Rope Bowls

I've recently developed an interest in sewing rope bowls. Simple in concept, these bowls are coiled from rope and stitched together using a sewing machine that can handle thick fabrics. Some use clothesline rope; some macrame cord. Some wrap the rope in fabric; some choose to leave the rope visible. Contrasting threads are sometimes used to highlight the stitching. Really, your imagination is the only limit.

Today I made my first rope bowl using black 5mm macrame cord and bright variegated thread. The results are encouraging.

The most difficult part is beginning the central disk. Once that's done then getting it to the size for the bottom of your bowl is challenging because you need to keep it flat. After that, coiling the rope or cord around this central disk gets easier. I love seeing the bowl take shape.

For next time, a larger needle to avoid skipped stitches, a larger central disk, and narrower zig zag to show off the stitching better. I've seen a YouTube video where the maker used decorative stitches rather than a zig zag, used by most makers. The effect was lovely but used a LOT of thread. Something to consider for future experiments.

BTW: This bowl was made from 15 meters of 5mm diameter black macrame cord using black thread in the bobbin and variegated thread on the top. I used a size 90/14 universal needle and had a few skipped stitches. I did not find that I needed to adjust the tension. However, the thickness of the 5mm cord is at the limits of my presser foot lift; I cannot use anything larger on this machine. This means that if I choose to use fabric wrapped cord, I will probably need to reduce the diameter of the base cord to 4 or even 3mm.

dks, 14 Dec 2025