With this post I will show you how you can build this hamper out of pallets and sewing-tutorials for the laundry bag. I hope that you try this project yourself and I am curious if you like my hamper.
Tools
– Saw
– Drill with various attachments
– Wrench
– Yardstick
– Two screw clamps
– Screwdriver
– Pencil
– Triangle ruler
– Sandpaper coarse (e.g. grain 80)
– Sandpaper less coarse (e.g. grain 180)
– Scandpaper fine (e.g. grain 320)
– Hand-sanding tool or electrical sander
Material
I have sawn my wood boards from pallets simply because I still had some. Later I was declared insane because I did not buy pre-cut wood, but honestly, the sawing of the pallets was quick and no problem.
Pallet board is an unofficial synonym for splinters, so if you are working with this wood, you cannot get around sanding. Basically, you start with the coarsest sandpaper and then send a second and third round, every time with a larger grain size, ie finer sandpaper. Before starting with a new grain size, you should wipe off the wood dust with a damp cloth. The water erects tiny wood fibers, so that your next sanding procedure is more effective.
Take one of the 85 cm long boards and drill a hole at one end at the point where you want to install your cross board (41cm). The chalk mark on the photo above denotes the distance of seven centimeters from the end of the board and after another two centimeters (half the width of the board) I drilled my hole. If you drill screws directly into wood, it is important that you pre-drill a hole for the screw, one size smaller than the screw itself!
Before whenever you screw your boards together, I recommend strongly securing both boards to your table or your workbench with clamps. Otherwise, you will get in trouble while screwing.
In the hope that this will increase the stability of my design, I also glued the screws in the holes with wood glue.
Next, you mount in the same way also the second cross board (41cm) at the other end of the board and then screw a second long board to the free ends of your two cross boards. Thus the first half of your frame is finished. Now you use the remaining boards and build the second half of your frame with the 36 cm long cross boards.
If you now push the two halves off your frame together, you can see why the cross boards of the two halves had to have different lengths. Otherwise they would not fit together and the frame could not be folded later. Exactly at the midpoint of the long boards I now screwed together the two frames on either side. With these screws with nuts you have to drill the holes in the same size your screws have. Your construction gets support thereby that you tighten your nuts firmly with the wrench. If you have decided how much space you want to leave for your laundry bag and have tightened the nuts, you can now already measure and write down the measurements for your laundry bag, ie height, length and width.
This step is optional. Since I sanded my wood in various degrees but still wanted my hamper to get a natural dark color, I treated my frame with a mixture of coffee, vinegar and steel wool to discolor the wood.
Congratulations! The frame of your hamper is now built…
These are the measurements for my laundry bag. It is extremely important that you again measure your self-built frame and calculate yourself how your measurements have to be. If your frame is only one centimeter wider than mine, my measurements already will not fit for your laundry bag!
First, I ironed interfacing on the inside of the bottom of my laundry bag to strengthen it somewhat.
Next, I sewed all my loops. For this I took the narrow strips of my fabric that were 10cm wide and vary in length and folded them like bias tape. Finally, I now folded this “bias tape” again and sew the loops close to the edge.
As you can see, I’ve taken a classic shirt fabric as my outer fabric. In order to sew your outer fabric, of course right side on right side, you have to sew the sides in a way that you alternate between a narrower side (37cm) sewn to a wider side (40cm), which in turn you sew at the other end to a 37cm-side and so on, until all parts are in the end connected with each other.
To finish my outer laundry bag, I only needed to sew in the strengthened bottom – all sides right to right. Both for the bottom and for the cover I chose white fabric, as you can see in the photo of the bottom here.
To sew the inner bag you now do with the white inner fabric the exact same thing that you did in step 3 and 4 with the outer fabric: Sew all side pieces and insert the bottom. Warning – You must leave an opening somewhere!
Now comes the part that gave me some trouble: the cover. In order not to make the same mistakes I did, you should now once again check the measurements of your cover and then iron interfacing one side of the fabric. The two sides of the cover must now be sewn together right side on right side, although two important points must be considered: 1. Do not forget, as I did and as you can see on the photo, to sew in the cover-loops at this point. I had to unravel my corners later. I’ve used the loops with 23cm length. 2. You can leave the entire rear side of the cover (the side without loops) open as a turning opening.
As you can see here in the photo, later I sewed the side of the cover with the opening easily in between the outer fabric and lining fabric.
If you now finally sew your inside and your outside bag together, right sides facing, please do not forget to sew in the rest of the loops. For the rear side of the hamper, the side on which you now have to sew in the cover, I took the loops with 24cm length. Your very last step is now to close the opening that you have left opened in step 5.
I hope that I could make myself somewhat understandable. For some unexplained reasons, I find it incredibly difficult to express myself clearly in sewing-tutorials. I have done my best and pray that you can already sew, because then you don´t need my tutorial and already know, what to do! For all others: Good luck!
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