Thursday, February 26, 2015

How to Create A Blocking Board

Today, I'm going to teach you how I made my blocking board. Blocking is sometimes required to get the right shape on a project. Sometimes a project curls around the edges or for one reason or another doesn't turn out the exact shape you want. When this happens, blocking is the solution.  To block a project, take the finished product and get it really wet. Squeeze the excess moisture out of the project (not too hard, or you'll end up with a wrinkly mess), then lay it flat in the desired shape, and secure to your blocking board with rust proof sewing pins. 


I made a small board out of a science project board, wrapping paper, a shower curtain, and tape.  I wanted something sturdy, but easy to pin and store because I have very little storage space in my apartment. So I went to Wal-Mart and grabbed a nice 20" x 30" project board with Styrofoam in the middle, and the cheapest clear shower curtain I could get my hands on. If it's cheaper, you could also get some vinyl by the yard, but I'm pretty sure the shower curtain was a better buy. It also doesn't fight too hard when you're trying to stick pins in it.  When I got home, I looked through all of my wrapping paper to find one with the cutting guides on the back.  The wrapping paper with the lines on the back is a great way to make sure that you get your edges straight when you're blocking.

I cut my wrapping paper and shower curtain a few inches larger than my board all the way around, then wrapped the board with wrapping paper and taped it up like a gift, making sure that all of my lines matched up with the edges of my board. 


Next I wrapped the board in the shower curtain, again securing with tape. 


That's all! Now I have a nice little board that's great for neck wraps, head wraps, cuff bracelets, or anything else I can think of that's small and needs blocking. You can see I'm blocking something right now, and I will teach you how to make your own in my next post!  See you then!

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