Miniature Laundry Cart Tutorial

Hello mini friends!  I don't quite recall what inspired me to create this little laundry cart.  I'm sure I saw a picture while scanning IG.  

I don't know about you, but for me working with wire is not easy.  The glue that I use doesn't want to adhere to wire and I don't know how to solder. Maybe I'm just not patient enough to wait for the right kind of glue to dry.  Even when I have been patient enough my projects would still fall apart.  So, in this project I use small strips of cardstock across the wire to hold it in place and simply make a tight pinched bend on the wire frame.  For the actual, rectangle frame I used tape.  Then when adding the canvas basket I used wood glue.  

When I made the first cart I didn't have trouble when I made the holes for the "wheels" from tiny eye hooks.  When making the second cart for tutorial pictures, the wood split.  I simply glued pieces of cardstock to repair the splits.  If you use something small, like a toothpick, to mash holes where the legs will be before screwing them in your wood shouldn't split.

I used an old piece of fabric for the basket.  You can also use drop cloth.

You can use whatever kind of stamping for the laundry business design that you have.  I wound up using some old leather punch stamps.  I call it Carriage House Laundry.  I ironed folded creases to go over the cart frame and glued them into place with wood glue.

I cut small strips of fabric for the handles and ironed a fold in the. and just glued them on.

The second cart went together a lot faster than the first one.  Trial and error!  

At first, I was going to add button wheels but decided in the end that they didn't need them.  

Hope you enjoy!!  

Share if you do!  

 

a makeshift clothesline

Haha!  When I looked up the word "makeshift", mainly because I wasn't sure if it was hyphenated or not, it came with some good synonyms.  Some were: temporary, make-do, ad hoc, and improvised, but my favorite was "rough and ready"!  Haha and precisely my friends!  Rough and ready is exactly what kind of business I mean when I go to set up my clothesline at the day care.  I don't need a fancy one, or more than one strand across the yard.  Just a simple means to dry during hot months when I don't want to waste electricity by running the clothes dryer inside.

I simply take a clothesline string, purchased from Walmart for just a few dollars, make a loop knot at one end and pull the rest of the wrapped up clothesline through, then stretch it across the yard, kind of high, and attach it to a nail I hammered into the deck.  Simple... rough and ready!  I used to use the plastic, one dollar clotheslines from the dollar store but they only hold up for one season.  Especially if they are left outside.  The string I have now is more of a rope type and I take it down each time I use it, wind it up and store it in my clothespin bag that I made several years back.

So now... if you don't already have a clothesline then you have no excuse now that I've shown you the simplest way to dry things outside.  Just be careful if it's low to the ground at all.  I did forget about this one while running with kids one day and it just about laid me flat!

Clotheslines are cheap and sun and wind are free!

Beautiful picture... minus the bird poo on the rail!

Note: I've not had bird poo on my clothes being dried outside... ever... yet.

Why yes... I do have "bring your laundry to work" days.  Don't you??

I also have glittered clothespins! 

I will say that I just bought these three shirts at the Ladies of Charity thrift sale on Saturday and didn't want them to shrink in the dryer before I got to wear them!  Ah... Yet another reason to dry outside!

A Sunny Saturday in February

Last Saturday, apart from being slightly breezy, was a beautiful day.  The forecast was sixty degrees and sunny and that it was.  The perfect day to use the clothesline... for towels.  I don't like my bed sheets abused by strong breezes.  They run a greater risk of being blown off the line especially with as gusty at the wind turned out to be.  The towels didn't seem to mind and it really helped cut down on drying time!  

I have decided to start using cloth napkins.  Mainly because I am so spoiled to store bought throw-aways.  I feel attached to my ways in the napkin and paper towel department and find myself having to buy them too often.  I own perfectly good cloth napkins that do not get used and washed and just lie in a drawer ignored of their usefulness.  So I dug them out and washed them, hanging them on the line to dry. 

  

a clothesline's point of view