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Section 3 – Fine-tune Design

The first thing to do is to “hide" all the zigzag stitches inside and outside of your bowl. I usually start with the outside to get this out of the way. Apply fusible web to a piece of fabric you used on the outside of your bowl.

Cut 8 shapes to cover the zigzag lines. I like to cut free form rectangular shapes with rounded corners, but you can also use this opportunity to add a design to the outside of your bowl.

Fuse the shapes to the 8 zigzag lines and cut off any extra fabric at the edge of the bowl. The organic look of this fabric (and batiks in general) helps disguise the fused zigzag covers.

We do the same on the inside of the bowl, covering every zigzag line with fabric to which we previously applied fusible web.

Since the shade of the red fabric I used varies in different areas of the bowl, I am careful to match everyone to better “hide” the seams. This means that I sometimes need to use several different pieces of fabric to cover one seam.

Do this for every seam. This process is time consuming but well worth the effort.

Now onto the design: Cover pieces of fabric you’ll be using for this with fusible web.

Apply fabric with fusible inside your bowl per your design. My design consists of concentric light swirls. For this I cut narrow strips of fabric that I fuse along the circles I have marked on my bowl.

It is all in the details! Adding very narrow strips creates depth and dimension to your design.

If the strips are narrow - 1/4 inch or less - you can easily guide them along a curved line as you fuse, they adapt to any shape.

Sometimes it is a good idea to use tweezers to put these small and narrow pieces down without burning your fingers. It is OK to overlap fused fabrics!

Again, this process is very time consuming … but well worth your time.

Once you are done with fusing your design, you are ready for Section 4. I’ll be back shortly.

Fiber Bowl Tutorial - Section 4.