Craft fair is quickly approaching! I finally set up my full table for a test run in my living room, and I wanted to share it, although I’m going to share it again the actual day of the fair so you can see my whole display which includes more than just a table. Some key things: First, the great banner with my shop name comes from the etsy shop of a friend of mine, Montrose Paper Crafts. She sells handmade cards for all holidays and occasions in addition to the custom banners, and I absolutely love mine. Second, is the clothes line display in the back.
This was my vision from the very first day that I was going to start doing craft fairs, and it sort of evolved, and I want to share it with you. My original plan was to find two hat racks and string a clothes line between them, which I still may do for future fairs, but for now I love this. If you’re interested in doing one of these for your own table, keep reading.
Okay so here’s (most of) what I used. I have some wooden dowels, two flat beveled wood squares, a new thing of E6000, and a bag of wood doll pin stands. I also ended up buying two of the clamps pictured above (about $5 from Lowes), and a tiny bottle of spray paint, plus a scrap of fabric I had lying around. Make sure your wooden dowels are just the right size to fit in the doll pin stands without too much movement. I think my dowels are 3/4 inch, but I’m not positive.
I should mention this will take a few days because the glue needs to dry overnight for multiple steps. Okay. First, E6000 the doll pin stands to the squares. Get them pretty close to the middle. These need to dry for as close to 24 hours (or more) that you can allow. Once that’s dry, go ahead and fill the stand with E6000, shove the dowel into the wet glue, and then apply more. Literally, cover the bottom of the dowel and the pin stand with glue. COVER IT. You don’t want this going anywhere, the glue dries clear and we’re painting it. Use a lot of glue. Let this dry for at least 24 hours. AT LEAST.
While mine were drying, I did this. Basically tape them to the edge of a table so they stay standing straight while the glue dries. Otherwise, you’ll be holding dowels upright for what is typically known as “a long ass time.” I left mine standing like this for two days.
Spray paint, let dry. It doesn’t have to be perfect, especially because if you look at my picture at the top, you can hardly see it, but I just wanted them colored in case any peeks through. If you need to skip a step, make it this one.
Okay, now you need a way to attach your rope without it slipping down. I contemplated a few ways- screws with loop ends, gluing the rope so it wouldn’t move… This turned out to be the best way. You’re going to make a sock with a loop to slip over the top of each dowel.
You need two pieces of fabric for each dowel. One needs to be wide enough to loop around the dowel, and long enough to do down pretty far, I think mine does about 4-5 inches. The second is going to be your loop that the rope ties to. Lay your loop piece on the bigger piece, lined up so it’ll get caught in the seam, and then stitch one short side and the long side closed. I stitched the top and where the loop was back and forth three times to keep it secure.
Sew it up, and this is what it looks like when you sit it on. A little silly, but again, you can hardly see it when you have stuff on it. Go ahead and tie the rope on securely and then just use regular clothes pins to attach whatever you want on.
I absolutely love this thing, It looks so cute hanging over my table and I can show stuff off at different dimensions, which I love. I think I have one or two more Craft Fair Prep posts coming up, and the fair is on Saturday, so I’m pretty excited! Let me know what you guys do for your craft fair tables, I’d love to see your pictures too! If you’re in the Charleston area, I’ll be at the Goose Creek Holiday Fair on Saturday!
These could be used for tons of stuff besides craft fairs- I can see kids birthday parties, banners identifying cake/gift/etc tables for weddings, classrooms- I can see a ton of uses for this. If you make one of these, I’d love to see what you use it for and how it comes out!
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