Making a padded fabric and ribbon pinboard

I'm very happy to be a part of the blog team at White Tree Fabrics, and for my latest project I decided to upcycle an old cork notice board with some of their gorgeous fabric and ribbon. It's a really simple project, and makes a big difference to the room!

Supplies:

A cork noticeboard
Fabric to cover - I used some gorgeous Tilda cotton print fabric in China Blue
Plain fabric for backing (optional)
Ribbon - I used matching Tilda ribbon in blue grey (total of three packs to give 9m)
Polyester wadding to cover (2oz)
Pins - I used pearl headed pins in silver
Staple gun

Instructions:

First iron the fabric, then cut fabric and wadding to size. Make sure that you cut your fabric correctly if it needs to be a certain way up like mine! You will need to leave a border of around 8 cm to allow for the depth of the board and to have enough to turn over.

Lay the wadding and patterned fabric over the front of the corkboard and turn the board over. Secure both to the frame on one side of the corkboard using a staple gun, then pull tightly and secure to the frame on the opposite side. Repeat for the other two sides. Depending on the style of your noticeboard you may need to remove the fixings first and replace them once the fabric is in position.

Finish with the corners and make them as neat as possible with plenty of staples to keep it all tightly together.

Then it's time to do the ribbon. It's important to work out how much you'll need beforehand, as this project uses more than you might think! It might be a good idea to plan your work out first and make some markings where you want the ribbon to go.

Starting with the longest diagonal pieces, secure each end in turn with a staple into the back of the board. You might want to add a pin as well, to make sure that it's completely secure, and also for decorative purposes.

Then finish stapling the other lengths of ribbon across the noticeboard, securing to the back frame with the staple gun as before.

Complete the pin board by adding in the pins where the lengths of ribbon cross. As well as keeping the ribbon securely in place they also look really pretty. You could also use plain or decorative buttons or any other small embellishment.

Then it's up to you if you want to make the pinboard look a little neater with a fabric backing. I just cut a piece of old cotton fabric to size, allowing an amount for a hem which I folded over before stapling to the back of the frame.

Here's a close up before I'd finished adding all the pins, I love how well the fabric and the ribbon go together.

And here's the complete before and after, what a difference, I'm so proud of it!

I received the supplies to complete this project as part of the White Tree Fabrics blog team.