A lot has been going on and I haven’t had the chance to post about this project but better late than never. I mentioned awhile back that I was going to make the thread holder from this tutorial. Well, not only did I make one, I made two!
When I went to buy some peg board, it only came in a really big piece. I had the guy at the hardware store cut it in two but, of course, I had to buy the whole thing. I ended up making one thread rack for myself and then another for my best friend.
The tutorial on Sugar Bee is great but I wanted to go through what I did because I did the whole thing myself and so can you!
I’m not going to rewrite the whole tutorial. If you want to make this I strongly suggest you head over to Sugar Bee’s site and check out her tutorial. I just wanted to go through some of the parts that aren’t in the tutorial.
So what do you need?
- Well obviously you need peg board. My cut pieces ended up being roughly 2′ by 2′. You really don’t need that big of a piece but it’s totally up to you. That size ended up holding about 100 spools of thread.
- You also need dowels. I ended up buying some in two places. Ultimately I needed about 8 dowels because of the size of my peg board. The dowels are 1/4″ size. They have to fit into the holes in the peg board. Now I ran into some problems with the first dowels that I bought. I don’t know if they were a soft wood or what but they splintered like crazy. I had the best luck using a solid wood dowel that was a light shade. The darker ones (I’m not sure what type of wood they were) did not work.
- Wood glue. I used Lepage carpenter’s glue. It’s pretty awesome.
- Paint. I bought a spray paint in white to spray the whole board but I also used some of my craft paints. I used DecoArt and Apple Barrel, both purchased at Michaels.
- Saw. Ok, so I went out and bought a saw. This might sound a little weird but that’s just how I roll. I figured it would come in handy later on and it was on sale so why not? My particular saw is a Mastercraft compound mitre saw. You can do this project without a compound mitre saw but this made it much easier. If you don’t have one you can always try to hunt down a friend or neighbour who might let you borrow theirs if buying a saw isn’t something you really want to do.
- Trim board. I had a hard time finding trim board. Ultimately I bought some at Michaels. They have a few different styles so you just get whatever suits your taste.
- Sandpaper. Fine grain is suitable for this project. Even extra-fine will work.
I could have really used some clamps too but I didn’t have any and when I realized I needed them it was too late to get any. I’d strongly suggest picking up a couple before you start. They aren’t expensive and will probably come in handy if you plan on doing other projects.
So I set up my saw in the backyard, donned a dress, flip flops (not proper footwear) and some Versace sunglasses and I was ready to go. Now, Versace sunglasses do not take the place of protective eyewear but I would not recommend using a saw without some kind of glasses, preferably protective ones.
Notice how my eyes are closed in this picture? You should keep your eyes open. The saw comes with a clamp to hold down what you’re cutting but because the dowels are so small, the clamp didn’t work so be careful and make sure your dowel is laying flat and up against the guide before cutting it.
I marked off cutting lines down the dowel and then at the end I’d have one longer piece. I kept these as well and used them along the side for bigger spools of thread. My saw has a laser line and that made lining things up much easier.
Once I’d cut what felt like a million dowel pieces, I sat down and started to sand the cut ends. This was my least favourite part but I wouldn’t skip it. I just smoothed off each end of the dowel. I figured it would look nicer and I’d rather not have splinters from my thread rack. It only took a couple of seconds per dowel.
Remember, before you start to glue your dowels into the holes on the peg board, if you’re going to be using trim, you need to make sure you leave room for the trim. I started gluing mine into the 3rd hold from the top and side and left a hole in between each. It doesn’t take long for the glue to dry and you don’t even have to hold the dowels in place really. Make sure they aren’t sticking out in the back and that they’re straight, not leaning to one side or the other. It probably took a half an hour or so to glue them all in, maybe a little less.
I left the board and went out but really after 20 minutes or so it was good to go. I spray painted the whole thing white but it didn’t really get on the dowels well, especially the underneath part so after that paint dried I sat there and individually painted each dowel with my white ArtDeco paint. It’s not necessary to do this but it will make your thread rack nicer looking.
The trim was the hardest part. If your trim doesn’t have a design to it you can probably get away with just boxing the corners. I wasn’t so lucky and boxing them would have looked really bad so I had to miter them. I didn’t do the best job either. You’ll need to measure each end of your peg board. The tip of each end of the trim should be the total length of the side of the peg board. Mark that line off.
On the saw, set it to a 45 degree angle and cut one side. Then flip the saw around to the other side so it’s at a 45 degree angle again and cut the other side of the trim. The angles should be facing the same way on your trim. I messed up my first one by not flipping the saw to the other side. That won’t work! Don’t forget to lock your saw again before you start cutting. Line your laser (if you have one) so that it meets your cut line at the top point. It won’t line up with the line you drew and that’s fine, you only need it to line up at the top. If you measure right, your trim should fit together nicely. If you’re like me and don’t quite do it right, it won’t line up perfectly but that’s ok too! Also make sure you’re lying the trim flat on the bed of your saw and that you’re holding it down while you’re cutting.
After I had these cut, I sanded each end of them as well then painted them first with the white and then with the Apple Barrel. I used lime green for mine. For the one that I made Kate (which had a flowery trim), I used a really pretty blue. I bought the trim at Michaels, like I mentioned and I didn’t have any problems with mine. I glued it on and held it for a few minutes and it was fine. Not so for Kate’s! The wood was warped and this is when having a clamp would have come in handy. Since I didn’t have a clamp, I ended up piling books on it on each end. Just be careful no glue is coming through or you’ll glue your book to your thread rack!
Here is the final result. Sadly I didn’t get any good pictures of Kate’s before I gave it to her.
I found those metal hook things at Michaels as well. I figured they may come in handy. They came in a pack of 4.
Many thanks to Sugar Bee for posting the tutorial. I can’t wait until my sewing room is all set up and I have this hanging on the wall.
One small note, if you find that your thread doesn’t want to stay on the rack because the dowels are straight, just glue a small piece of wood or something along the bottom in the back of the rack so that when hanging the rack is at a very small angle and you won’t have this problem. I don’t think it will be an issue if you cut the dowels long enough. The size given by Sugar Bee suits the spools of both Coats and Clark and Gütermann just fine as far as I can see.
