Shoe shelf

As I was going through old photos, I found some pictures of making the shoe shelf.

The frame is made of pieces of particle board that were packaging material for some furniture. I used angle irons to attach the pieces together, because that's the easiest way.

Then I attached the center shelf by gluing strips of wood to the vertical parts for support and then gluing the shelf into those. I glued cardstock to the front edges, so they would be smooth. Usually this is done with strips that are laminated to the edges, but I didn't need anything that durable, just a smooth surface.

Then I used paper napkins and glue varnish to cover the frame all over.

The other shelves are made of cardboard, attached the same way as the center shelf, and then covered with napkins and glue varnish. Finally, I attached some overhead transparencies to the front for keeping most of the dust out. The transparencies are only attached on the top edge, so you lift them up to access the shelves.

Trunk for 1/24-1/12 scales

I have built a couple of 1/144 scale dollhouses from laser cut kits. The wood in those is very thin and the bits left over after removing the house parts can be used for various miniature projects. One of the things I have made using them is a trunk that fits several scales.

This is the trunk before painting. The black parts are cardstock, the lid is made of foamcore, the strips around the lid are leftover dollhouse skirting, and the rest of the wooden parts are from the dollhouse kits.

Here is the finished trunk with gold paint, some plastic decorations and a coat of sealer to keep the decorations secure.

Kindle case

At the end of the previous post, I had a picture of a protective case for a Kindle. This post explains in detail how I made it.



The first step was to cut the bands to correct length. I first sewed across the bands to keep the ends from fraying and then cut them.



Then I pinned them together for sewing. As the bands are a bit stretchy, you need to pin the ends first and then the rest of the length spread evenly.



Next step was sewing the bands together using the yarn used in the edges.



Here are the bands sewn together.



To remove all unevenness, the piece needed to be pressed. I used a regular iron and ironed through a damp cloth.



Here you can see the reverse side. The seams are a lot flatter after ironing.



Then I cut the lining and two pieces of sturdy bubblewrap for reinforcement.



I sewed the lining to a piece of wool fabric. The plastic pieces went between these two fabrics and the seam in the middle kept them in correct places.



Then I cut away all the extra outside the seams.



I sewed pieces of the lining fabric to the short edges of the outer piece.



Then I put the lining and outer piece together, turned the fabric to cover the edges and sewed all the layers together. At his stage the side seams were not yet sewn.



Then it was time to sew the zipper and side seams. The side seams were sewn by hand and only through the edge of the outer pieces, the same way as sewing the bands together. The sides of the lining remained open.

More card weaving

These are bands I have made after having a lot more practice in card weaving. I found organic cotton yarn at a good price, so I ended up getting quite a lot of it and experimenting with different patterns.

The frame I used for these was just two chair legs joined together.

The chair had four legs, so I got two frames and could work with two bands in parallel.

Here's a closeup in which you can see the cards I'm using. They are made of ordinary playing cards as described in this earlier post.

Most of these bands ended up becoming a handbag. The two side pockets are for a mobile phone and digital camera.

The pockets close with really big snaps.

Inside has a cotton lining and the bag closes with similar snaps as the pockets. There is a small side pocket inside the bag for wallet.

There were some leftover bands and they later became a protective pouch for my Kindle. I will write a separate post later about how I made that.