How to Make Wooden Clothes Pegs

Cut your wooden strip material into 4-inch-long lengths. You will need two of these lengths for each clothes peg, so cut twice as many strips as you would like to make into clothes pegs. For example, if you want four clothes pegs, cut eight strips from your wooden strip material. Buy flat wooden stripping from a local building store, which is often sold as trim material to be used around the edges of tables or counter tops. The type of wood is not important, although hardwoods will last longer.

Fasten two strips together by tightly winding a length of galvanized wire around one end of the sandwiched wood slats. Wrapping the wire around at least eight to 10 times with enough force to slightly cut the wire into the wood to prevent the wood slats from slipping out. You should use galvanized wire because it will not rust or discolor your clothing. Repeat this step to obtain the number of pins you want. You will want to use 10-gauge wire, which you can find at your local building store.

Place a small piece of scrap wood strip between the wood slats at the opposite end of the wire to separate the tips slightly. Use the same wood as used for the clothes pegs for the spacer between them.

Submerse the clothespins with the piece of scrap wood between the tips in your bucket of warm water for 30 minutes then remove and allow them to dry in the sun for a few hours. Soaking the thin wood strips in the water will allow them to become more flexible, allowing them to keep the shape of the bend created with the spacer when dried.

Remove the spacer and use the pegs by securing clothing to a line by pinching the cloths and line between the wood slats.