How To Easily Create And Embroider A Sewn Rope Basket

Everyone has that one spot on their kitchen counter or the side table at the front door that just seems to accumulate all their miscellaneous stuff. Why not create a stylish embroidered rope bowl or basket that perfectly embellishes any room to hold your keys, phones, and mail?

We will show you how you can take a cotton clothesline, a sewing machine, and your creativity to make fantastic rope bowls decorated with embroidery patterns! Learn how you can create unique bowls, coasters, and mug rugs with the simplest of materials.

What’s better than personalizing your own home decor? You can create multiple bowls, all with different looks for different uses. These rope bowls can be used over and over for keys, candy, decorations, munchy snacks, and more.

These rope bowls can perfectly embellish any room stylishly while using them for any purpose. They can vary by size, thread colors, rope colors (dyed to achieve different looks), and embroidery designs. Here at Embroidery Legacy, we have embroidery designs for every occasion! Embroidery fonts? Sure! Monograms? You bet! Holiday designs? Bring them on. If you can think of it, you can pretty much stitch it on this amazing surface. 

This project is very budget friendly as the only supply needed other than your primary machine and embroidery thread is a large clothesline. It’s not necessary, but you can always add tassels or extra embellishments around the bowl’s rim, depending on if you want to spend a little extra or if you have anything in your sewing stash.  

This project is great fun and can make a great gift set! Whether for a birthday or housewarming gift, this project is ready to impress!

If you have so much fun creating this rope bowl, why not create a mug rug, coaster, or placemat to go with it!

• 100% Cotton Clothesline; the largest size (many climbing ropes or sisal ropes can be too dense to stitch in and may contain rubber or other cores)
• Sewing machine with white top and bobbin thread 
• Pins
• Tear away stabilizer
• Temporary embroidery spray
• Embroidery design pattern, for these rope projects, we used:
  • Pumpkin Medium
  • Pumpkins Leaves Vines Circular Border
  • Fancy Elements 1 Design 17

Check out our almost 30,000 high-quality embroidery designs that will perfectly embellish your rope project.

Once you make one of these bowls, you will not believe how easy it was and will want to plan more! You can make larger-scale bowls for centerpieces or, with leftover lengths of rope, create coasters and trivets. 

Step 1: Find an embroidery pattern you like. A general rule of thumb is “less is more,” meaning the less dense, the better. Do not be afraid of lettering or other shapes and designs, but that 100000 stitch design may not be the best for this medium.

You need to find a design that fits in your hoop with a little room to spare but gives it more stability on the base and a clean stitching surface.

Or you can use a loose tatami stitch used to flatten the nap or pile of fabrics. These are low density fills placed under the main design. This smashes down the terry loops and allows the top stitching to show!

Step 2: Start with one end of the rope. Use a small piece of scotch tape and wrap it around the end to keep it from fraying apart. Remember to use only a small amount and wrap once since you may want to stitch over it.

Step 3: Create the beginning spiral and secure it with pins to hold it in place. You only need to do three wraps or so.

Step 4: Once the spiral is pinned, use the sewing machine to stitch across the spiral in an “X” pattern to hold the rope in place.

Step 5: Remove the pins

Step 6: You can now change the machine to a long wide zigzag and start constructing the bottom of the bowl. You will stitch the wraps together while turning the spiral feeding rope as you go.

Tip: Do not pull the rope tight for the first ten or so wraps! If you do, it will mound up in the center. Keep it as loose as possible, even bunching it up slightly. 

Step 7: Work the spiral until it measures approximately 6 inches. You may work larger if you have a larger hoop.

Step 8: Stitch back and forth with the zigzag to hold the loose rope in place

Step 9: Hoop a piece of medium-weight tear-away stabilizer.

Step 10: Place your spiral “pancake” in the hoop securing it with a light spray of temporary embroidery adhesive.

Step 11: Be careful to center your needle in the exact enter of the spiral so your design is aligned.

Step 12: Stitch out your design; watch your bowl bottom stitch out as you go to ensure the rope remains flat in the machine.

Step 13: When your design is finished, remove your rope project from the embroidery machine and hoop. Tear away your stabilizer.

To construct the remainder of the bowl:

Step 14: Return to the sewing machine with the stitch setting on a long wide zigzag.

Step 15: As you continue to work the bowl, begin to hold the base of the bowl up, so you are bending the bottom to begin the sides.

Step 16: Continue to work the bowl until the side is the height you want.

Step 17: Cut the rope and lightly tape it to finish. 

Step 18: Zigzag stitch back and forth over the rope’s end. You can tuck it under for a cleaner look.

Step 19: YOU’RE DONE!

You never thought a packet of cotton clotheslines could end up as these beautiful bowls and coasters, right? Now you know they can!

You can create centerpieces, keychains, bowls, coasters, and more with little effort. Here are the takeaways we want to leave with you when working with this wonderfully versatile material!

• Use COTTON clothesline. Do not use paracord or other climbing ropes or sisal as they can damage your machine.
• Using an underlay stitch used to flatten the nap or pile of fabrics stitch helps to create a sturdy base for your design. 
• Don’t throw away rope ends- you can use them for smaller projects.

Until we get together again, stitch happy and be creative!

P.S. If you want to create different embroidered rope projects, browse through our giant collection of machine-friendly embroidery designs. Plus, check out our Embroidery Legacy Design Club to learn how to save on our entire database of  over 30,000 quality designs. Or, if you’ve never tried our designs before, download our free Embroidery Legacy Design Kit.