Making an Oval Template

Ellipse foci, football, egg shaped.... OVAL people! I was trying to find an EASY tutorial on how to make an oval template. All I could find was Mathematicians and Physicists mathematical mumble jumbo and drawings that had angles and numbers EVERYWHERE. Maybe you understand a lot of these terms, but I don't!

And I quote:

"The problem with an oval is that its a circle with two centers or an ellipse in which you have
two back to back parabolas with dual opposing foci. In some cases, its hard to tell the
difference. In other cases, the ends are more football shaped."

humada whatada!?!?!?!?!?!?

Go on, Google it..... once you have gotten nice and confused, come back here and I will put it in words that people actually understand.

I needed my oval larger than standard size paper so I taped 4 pieces together to get the size I needed.

All I had was blue painters tape, so bear with me please!

First, fold your paper in half. (hamburger style is what I learned in school)Get a good crease... then unfold it.


Fold it in half the other way (hot dog is what I learned in school) Get a good crease!


Now, with your paper folded folded the length of the paper (hot dog style), draw a straight line to the center fold from both corners. It should look like a triangle on your paper.


Now you need to find a bowl that can go from corner to corner or X to X like in my picture :)


Trace the outline....



See that little area, you might get that when you trace or you might not, don't be alarmed either way. BUT try not to get it. I happened to get it. When you are cutting out the oval, DON'T cut that out. You won't get an oval if you do. Just pretend like that little indent doesn't exist. Keep cutting straight past it.


Here is my oval all cut out. Because I had that little indent, I had to fold it the other way and fix the edges, but it turned out great!

Good luck!