Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Tutorial: Thread spool holder



I'm so grateful to Craft Gossip for sharing my freezer paper tutorial & stencil on their blog! Since then I've gotten a few visitors from Kenya, Australia, Sweden, and I'm excited to share my projects with you guys as well as be inspired by yours :D

I was looking around my desk the other day and saw my thread "organizer". Well it's actually just a basket hahaha. While it may look nice when I arrange them so that they are all standing up, the truth is most of the time the look like a violently tossed salad.


A violently tossed salad.

I've seen a few nice thread spool organizers online, and thought hey maybe I should try making one myself. And I think they look so much more organized now, left with hardly any room to mess up :P




Good morning ma'am, how may we serve you today?


And it's super easy to make it!



Get:
- A thin wooden chopping block that will roughly accommodate all your thread spools
(You can recycle your old one by disinfecting it first, or use other alternatives like a photo frame with the backing attached, or wooden door plates which can also be found cheap. If you have any other ideas for alternatives let me know!)
- Wooden dowels from the hardware store
- A very strong glue like Liquid Nails or 5-min Epoxy (love that stuff)
- Spray paint

Let's go!

Spray the chopping board, as well as the dowels. Spray thin layers to get an even finish.
Be patient and watch the paint dry. Just kidding, that's really boring, go and watch some NCIS or something heheh.

Alternatively, you may also spray paint it right at the end, up to you ;-)


Mark dots onto the chopping board, 1 inch apart. I had 28 dowels, so I centered 7 x 4 rows of dots.


Stick the dowels down onto the marks! Allow for time to dry according to package <--- another boring-but-you-have-to-do-it-grudgingly-thing.


Once it's dry, you're done! The beauty of this is that it can sit flat on my desk, or be hung up on the wall. Remember to use very strong glue (UHU just doesn't cut it this time, and I actually still very much prefer the 5-min Epoxy), and also at the same time that there are limits to how much weight these dowels can take. Alternatively, you can hammer nails in if you've got excellent hand-eye coordination (I don't. Just sayin...).

What do you think?

p/s: Hello new readers! My blog is now at http://chingmakesthings.blogspot.com :)

6 comments:

MateaTPol said...

wow its look so easy to make! i must try it! thank you :)

Vicky said...

Where can I get an apple chopping board? Your is a cutie. Hubby made mine from an IKEA frame, but need another one, cos I hoard thread like I hoard fabric.

chiiiiing said...

@Matea, it is! Just the drying time that is a bit boring hehe.

@Vicky I got this apple one at our local Jusco for RM9.90/USD3.30, I reckon Japanese supermarts may have something cute too... they always come up with the cutest stuff to me! Oh let's not get started on fabric.. we can never have enough of it right?? hahahaha

Judi said...

What a GREAT idea! Gotta give this one a try.

Judi x

chiiiiing said...

@Judi Thank you! I hope it helps in organizing your threads too! :D

Annieofbluegables said...

very cute. Alternately, you could drill holes for the dowels and glue in.