Free Dobby Sock Hanging Project

My wife and daughter are huge Harry Potter fans. My wife saw this idea on Etsy, and I figured it would be easy to recreate. I ended up thinking about how to accomplish the build, easily. I looked at printing it directly on the wood, print the image on paper, and then use modge podge to stick the lettering on, and a few other techniques. I finally settled on the idea to use the image as a stencil and spray paint it onto the wood directly. I think this was the simplest method.

Board : http://amzn.to/2kIdDGX

Silver Spray : http://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Model-Ki...

Krylon Spray Adhesive : http://amzn.to/2kITrRi

Sawtooth Hangers : http://amzn.to/2kITrRi

9/16” Screw Eyes : http://amzn.to/2kITrRi

Acrylic Paint : I used 11028 Navy Blue from Anita’s. I would go for a darker background.

Clothes Pins : http://amzn.to/2kITrRi

Picture Hanging Wire : http://amzn.to/2kITrRi

I've included the PDF file to print the stencil.

Dobby Image: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/213287732333257848/

Harry Potter Font used: http://www.dafont.com/harry-p.font

We took the board and painted it blue. This step was probably one of the longest steps. You could use a spray on paint to speed it up, but we used brushes. We used a couple of coats to make sure the wood was well coated.

Once the wood was dry, I printed the image that I transferred. I used 2 8x10 pieces of paper to print it on, since the image was too wide for 1. I carefully taped them together, and then used an exacto knife to carefully cut out the image.

NOTE: At this point, you want to save the inner pieces you cut out. You want to keep the white parts, and toss out the black printed parts.

I used the Krylon spray adhesive to attach the paper to the wood.

Following the directions on the can, spray a uniform layer of adhesive on the back, and let it dry to the point that it is just tacky. Then, carefully put the stencil on the wood and push down around all the edges to prevent overspray.

Once the stencil is attached, it is time to spray the glitter paint. Don’t do what I did, and just go to town. Spray on the paper. I ended up having to touch up quite a bit since my first pass started off the paper. You want a good solid coating at this point, but don’t put too much on at any time, to prevent it from bleeding under the paper

Remove the Stencil and then let the paint dry. You do not want to leave the adhesive on to dry. You will probably have to touch up some paint afterwards, as I did. There was a little overspray and excess paint that got under the stencil in places.

Once it is dry, you may apply a matte varnish to help preserve the paint.

Install the hardware. I started with the hanging hardware. I measured the width of the board, and used that to center the sawtooth hanger.

Next, I used a pin vice to hold a small drill bit to drill a pilot hole for the eye screws. This is optional, but does make it easier to put the eye screws in. Any drill would work just as well. I thought about hiding the eye screws behind the board, but I was worried it could dig into the wall, especially with any use. Instead, I chose to install them on the ends of the board.

I used Picture hanging wire and strung it from eye screw to eye screw. Leave extra slack so the clothes pins have enough clearance between the board and the wire.

Finally, add the socks. We added 1 sock for each person in our family, and hung it on the wall.

There you have it. This is a fairly easy project that could be finished over one day on the weekend. It took me a few weeks since I didn’t have many of the parts needed, and bought them as I thought about them. This is a fun little project to do as a family, and creates a very cute decoration, or useful item in the laundry room when you can’t find a sock.

This is my first instructable, I hope you enjoyed it.