Make Your Own... Wednesday? - Bakers Twine - Take 2

You know how when you burn a piece of toast and you can't get that smell out of your house, your hair, your nose.  Yeah, that's me today.  Oh the horror of burnt toast!

So, as you will probably be able to tell, I've become obsessed with the idea of making my own homemade Baker's Twine.  Even to the point that I'm skipping today's Project Wednesday to talk about it again.

What's the big deal, you ask?  You've got me but I laid in bed last night thinking... there's got to be a better way than the marker method.  It looks okay, but it's not the real thing by any stretch of the imagination.

And then it hit me.

Didn't the girls get to make their own jump ropes at the pumpkin farm the other day?  See... look I have proof below...

I started thinking about how it was made and wondering if I could do it myself without their fancy spinny thing.  

The process was this: the three strands of rope were put in the ends of a device that twisted each individual strand when a person turned a crank.  Then after it was twisted for a while they slid up a metal thingy {technical term} that each strand was threaded through.  This allowed the three strands to twist together.  

Hmm... twist together.. twist together.  That got me thinking!

Could I do this with embroidery floss?  Sure I could try twisting a few strands of embroidery floss together but what would hold them together?  Once I let go, they would just unravel.  The secret, I soon discovered, is in the twisting of each individual strand first!  That farmer dude was a genious, I tell you!

Here's how I did it.

Today you are going to learn {AGAIN} to Make Your Own... Baker's Twine... Take 2!

All you need is two or more colors of embroidery floss and some masking tape.  Sooooo easy!  I used three Christmas colors because I have Christmas projects on the brain today.

I'm going to give you the play by play first, then everything will be packaged up in a nice little tutorial for you to download.  I'm just so excited about this!  Maybe you will be, too!

Oh, and please excuse the messy work table.  Creativity happens here, people!  It's going to get messy!

1. Cut equal lengths of embroidery floss and secure the ends together.  Tape them to your table.

 2. Twist each individual strand until is twists back on itself.  Secure each strand to the table while you work on the next.  I honestly think I could have gotten away with less twisting.  Would have made the twisting together go a little more smoothly.  Will have to work on it more.

 3.  Once all your strands are twisted, gather the ends together and gently pull them out straight, allowing them to twist together.  Don't pull to hard or you'll end up pulling it out from the tape on the table.  That's very annoying when that happens.  Even if it does, it should still work out okay.  Just pull from both ends.

 4.  Run your fingers up and down the twisted strands to even out the twist.  You may have to pull on one color individuall to get it to all even out.  Sometimes the ends aren't as pretty as the middle,  just clip off the part you don't like.

 5.  Secure the ends.  I tied mine with knots.

That's it!  It worked like a charm and actually looks like the real thing.  If you want it to be a little skinnier like real Baker's Twine, just divide the embroidery floss down to less strands.  That's the beauty of using embroidery floss for this. You can make it as thick as you want!

Here is an compact and easily downloadable version of this tutorial.  Just click on the image to open it larger to read and/or save it.

Time to get crafty, people!

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