Make Do and Organise!
...or how I made my lovely thread holder!
As a few people had asked for how I made this, I thought I’d write a blog post about it so it’s more easily saved and shared, if you want it.
A note to start off, it’s a pretty simple design, not much skill required (thankfully!) but you’ll need a few basic tools and materials - I’ll list them here so you can gather things together before we start.
You’ll need:
The first thing I did was to cut the 6 main thread shelves and the 2 upright frame pieces. So measure 6x400mm lengths along the larger wood pieces and cut, then measure and mark 605mm along the thinner wood and cut. Sand any rough edges. Then cut the dowel into 60 pieces 40mm long and sand one end of each if your cutting is as bad as mine to smooth a bit!
I then marked all the points I was going to drill for the dowel reel holders - I marked the centre of the widest edge of the wood at each end, then held the tape measure on and marked first at 20mm, then 60mm, then at every 40mm until you get to the other end - you should have 10 points marked on each shelf.
Repeat for each shelf piece. Then set up your drill with the 6mm drill bit and put a piece of electrical or masking tape 1cm from the tip to mark how deep to drill. Find somewhere to do your drilling - I found it easiest to have a low box to rest my shelves on so that I could stand over them to drill (reasonably) straight - then drill at each mark to the tape marker. A word to the wise, keep an eye on your tape marker and check it isn’t moving - I suddenly found I’d drilled all the way through one piece as I hadn’t noticed, oops!
Next I marked the points at which the shelves would be screwed to the frame pieces - decide which is the back of each one and mark 4cm in from each end. Drill a small hole at each mark, not too deep, just enough to give the screws a bit of a head start when you put it together. Then mark the two frame pieces with all the shelf positions and wall fixings - firstly mark at 40mm from each end, then at 105mm from each of those points and 105mm again so you have 6 marks altogether. Finally mark 102.5mm from each end and drill at all of these mark all the way through.
Now the fun bit - screwing and assembling! Firstly put all the dowel pieces in the drilled holes in your shelves. Some of mine needed a little tap with a hammer to get in tightly, others were a bit loose so I squeezed a bit of wood glue on some paper and dipped the end of the dowel in it before pushing in the hole. Next I screwed each shelf to the frame pieces, trying to make sure it’s all square - I laid all the shelves out on the edge of a table with back edges up, started to screw the frame into them and then while it was all fairly loose, I lined the ends of the shelves up with one edge of the table and the bottom shelf along another then screwed it tight trying to keep everything lined up with the tables square edges.
Lastly, I hammered in a panel pin on the front edges of each shelf, roughly in the middle and level with each dowel piece. You can do it all by eye, but if you want to be a bit more consistent like me, I hammered one in and checked the bobbin sat on it ok, then got a small offcut of wood and made a mark to show the height of the pin left sticking out of the wood and used that as a guide for each pin, checking them against the mark as I went along to make sure they were all pretty much the same height. Try to hammer them in at a slight upwards angle so that your bobbins won’t fall off the pin - if you don’t manage that, just tap the pin gently upwards with your hammer once it’s in far enough.
Now all that’s left is to attach it to the wall. Hold your frame up to the wall where you want it, mark the four fixing hole positions on the wall and drill a hole big enough for your wall plugs at each point. Put in wall plugs and then screw the frame to the wall and voila! Thread holder, done **drops mic**
As a few people had asked for how I made this, I thought I’d write a blog post about it so it’s more easily saved and shared, if you want it.
A note to start off, it’s a pretty simple design, not much skill required (thankfully!) but you’ll need a few basic tools and materials - I’ll list them here so you can gather things together before we start.
You’ll need:
- a saw and a hacksaw (truth be told I used the hacksaw for everything which is probably why it took a lot of effort to cut the bigger bits of wood, but I just don’t get on with saws!)
- a drill with 4mm and 6mm wood drill bits
- electrical or masking tape
- sandpaper
- ruler/tape measure and pencil
- a screwdriver
- a small hammer
- 12 countersunk screws about 25mm long
- 4 pan head or dome head screws about 30mm long
- 2.4m of approx 20x45mm wood
- 1.21m of approx 10x20mm wood
- 2.4m of 6mm diameter dowel
- 60 panel pins approx 30mm long
- wood glue
- 4 wall plugs for the screws to suit the wall you want to attach it to
The first thing I did was to cut the 6 main thread shelves and the 2 upright frame pieces. So measure 6x400mm lengths along the larger wood pieces and cut, then measure and mark 605mm along the thinner wood and cut. Sand any rough edges. Then cut the dowel into 60 pieces 40mm long and sand one end of each if your cutting is as bad as mine to smooth a bit!
Repeat for each shelf piece. Then set up your drill with the 6mm drill bit and put a piece of electrical or masking tape 1cm from the tip to mark how deep to drill. Find somewhere to do your drilling - I found it easiest to have a low box to rest my shelves on so that I could stand over them to drill (reasonably) straight - then drill at each mark to the tape marker. A word to the wise, keep an eye on your tape marker and check it isn’t moving - I suddenly found I’d drilled all the way through one piece as I hadn’t noticed, oops!
Next I marked the points at which the shelves would be screwed to the frame pieces - decide which is the back of each one and mark 4cm in from each end. Drill a small hole at each mark, not too deep, just enough to give the screws a bit of a head start when you put it together. Then mark the two frame pieces with all the shelf positions and wall fixings - firstly mark at 40mm from each end, then at 105mm from each of those points and 105mm again so you have 6 marks altogether. Finally mark 102.5mm from each end and drill at all of these mark all the way through.
Now the fun bit - screwing and assembling! Firstly put all the dowel pieces in the drilled holes in your shelves. Some of mine needed a little tap with a hammer to get in tightly, others were a bit loose so I squeezed a bit of wood glue on some paper and dipped the end of the dowel in it before pushing in the hole. Next I screwed each shelf to the frame pieces, trying to make sure it’s all square - I laid all the shelves out on the edge of a table with back edges up, started to screw the frame into them and then while it was all fairly loose, I lined the ends of the shelves up with one edge of the table and the bottom shelf along another then screwed it tight trying to keep everything lined up with the tables square edges.
Lastly, I hammered in a panel pin on the front edges of each shelf, roughly in the middle and level with each dowel piece. You can do it all by eye, but if you want to be a bit more consistent like me, I hammered one in and checked the bobbin sat on it ok, then got a small offcut of wood and made a mark to show the height of the pin left sticking out of the wood and used that as a guide for each pin, checking them against the mark as I went along to make sure they were all pretty much the same height. Try to hammer them in at a slight upwards angle so that your bobbins won’t fall off the pin - if you don’t manage that, just tap the pin gently upwards with your hammer once it’s in far enough.
Now all that’s left is to attach it to the wall. Hold your frame up to the wall where you want it, mark the four fixing hole positions on the wall and drill a hole big enough for your wall plugs at each point. Put in wall plugs and then screw the frame to the wall and voila! Thread holder, done **drops mic**
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