It's A Wrap by Susan Breier

I was in Quilter's Stash and saw a fascinating fabric basket. Not the Timtex stuff we've all seen, but one that looked like a coiled pot. They teach classes on it and the woman said that in one of the classes a student spontaneously burst out saying, "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!! I've never had this much fun sewing!" I didn't take the class, but I did buy the book, It's a Wrap: Sewing Fabric Purses, Baskets, And Bowlsby Susan Breier. The basic concept is you take strips of fabric and wrap it around cotton clothesline. You then start a little coil and then zigzag stitch it around and around on your machine. The instructions made it sound straightforward and the pictures are great so I couldn't wait to get started.

I didn't have any clothesline on hand nor could I find any at Michael's, Joanns or Home Depot, so I decided to give it a try with some old cotton piping I had in my sewing junk drawer. I've been working on organizing and pre-cutting my scraps into strips and squares so I had lots of fabric strips on hand. While watching TV I wrapped strips around the piping gluing every so often to keeps things together as she suggested. I was using Sobo Fabric glue which I had on hand and managed to cover my fingers in glue. I'm sure there's a neater way, but no worries. Next day I set to work on sewing it together. I was a bit skeptical as to whether I could fit this rather bulky stuff under the presser foot. After a little bit of jimmying to get it under there initially, I found it fed through easily once I got started. And then you start going around and around. And you see the magic start to happen as this basket forms in front of you. I can completely understand the student's outburst. I was pleased as punch with how easy and fun it was to make this pot. Even using completely random scraps I love the finished results. Then the brain starts going...I can make a cat basket....I can make bags for everyone for Christmas...I could make a rug for the kitchen. Isn't this what a good craft book is all about? Clear instructions and a fabulous result that inspire you to expore your creativity.

So I explored. I tracked down some cotton clothesline online at Erica's. When you wrap the clothesline you have a raw fabric that spirals around on it so you do get some fraying stuff. I decided I'd try folding it over so I had a double layer and a neat edge. To keep the bulk down I only folded it down about a 1/2 inch so that I'd only have three layers instead of four. I also decided to sew the strips together into one long continuous strip. Wow, what a complete disaster. The uneven layer of fabric made things not wrap around easily. And the really long strip of fabric (like 15 yards) and the long piece of clothesline, well they're not easy to wrap around each other without creating a very large twisted up mess. I wrapped about a foot of it before I gave up.

A few weeks later I sat down at the machine with the book nearby and began again. This time I used 22" strips that were 3/4" wide and only glued/wrapped a few lengths at a time as I sewed it together. Very easy. I also applied the glue with a small paintbrush and it kept my fingers much less gluey. Using the clothesline also produced a much nicer end product than the piping. I could only follow the directions so far and tried a custom handle technique and was pleased with the results. Next day I tried one more time with the remaining strips I'd cut. I went back to the "wrap the whole piece of clothesline before sewing" method. I have this efficiency thing and I just don't want to sew/wrap/sew/wrap/sew/wrap. What I learned from the earlier disaster was you just can't use a long continuous strip of fabric, small strips are much easier to deal with. The book recommends doing the wrap-as-you-go so you can match up when the fabric changes along one spot up the bowl. Sure, it looks nice, but I just am not that picky and think it looks fine if it changes randomly.

It took me an hour and a half to wrap 17 yards of clothesline with fabric. It took me half an hour to sew the bowl on the machine. Just love the results. One thing I learned - this takes a lot of thread - I went through three bobbins on the smaller bowl, so wind yourself a few in advance and make sure you've got plenty of spools on hand. I feel more comfortable with the process now and know it will be a great outlet for scraps. I'll post more bowls as I make them. Thank you Susan Breier for a great technique and a wonderful book.

Update: here are two more of my clothesline wrapped projects:
The Blue Bali Bag
The Bali Catnap Bowl