Real Pinning Board - Tutorial

I've been observing this type of boards for a long time now and they were always a bit too expensive for me - especially for something that I think is quite easy to make. When I saw this recycling contest over at dA I decided it was finally time to make one.

I took some progress photos to be able to share with you how I made it. I also learned quite a bit so you won't have to make the same mistakes as I did. I didn't photograph all the steps but I think these are more than enough to follow. Plus, you do always read the instructions too, right :D

Materials needed:
- cardboard from a big box - you can glue together 2 of them for a stiffer surface (sandwich wise)
- pretty fabric - I have lots of fabric samples from a curtain/wallpaper store but you can sew a patchwork first or use old denims... possibilities are endless here
- batting or thinner foam
- elastic band
- beads - you can use buttons or little bows or anything you fancy
- double sided tape
- duct tape or any good holding tape you have
- needle & thread

Instructions:

1. First decide about the size of your board  and simply cut it from your box:

2. Take your fabric and cut it about 2,5cm (1 inch) bigger than your board: 

3. Draw your desired grid on the board. Make sure you draw those "tails" inwards too because you'll need them later when the fabric will be covering part of your drawn grid. Tails need to be longer than 2,5 cm (1 inch) or your fabric overlap:

 4. Cut your batting/foam to fit the size of your board and start assembling the following sandwich: fabric with correct side facing down on your working surface + batting/foam + cardboard (not pictured here):

5. Take your double sided tape and cut it to fit the overlap of the fabric on the cardboard. Pay attention to those tails you drew earlier. It's wise not to have glue over the tails because it's incredibly hard to sew through it plus it makes your needle horribly sticky. Trust me here as I learned the tough way:

6. Cut away those fabric corners but not directly at the board's corners. Fold the fabric back over the cardboard and glue it down. I think it's good to do opposite sides order.

Then take your elastic band and cut it to fit your lines. It's good to keep tension on the board so you are able to stick your photos on it plus it looks good when elastic "puffs" your batting :)  I cut my elastics to almost the same lengths as the drawn lines were - without the tails that is. This way you get the correct tension when you fold your elastic over the board's sides. But you should try it first before you cut it as all elastics don't behave in the same way.

Now it's time to sew the elastics on. This is when those "tails" come in handy - they assist you in positioning down your elastics to the correct places:

 7. After you are done with sewing the elastics you need to secure down those grid intersections:

You can see how my grid was off because I didn't have those tails to assist me while sewing!

Tape down all the folded back + sewn on elastic tails at the back of the board (can bee seen on the next photo). I used masking tape because that was the only thing I had available.

8. To secure down the intersections at the front side I used beads and I simply sewed them on. At least I had the grid to pin them down correctly :) This is how it looked from the back:

9. The only thing left to do is adding some hanging devices at the back of the board. Since this board is really light I used some poster hanging thingies but you can make loops and sew them to the fabric too:

This is it! I hope you'll find my tutorial useful and if you make a board I'd love to see it.

Do We Have a Winner?

I had Mucko draw one of the folded papers from the bowl and I filmed a video with the action but in the end failed big time. Looks like I have something new to learn in the future :D

I'm sorry I spelled your name wrong :)  The important thing is, I know whom to send the little package to ;) Yay! I'll finish it off first and then it will be on it's way!

Thank you all for participating and I'm sorry Esther, I hope Mucko picks you out next time.

P.S.
I don't know why Blogger doesn't want to show the original size of the photo but the name on the paper is Cindy's.