DIY: Fabric Covered Wooden Letters

At the beginning of my nursery-creating journey, I was brainstorming how I wanted little man's nursery to look. There were two things I knew: I wanted owls, and I wanted those cute letters on the wall that spelled out his name. Once my mom started to create the beautiful owl quilt of my dreams, the idea came to me: Use leftover fabric scraps to cover wooden letters so the letters match the quilt! But I had my doubts: Will it work? How do you attach fabric to wooden letters? How will I hang them in my apartment where the use of nails in the walls are not allowed? Will it look okay?

Well, with the help of my mom, I decided to just jump in with both feet and go for it! What's the worst that could happen? It turns out awful and I wasted $20 on wooden letters and Elmer's glue? The good news is that it turned out wonderfully, and I'd like to share it with you!
So, anyway, here's the step-by-step on how it all came together. Forgive me for not having pictures of the earlier steps of the process. I forgot to take photos!

PART 1: Apply Fabric to Letters

1. Purchase 9" wooden white wall letters from Michael's. (The hardest part was finding all the letters I needed! Had to go to two different locations). You'll also need a washable fabric marker, fabric scissors, a 1" foam paintbrush, and some Elmer's glue (for homemade Mod Podge!). If you plan to hang the letters with ribbon, you'll need some of that too :)

2. Pick out which fabrics you want to use for each letter. I'm a very visual person, so it took a while for me to be happy with which colors and patters would look good on which letter.

3. Place the fabric face down on the table, then the letter face down on top. Trace around the wooden letter with a washable fabric marker. I then had to wipe the marker off the sides of the white letters with a wet paper towel.

4. Carefully cut out each letter with fabric scissors.

5. Create your homemade Mod Podge by combining one part Elmer's glue with one part water (i.e. 1 cup of glue with 1 cup of water). We ended up making nearly two cups and didn't need too much, so we stored the extra in a glass mason jar.

6. Using the foam paintbrush, brush a layer of your Mod Podge onto the surface of the front of the wooden letters. Carefully place your cut out fabric piece on top and smooth it out. Remember that it's probably not going to fit 100% perfectly because fabric likes to stretch, but do your best! It will look great when you're finished.

7. After about 10 minutes, you'll then want to brush/dab a heavy layer of Mod Podge on top of the fabric to totally seal the fabric to the letters. This was the longest part of the process. It takes patience, but it's doable. The letters will be very wet and will look milky, but it will dry clear.

8. Let the letters dry for a while (we just set them out of the way for a day) to make sure they are finished. You can see one finished letter in the picture below. Notice how the edges of the fabric sort of hang over the edge. At first I was concerned that it wouldn't look good, but it ended up being fine. You can't really tell when the letters are hung.

**Tips: My letters aren't perfect. I learned the hard way that it's probably a good idea to avoid cutting the pieces of the fabric out of any part of the fabric that has been folded up. Find a good, smooth portion to cut from without folds. Also, some of my letters ended up having air bubbles that hardened (so if you get really close you can tell, but it looks fine from far away). I'm not sure if there's a good way to avoid the air bubbles. Perhaps while the letters are initially drying, you can make sure to push them out. Or perhaps sanding down the surface of the letters will help the fabric stick a little more smoothly. You'll have to let me know if you ever try this and figure it out :)

PART 2: Hang Letters on Wall

1. Lay the letters out on the floor in the approximate layout that you want them to be on the wall. Measure the distance between the center of the letters (and, in my case, the distance between the varying heights).

2. Cut the ribbon to the length you want to use to hang the letters. Keep in mind that some letters, like the letter "L" shown above, will require a little extra ribbon. It's not an exact science, though, so don't fret the millimeters ;). The wooden letters at Michael's DO come with holes in the back for hanging directly on the wall with nails, so you're always welcome to do that. Since I can't use nails in my apartment, I decided to hang the letters with ribbon.

3. Hot glue each end of the ribbon to the back of the wooden letters (you can see the nail hole in the below picture). Again, it's not an exact science, but you do need to try to make sure to glue the ribbon on at two points that will help distribute the weight of the letter evenly (so you don't end up with crooked letters).

4. Using a measuring tape, measure out where to put each nail (or, in my case, sticky hook - I used the small clear ones pictured below) in the wall. I started with the last letter and worked my way backwards, doing one letter at a time and seeing how I liked it visually before proceeding. You can do it however you feel works best for you. Each of my hooks was about 9 inches from the next hook, and the lower hooks were 4 inches below the upper ones.

Once you're finished, feel free to stand back and enjoy your hard work, and straighten out a couple letters, if needed.

Happy Crafting! :)