Anyone else made a chocolate firescreen recently? I think I just have!
I’ve got great plans for my new sewing room to be organised bliss, whether these plans come to fruition only time will tell. As you can see, at the moment it’s rather chaotic, having just moved my stuff in at the weekend. I’ve been looking on Pinterest for ideas for sewing room storage. One idea I was rather taken with was a pegboard where I can hang my scissors, have my thread holder etc, I found some great instructions on Honeybear Lane, so now I’m making one that is 48″ square, I glued the frame round it a couple of nights ago so at present it is on the garage floor with weights on, hoping it has stuck ok.
Honeybear Lane
I thought, in one corner of my pegboard it would be quite useful to have a little cork-board to pin cards and bits and bats on. I bought one in a discount store with the idea of covering it to make it look pretty. I think that is where I went wrong, it was cheap, so cheap that it turns out there is actually not a lot of cork in said cork-board! I chose it because it wasn’t framed, I thought it would be easier to cover!
I chose a pretty butterfly fat quarter from my stash which was just the right size. My OH remembered to bring his staple gun home so I set too to make my pin board…first problem was I couldn’t get the staple gun to work, like the staples wouldn’t go in, the edge was too hard, after several attempts I gave up on that idea. I briefly toyed with the idea of lacing it, but I decided in the end to glue it.
I’m not keen on glue, there’s not only the potential mess, there is also no second chance, but there didn’t seem much alternative. Having looked on the internet on how to do it, I dug out a thinner piece of polyester wadding, spray basted it on and then started to glue the fabric on the back of the frame. I used Gutermann glue, so it dries pretty quick. Everything looked good!
I found some pretty ribbon and basically wrapped it round and tied it at the back. Looked very pretty! I decided as a finishing touch to put a coloured drawing pin at the centre of each ribbon intersection…and that is where I discovered my problem! It won’t hold a drawing pin, I tried flat ones, longer ones, the little bit of wadding is enough to push the pins straight out!
So my pin-board won’t take pins! It’s about as effective as a chocolate firescreen! It looks pretty, I can slot cards behind the ribbon, but that’s about it!! I’ll put it on my pegboard but I might keep my eye open for a proper cork-board, one that’s actually got more than a thin veneer of cork in it 🙂
I’m linking up with Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting for a Butterfly Linky Party, why not have a look what everyone else has been creating.
thecraftycreek 
I wonder if, for the time being, you could use straight pins, in and out of the to-be-pinned object, and the fabric covering the cork board. You would in effect be bypassing the cork altogether, and using the butterfly fabric to pin on — no pins sticking out at all. My fingers are crossed for you – very frustrating!
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Use brads at the intersections to hold the ribbon on and then you can use it like a picture board. Just tuck your photos and things underneath the ribbons.
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So pretty too! What a nuisance!
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This looks so pretty, what a shame about the cork board! I’ve been looking to do something similar so thank you for sharing, it’s given me some inspiration!
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I have made quite a few of these, drawing pins aren’t normally needed just tuck things behind the ribbon, but on the one I use in the sewing room I use glass headed sewing pins stuck into the wadding as well. Looking forward to seeing the pegboard sounds a brilliant idea!
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How sad! It looks great, too. As you can tuck things behind the tapes, it’s definitely more useful than a chocolate firescreen! Have you considered cork floor tiles, though not sure how hard they are.
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It does look fab though…
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Thanks 🙂
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Is your board from Wilko’s? I had a similar project with my Guides and we couldn’t hammer the tacks in the frame to hold the ribbons – nightmare!
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It was a Wilko’s one, I didn’t try hammering but the staple gun wouldn’t work. No wonder they were cheap!!
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The pegboard idea looks so good. I hope to have room for something like that some day. How frustrating that your corkboard didn’t work out. Thanks for the tips of what to avoid in future. I would have made the same mistakes. Now I’ll go make some different ones. 😉 Thanks for linking with K of B.
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Thanks, I think with cork boards, like with many things, you get what you pay for!
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Oh, my! All that work, that lovely butterfly fabric and you can’t even use it as intended! Well, I would just wrap it with a bunch more ribbons and use it as a picture board, postcard board, pics of quilts to make board or whatever. The ribbons should hold all those things in place.
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