I had a great idea last fall. I envisioned a multi-level yarn holder, like milk crates on their sides but with a half-height front hanging out at an angle. One could include up to four bins, because dowels are four feet long and each bin is a foot-cube, and they could be rearranged (well, except one would have to be the top permanently). It was golden! I sketched it out in my little graph paper notebook and gathered all the cotton remnants I had that are too heavy for my usual uses. I made four bins almost completely – the top edge of that front lip needed to be finished – and threaded them onto the dowels. I stood it up in my sewing room and BOW BOW. It sort of twisted and fell over.
Well, I was too busy then to get back to it, so yesterday I dove in again. I sewed up the remaining edges and then sewed dowels along the bottom outer edges of the top bin. I thought a nice square of rigidity would fix the problem. Well, it sort of did. Not quite. So I delved into my shockingly large stash of “cardboard from inside calendars” and had enough to put a 12″x12″ piece in the bottom of each bin. So, okay. Not perfect, but okay.
However, then I tried to fill it. My original plan had four hooks and eyes holding the bins together, one near each corner, and I had faked it with a safety pin in each corner. Not enough. I put things in and the second bin fall off the first one. Okay. Try again. I repinned the corners and added two pins in the center-front and center-back edges. Refill!
BOW BOWWWWWWWWW. I chose this picture out of the ones I took because it gave the best sense of how much this puppy is leaning. I could perhaps sew the bins together, navigating my lovely dowels, but I am through with this thing. I’m not sure it is ever going to look anything but saggy and wrinkly. Oh well! Not every project succeeds.