Thread Rack Covers

I like to keep my thread on a rack on the wall.  It's really nice to see all of it at once and be able to pick just the right color or colors.  I used to keep my regular sewing thread in a box.  When I put it on a rack, it was amazing how many duplicates I had and also how many missing colors.

There's issues with keeping thread on a rack.  Continuous exposure to sunlight doesn't do it any good.  Dust accumulation isn't great for it either.  I used to deal with the problem just by keeping my sewing room dark when I wasn't actively using it.  Now, I've decided to make covers for the thread racks to protect the thread.

I used a heavy weight cotton fabric to keep the covers fairly light proof.  Using a heavy weight fabric means that fairly dense and elaborate embroidery designs can be used.  These designs are fun, so why not make the covers decorative as well as useful?

I started with a rectangle of fabric.  It's 11" wider than the thread rack and 36" long.

The design I chose was a Mandarin Duck, one of the prettiest of the ornamental ducks.  You can find this design here.  I used the largest version of this design.

After the design is sewn, I made corners for the top of the cover.  The side is folded over to meet the top, then a 5.5" seam is sewn perpendicular to the edges.

After sewing the seam, the excess is trimmed.

No corners are sewn in the bottom of the cover, it just hangs loose.

The final step is to hem the entire outer edge of the cover.

I have lots of thread, so I need more than one rack.  I also made one to cover a double rack (two racks hung together).  As you can see, I stuck with the duck theme.

Come back next week for more Fun with a Sewing Machine.

Sunshade for a Robot

You might be wondering just which planet this post applies to.  I assure you that it's planet Earth.

I've decided that mowing a lawn in the hot Alabama sun and humidity isn't something I need to be doing.  Most people would just hire a lawn service, but I decided to try out a different approach -- an autonomous mower, basically a grass cutting robot. The effectiveness of the mower depends on where it's charging station is placed, particularly if you want it to mow both the front and back of the house.  For a lot of reasons, the back of the house was the right place to put the mower.   However, the battery lasts a lot longer if it's not hot when it's charged.  That means it's idea to put the charging station out of the sun.  The west side of the house is very much in the full sun.  I decided that the best solution was to make a sunshade for the charging station and mower, so that it would be out of the sun while charging.

 Here's the mower and charging station before the sunshade:

The mower is only 12" tall, so the shade doesn't have to be very high.  In fact, it's better than it's not, so that the view out the windows isn't obstructed.   However, the mower needs unobstructed access to the charging station from the sides, so the supports for the shade can't be next to the station.  One way to solve this problem is to make a very long shade, but it doesn't have to be all that wide.

I found this nice fabric at Wal-Mart.

It's a polyester canvas with a urethane backing.  That means it will be very sturdy, very light proof and even water proof.  Being water proof isn't a necessity for this application, but it's a nice bonus.  The fabric is 60" wide, so 3 sections sewn side by side gives me plenty of width to the sunshade.  The light khaki color will help keep the area under the shade cool.

I made flatfeld seams to help wit making it water proof.  There's a bunch of ways to hold the fabric in place while it is stitched, but I didn't have any nice seam tape.

Blue painter's tape did just fine.  It's not what I would recommend for fine sewing, but that's not what this is. 

I added a 1" hem and grommets at the corners.  Since the fabric won't ravel with the urethane backing, I just turned under the hem once.

Here's the mower hanging out in it's cool, shady charging station.

Come back next week for some other crazy fun adventure with a sewing machine.