” lengths at random to give a scrappier effect.

Enjoy your rope bowls, once you’ve tried it you will want to make many more!