Turn an old sheet into a bowl: Blow up a balloon and wrap it with fabric strips
Upcycling crafts are affordable and easy because you can usually find the materials at home. For this bowl made from fabric strips, you’ll need tablecloth or sheet fabric and a balloon as a mold.
Sheet bowl: materials
- a fairly large, round balloon
- strong thread
- cotton fabric, white and patterned
- a bowl and a glue container
- liquid glue (such as EriKeeper) and water
- scissors
- protective plastic.
Sheet bowl: instructions
1. Protect your work surface with plastic. Fill the balloon with air and tie its end with strong thread. Note that by varying the amount of air, you can make bowls of different sizes. Place the balloon in a bowl so it stays put. Snip off any hems and tear the cotton fabric into strips about two centimeters wide. Squeeze glue into a container and dilute it with water.
2. Submerge a strip of fabric several meters in length in the glue container and let it soak through. Lift it from the container and squeeze out any excess glue.
3. Begin covering the balloon at the top. Wrap the fabric around the balloon, occasionally placing the strip diagonally over previous layers. The overlapping strips soon form a strong bond.
4. Switch fabrics from time to time and continue in the same way: submerge the strips in glue and wrap them around the balloon, crossing them over previous layers.
5. Keep gluing fabric strips beyond the halfway point of the balloon to create a bowl that’s round and narrower at the top. Once the fabric-covered balloon looks balanced, let it dry for about a day in a warm spot, for example near a heater.
6. Deflate the balloon, and your bowl is ready! Blow up the same balloon again and make bowls in different sizes using the same approach.
