Clothespin Rocking Chair: So Easy to Make

Remember in grade school how teachers used to make us do craft projects as Christmas gifts? And it didn't matter how hideous it was, my mom always liked it. Well, this isn't one bit hideous and I loved this clothespin rocking chair. I have never remade this since then but I thought it didn't look too hard. Turns out it's pretty easy and I actually made 2 of them I, each a slightly different style. Thank you to my 4th grade teacher, Mr. Spencer for inspiring me to remake this project.

This project has such an easy list of MATERIALS NEEDED: CLOTHESPINS AND STRONG WOOD GLUE. I feel as though things keep shrink throughout the years and these clothes pin seem much smaller than I remember back when I was 8. I used Gorilla wood glue and it's perfect. I didn't think it was that strong but when it dries, it holds with great strength.



 

I think the hardest part about this project is just waiting for the glue to dry. Remember to allow glue to dry between each step before continuing. I kept the glue on its side rather than standing throughout the project to make it easy to pour out. You can pretty much figure out how to make this by looking at the pictures but I'll give you the steps anyways.
1. Disassemble the clothes pin by pulling out the metal piece. Be careful with your fingers as you could get caught.
2. Build the seat with 6 wooden pieces, glued side-by-side.
3. Turn the seat to the back and glue 2 supports down crosswise as shown in picture 3.
4. Glue two wooden pieces flat against each other to make the legs. You need 4 of these.
5. Glue the legs to the seat. I found that gluing 2 fronts, then 2 back helped in in ensuring that the leg would be even. The legs are probably the hardest part to glue. I tried to hold them to keep them stable while they dry.
6. As shown in picture 6, glue an additional side supports to each 2 pair of legs (one front, one back).
7. Glue 2 wooden pieces to the back of the seat on the top.
8. Glue a wooden piece across the bottom of 4 pieces as shown in picture 8. This is going to be the back to the chair. Attach the back to the chair.
9. Add the armrest to the top of the chair legs.
10. Glue across a wooden piece to support the back top as shown in picture 10.
11. To make the chair rock create 2 pieces as shown in picture 11. 2 pieces are butted together and glued on top of the flat portion of a wooden piece. Connect the top pieces at the cut out groove of the bottom piece.
12. Attach the legs to the 2 rocking pieces and you got yourself a pretty cool mini rocking chair. I used a Beanie Baby on mine but it should fit Barbie size dolls too.
And I bet, like my mom, your mom would love it too.