I've been teaching workshops on this same subject. Everyone loves them, and once you know the basis of it, you'll want to make many more. I discovered that by making a half a bowl, only 3 inches high, it is perfect on my husbands dresser to put his pocket collection in at nite time. I've been making 14" chair pads too. A width of fabric strip will cover about 12 inches of clothes line. Just be sure the clothes line doesn't have a metal/vinyl core. All cotton or synthec is best to work with. If you have too many threads in the finished product, a quick spray of fabric starch will make them settle right down. I usually snip them off. Oval or round, you decide with your first turn of the cording when you zig zag it together. It goes very fast.