Craft Tutorial: Vintage Wooden Spool Cork Board

One day at the thrift store, I found this yellow sewing box. It was the same as one my mom used to have but hers was a little bit bigger. I would have bought it for the box alone.

But when I opened it, I found such a treasure…spools and spools of thread from long ago.

I recognized some from my mom’s stash…these styrofoam spools from Thrifty’s are from the late 70s/early 80s, when we first moved to the suburbs. Thrifty’s also had the most awesome ice cream…the scoop was shaped like a cylinder. Mmmm loved their orange sherbet on a hot day.

So all these wooden ones must be from before then. Many of the spools were labeled “Boil Fast”, so I looked that up and found this vintage thread chart and photo gallery. Several of my spools are pictured among those photos, and it looks like they date back to the 50s to the 70s.

I had this cork board with a ledge for a pencil, also a thrifted item. I thought I’d make a message board or inspiration board or whatever board for my craft corner.

The ledge and the corkboard are all held in with screws so things were easy for even me to remove.

I covered the ledge with jute twine. First I covered the sides with some short strands. I used hot glue on the edges to keep them in place.

Then I wound the twine around the short way, covering the short strands and leaving the sides finished.

All covered up.

For the frame, I wanted to keep the background white so that the wood spools and the thread colors would stand out, but I also wanted to add some texture and interest, particularly on the sides of the frame. So I wound the twine around the frame going one direction and criss-crossing over in the other direction. I used dabs of hot glue in the back to keep the twine in place.

Screw the corkboard and the ledge back in. As you do this, think about the time you told your mean manager that “You have a screw loose.” When he said “WHAT?” to you, you picked up the screw that fell out of his chair and handed it to him, saying “A screw fell out of your chair.” Giggle to yourself as you twist all 10 screws back into the frame. Teehee. Heeheeheeheeheehee. He has a screw loose! Teeheehee.

Now it’s ready for the spools! I sorted my spools into small/medium/large. There were mostly large, some small and only a few mediums.

I actually wanted to turn all the labels out, but the large spools were sticking out too much for this project. So I turned out a few of the small ones, and left space in between the large ones so you could still see them if you looked closely.

I hot glued the spools into place.

There were two small spools that were almost empty. I removed the thread and glued thumbtacks onto them.

And I couldn’t resist doing the same with some vintage buttons.

All done. It looks so fun as an inspiration board in my craft corner.

I purposely put the two largest spools at the bottom to hold a pencil and a pair of little scissors.

 

But…check out how it looks with this art work from Mandipity! So this is how I left it, and I hope to hang it up on the wall soon. Looks like I’ll have to get another corkboard for my inspiration stuff.

This was such a fun project. I had never seen actual wooden spools before and I can’t believe I was so lucky to find a whole box full! They are so lovely to look at and now I’m glad I can see them whenever I like. And it was so cool to learn a little bit about sewing history.

Linking: Lamb Around :: Petite Hermine :: Tip Junkie :: Sugar Bee-Crafts :: Rook No. 17 :: Tea Rose Home :: The Trendy Treehouse :: Somewhat Simple :: Momnivoire's Dilemma :: Born Again Crafter :: The Frugal Girls :: Tidy Mom :: WhipperBerry :: Shabby Chic Cottage :: Creation Corner :: Craft Envy :: Along for the Ride :: Tatertots and Jello :: Lolly Jane Boutique :: Be Different...Act Normal  :: Flamingo Toes :: Homemaker on a Dime :: Sassy Sites