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Blanket stitch - great for applique and decorative impact

The Old Button Play On The Go © Play Scenes - Safai Zoo What is blanket stitch Blanket stitch is an edging stitch, traditionally used to finish the edges of woollen blankets (or other woven items) to stop them unravelling.  Sewn in a connected row, the stitch forms neat 3 sides boxes, with the effect of "down" side stitches connected by "top" stitches, but they are formed by looping the thread in a continuous stitch.      When used as an edging stitch, it wraps itself around the edge, with down stitches showing at the front and the back, and the top showing across the outside edge.      The Old Button felt flower brooch Securing applique As it can be eased around curves and used on angles of any shape, including internal ones, blanket stitch is also great for securing applique patches.  I use it a lot with felt, but it also works well on cotton or wool fabrics too as where it has the added benefit of catching in any fraying threads. ...
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Super sized DIY cutting and pressing table - #IKEAhack Step 1: prepping the Kallax sandwich


In my last post I explained how I designed a huge cutting and pressing table to go in my sewing room.

My design involved sandwiching four Kallax units between two layers of MDF board - the base board and the top - giving lots of strength for a fairly small weight (a bit like a marshmallow and wafer biscuit😁).

But first I wanted to check exactly how I wanted the units to be laid out. This took me quite some time!!

Trying out the layout of the units (again!)
As you can see, I am using three 4-cube units plus one 2-cube - this gives an open space in the middle to store bulky items, and allows easy access for stuff that falls through the holes! 
 
It also made it a lot easier to screw & bolt it together as I could crawl inside but I admit that was a lucky break, rather than planned.  

💪Top and base board

I went with 18 mm MDF in a structural grade for extra strength - it has more layers than normal MDF. This is rather heavy stuff but I wanted to be sure both the base and the top wouldn't bow, especially as I had a lot of voids and cantilered overhangs. I used two standard size sheets (1220 x 2440mm) - bought and delivered from a local builders merchant as no way were they fitting in my car!

To get the wood into my attic room, I needed to cut both base and the top in sections and fix them back together as I built the table. But I needed to work out the best way to do this to minimise the number of cuts and unusable offcuts, and give the most stability to the sandwich. 

I had already decided the top needed to be 1.4m wide and as long as possible - see "wish list" in my last post. The base just needed to be big enough to fit the Kallax units on. 

I used my trusty spreadsheet again as graph paper to play around with options - this is the final version.  The graphic shows the different layers on top of each other, but upside-down. 

  • The bigger gold rectangle is the top board, and the darker brown strips are a wood frame supporting it. 
  • The ikea units are the pale yellow rectangles.
  • The white rectangle is the base board, with red castors and some wood supporting strips. 
 
 
This graphic shows the cuts from each piece of mdf. Both boards together gave me: 
  • 2 boards measuring 122cm by 64cm, that would go side by side across the width of the table.  
  •  2 boards measuring 70cm by 180cm, that would be laid lengthways.
So essentially, the top and bottom would run in different directions to each other for extra stability
 
The sheets were cut with a rotary saw using a long piece of wood as a straight edge guide - it took 3 of us and lots of clamps. A table saw would have made it a lot easier (maybe this year's birthday pressie!). I guess it is possible to do with a hand saw, or you could look for a supplier that will cut it to size for you. 

Will it work?

Checking the top out for size

My construction method involved adding the top last (more later), but I wanted to check it would work. 

I put the units in place exactly as I wanted them (in hindsight this would have been easier if I'd actually  laid them on the base boards 😏 ), and placed the top boards on the units. This way I could make sure I could actually reach the middle from the side, and check the overhangs at each end  were sensible.

You can't see from the photo, but the front overhang is shorter so I can easily reach into the cubes, and the back is longer so it fits over other furniture to get it out of the way when in bedroom mode - see planning.  

The spaces between the units are deliberate - as well as making the base that bit bigger and therefore more stable for the huge top,  I have plans for to use them for storage accessories!!

Once I was happy - this took AGES - I drew around the units on the underside of the top boards with a pencil, so I would know exactly where to fit them on when the time came.  

But first I needed to fix the base boards and add castors.... post coming soon. 


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