Decorative Thread Boards

While trying to figure out a good way to organize my own thread (instead of in a trick-or-treat bin, where it lives right now), I thought of a neat gift idea for my mother and mother-in-law. My MIL finally has her sewing room and is an avid quilter, and my mother is getting back into sewing with a brand new machine.

My own small-space sewing experience brought up an interesting dilemma -- how do you keep the small lower bobbins with their matching thread spools? I had a nice box that I kept some of my spools in,

which had vertical stems which kept the spools from falling over. This kept them upright and easy to see. However, when I tried to keep the lower bobbins on the same stem as the thread, they were too tall and the lid didn't fit on tightly. Want to guess the number of times I accidentally dumped the entire thing the floor?

To the Pins!

Many lovely ideas on the Pinterest, of course.

Peg boards ...

Golf tees ...

Whatever this is ...

This one looked the most promising:

I liked how the bottom bobbins fit right there with the matching spools. The blog shows how she did the chevron pattern on the board. I, of course, took it a step farther.

If you spend enough time on Pinterest, you'll come across this DIY Mirror Frame in various forms.

Basically you take wood trim (for windows, doors, baseboards, etc.) and use it to frame a mirror for a very clean look.

There's also this technique, for making fancy picture frames with the same kind of trim.

I decided I wanted these features in a thread older:
1) Hang it on the wall
2) Long enough nails for the bottom bobbin and the thread spool to sit together
3) Framed in a way that would look clean and decorative when hung on the wall
4) Painted by the kiddo (so it counts as a present from him as well)
5) Not ridiculously expensive


Step 1: Call Dad
I told him my plan, and he suggested I use sheets of plywood (which he had lying around), and said we could cut things in his workshop over Thanksgiving.


Step 2: Measure
I laid out some spools to see how far apart they should be. I found that a 19x19 piece of wood would fit about 36 spools (with enough room for fat spools too).

I also measured the height of the bobbin and spool, and found I would need 3" or 3 1/4" nails.

Step 3: Trim shopping
I did not have much luck with Home Depot. Some of the stuff was nice, but mad expensive. And the only one that had a really good pattern for a reasonable price was Crown Molding, and its shape would have been pretty tricky to work with.

  

Lowes had a much better selection, including this one, which is PERFECT for a sewing room!

Step 4: Measure and Cut Trim
Over Thanksgiving Dad helped cut each long piece of trim into 4 pieces that fit together in a square. It involved geometry and a circular saw, so I let dad take the lead on this one.

Step 5: Stain Trim
Dad also had some stain lying around.

Step 6: Prime and Paint Boards
I bought some basic Primer to make the boards white before we painted them -- I figured Ro's kid paints would show up better on a primed surface.

(I also had a few canvases that we had been playing with, and I primed over them so they're new and fresh!) The Primed surface looked great! They really looked like canvases -- in fact I kept forgetting they were plywood, and was surprised by their weight when I picked them up!

Step 7: Seal Trim and Boards
Dad gave me some Polyurethane for the trim to seal in the stain.

I also tested it on the kid paint, to see if it would seal it. However it was too wet, and sort of washed away the paint instead of sealing it in.

Mod Podge actually worked a lot better, and gave it a little shine.

Step 8: Glue Trim
Fancy people have special right-angle corner clamps to glue corners. I don't. Using wood glue, I just pressed the edges together and clamped them to the board to keep them sturdy.

Then I glued the trim to the boards, clamped two corners (because I only had two clamps), and used books for the other corners.

Step 9: Attach Wall Hangers
I used two D-Ring Picture Frame Hangers screwed into the back of the board.

Step 10: Nail
I nailed brads through the trim into the board to keep it secure.

Then I measured and marked where the big nails would go. Mine ended up 2.25" inches apart.

I nailed the 3" nails at an angle so the spools wouldn't fall off when the board was hung on the wall (I couldn't find 3.25" nails that were thin enough for thread spools, but the 3" work ok).

Finally, add your thread spools and hang on the wall!

You can also hang frequently needed supplies, like your pin cushion or scissors.

Just make Christmas happen

In my husband's defense, he has actually thanked me daily for making Christmas happen.

And in deference to my mother and mother-in-law, I'm not in charge of making sure there is food.

But yeah, this is my job this week. Just make Christmas happen.

Up-Cycled Recycling Bin Handles

Or ... "They moved my dumpster into a new time-zone".

I shouldn't complain. My apartment complex is awesome. The grounds are super clean. The maintenance men are SO nice. And they have single-stream recycling, meaning I don't have to separate my paper from my plastic and glass. I'm super spoiled. I was also spoiled that my mail box and dumpster were about 100 feet from my door. I barely had to put shoes on to take out the trash.

Until now. They decided to consolidate the dumpsters and recycling down in one of the lower lots, right by the front entrance, since "everyone drives their trash to the dumpsters anyway". Grrr. What's the point in recycling if you have to DRIVE it to throw it away? And since we're uber hippies and hardly drive AT ALL anyway, it's not like we can just add "drop off recycling on our way out to work", since work is via bike. But we're the minority, so I'm not going to bitch about it. Much.

Fine. I'll walk the 1/4 mile there and the 1/4 mile back to bring my trash and recycling. In the middle of winter. God help us the first blizzard, though, cause I'm not doing it then. Or when it's raining. Or too hot. Yeah, this isn't going to work out very well.

But the real problem is that our bins are a pain to carry. They're just paper bins from staples.

Nothing to really hold on to. And when it was only 100 feet to the bin, it was fine for the dog food can or oatmeal canister to fall out. I'd just grab it, balance it back on top, and dash. But I'm not dropping shit all the way down to the lower lot. This thing needs handles.

For different reasons (see: Christmas gifts, later this month), I had my electric drill out and was putting holes in a rubbermaid tub. Eureka! I can put holes in the bin and put fabric handles through the holes!

Step 1: drill a hole in each side of the bin.


Step 2. Cut a fabric strip long enough to thread through one hole, up over your shoulder, and into the hole on the other side. We have a bunch of these HUGE reusable bags from the bike shop, and they seemed to be the right size. Plus they were pretty clear in the instructions ...





I was able to cut just the center panel of this bag from one end to the other, and then cut it lengthwise to make two long straps, and they were perfect. I think they were about 45" long.




Step 3: Thread the ends of the fabric through the holes.




Step 4: Here's the tricky part ... pull the fabric end through the hole and fold it back against the rest of the strap. Sew the end of the fabric to the body of the strap so it won't come undone. I imagine if you are a knot wizard, you could knot it in a way where it wouldn't come loose. I couldn't. I pinned the end and sewed across it and back a few times, propping the bin up on some books to keep it even.







I also sewed the strap in half length-wise to give it some strength. I did one AFTER I had secured the ends to the bins, and I did one BEFORE I secured the ends to the bins. Both were a pain, and involved a lot of bin maneuvering, but they look nicer and I think they're stronger.






And now look who can help!?