Supplies:
- braided handles
- scissors
- power drill & bits (see notes)
- button thread (regular if that's all you have)
- Hot glue gun
We'll start by finishing the ends of the round braid, which will be the handle for the file. After we finish the ends, we'll know how big to make the holes in the file sides.
Start by securing your handle to a chair. Now, the goal here is to remove the core for the last several inches, then keep braiding. It should get much thinner and need a smaller hole in the sides. Also - with the core gone - we can tie a nice knot in the end and have cute tassels hanging on the sides. The core is not cute when unraveled.
If you still have knots in one end, untie them. Un-braid back about 7 inches from your shortest piece. Place a rubberband here so it won't back out any further.
Now, grab the core in one hand and slide the cotton up to the rubberband - it will bunch up and won't go all the way, and that's fine. About 4-5" is all we really need to get. Cut the core off, and repeat with all 4 ends.
Now pull the cotton back down, figure out where your front/back and left/right strands are and keep braiding down as far as you can. It will be much harder without that nice stiff core to hold it all up.
Lay your thinner part over a ruler to see about how thick it is. Mine is between 1/4 and 3/8 (otherwise known as 5/16)
You'll need to find the balance point in the sides of your file so it will hang straight from your handle and not at an angle. I just pinched the sides with my fingertips and lifted the file up. It was pretty easy to find the point where it felt balanced. Make it at least 1" down from the edge for strength. Mark one side, then measure and mark the other side to match. Mine was 2.5" down from the flat top edge, then 1" towards the angled side.
Drill a hole in each side at your balance point. The trick for NOT tearing up your fabric is to let the drill spin fast, but to press down very slowly/lightly, allowing it to cut slowly and not snag or rip your fabric. I used the 1/4" bit and 3 out of 4 strands fit through, but it was just too tight for the last strand. I couldn't find a 5/16" so I just reamed out the hole by tilting the 1/4" bit around in the hole. Not a very elegant solution, but it works. Put your tapered ends through the hole from the inside. Now, tie an overhand knot, trim the ends, unbraid the cotton to make a pretty tassel, and this side is done! Now repeat everything for the other side. (in hindsight, the blue matches my fabric perfectly! I couldn't have done that on purpose if I tried!)
The file is done!! If you want to make your caddy like my original idea - with cans all around the file - all of this will be the same. But I hope you already decided that and cut your wrapping rope accordingly!
On to the handle for the utensil caddy! I actually unbraided my handle since it was so badly twisted and re-did it, much more loosely. It still has a single twist, but I can deal with that. We are going to whip the ends of these braids, since we don't want a huge knot at the bottom. I'm not going to try to teach that here, so here's a link. While you're at it, go ahead and whip just one end of your long rope to go around your cans (make this whipping as neat as possible, since it will be visible). I used polyester sewing thread for my whipping, and each end took me less than 2 minutes. If I had been able to find it, my thicker button thread would have been better, but this is fine. We're about to glue it down anyway.
Go ahead and start to heat your glue gun. We want it nice and hot and liquid-y for this project so it will seep into both the cloth and the rope and harden there. I think sometimes hot glue comes apart because we use it too cold! Now, take your large central can. We need to divide it into 4 equal parts - the quilters clear ruler is super helpful here, but I think eyeballing it is probably fine. One easy line is the fabric seam, then just make marks (near the bottom) to divide it into 4 - they will be completely covered so it doesn't matter what you make them with. The seam and it's opposite will be for attaching 2 of the cans. The other 2 are for the handles - extend these lines all the way up to near the top.
Pick which side of your rope to glue down. Mine had an obvious side that curved down and one that bumped out. Put a thick line of hot glue on one of your long lines, to about 1" from the bottom but all the way to the top. Press your rope down, and hold for a good long time - your utensils are depending on this join!! Hopefully some glue will come up between the spaces in your braid. You won't see the bottom 2 inches, so I put some more on the sides.
Now flip your can over to the opposite line, add another thick line of glue, then straighten out your handle to make sure there is no twist before pressing it down. Handle done! If the top of the handle starts to peel back over time, it will be a cinch to squirt more hot glue in and press it down again.
Now for the rest of the cans. You may want to lay them out in order so you place the right color in the right position. Start with the cans that belong on the other 2 lines. Put your stripe of glue on the seam of the small can then press into place - keeping the bottoms flat on the table so everything stays level. Keep the glue about 1/2" away from the bottom so it won't stick to the table.
Each side will have 3 cans together, but they won't touch all the way around. To find your next glue line, place the next can with the seam against the center can, and also touching it's neighbor. Draw a line up the joint with your pencil, then make a glue line about 1/4" inside your new pencil line before pressing into place. You can make a little X on the side where your glue should go in case you forget.
The space between each group of 3 cans should line up exactly where your handles are. It's easy to guess how to add the small cans to join both sides together. If you want more stability you can flip the whole thing over and add a blob of glue between each inner joint to reinforce it.
Now, finally, the last few steps. Cut off any glue-blobs that might make your caddy sit crooked. I hope you wrote down how many wraps you were going to use around the outside! Fold your rope to show that many wraps and place it on your smallest can to center it. Mark the bottom of the bottom rope, where we'll start the wrapping. Measure and transfer this bottom mark all the way around the cans - make sure the marks are on the outer curve of the can where the straight and tight rope will touch. This is the only time we will need to do this. I also put the mark on the small can near the joint with the next can - this is where our tail will start.
First just put glue between the 2 lines on the small can, and press the rope tightly into place. Let cool a bit before adding glue and stretching to the next can. Each side can will get about 3/4" of contact with the rope, so make your glue line about that long. It's important to get this first row straight and fairly snug, but the next rows will be much easier to make tight. Now just wrap your rope above each previous line, adding a bead of glue before pressing down, and stretching the rope very tight. Smear down any oversqueeze after it cools for a second.
When you get to the end of your rope, just give it a tuck to decide where the end should be. You can cut off most of your length, whip the end, then trim close. I measured it to terminate all the way around this can, then decided at the last minute to tuck it down. Either way would work.
And there you have it! It was kind of a lot of work. Will I still make 5 more for tutors? I certainly hope so. Would it be worth it to just make one for myself or as a gift? Absolutely!! Happy crafting! If I have loads of energy, I might have to make some of these in the blue and green to match... he, he, he...
No comments:
Post a Comment