diy holiday flair

Mister and I had a holiday party to attend last week that requested festive attire. Not feeling festive enough with the dress and other bits we assembled I whipped up these wee corsages of sorts to adorn our jackets.

In all honesty, the wee red picks came assembled from Michael's, I added the white flower centers (scrounged from the wedding aisle) and a bit of tulle to mine and then wrapped 'em up with some washi tape.

After a dose of hot glue they were ready to pin. I wish I had a photo of our festive selves but it was dark and so we heeaded out. Here is a wonky photo of me in my wee corsage. Seriously, these took me all of fifteen minutes to put together. 

Happy Holidays! 

diy: upcycled box organizers

I really wanted to WOW you with this one but it being August (wha?) and all, I feel like if I do not get this post up, it will be 2013 already and I will have never shared it.

Space is limited here in the tiny casa, even more so if you account for my many, many collections of stuffity-stuff. It took me almost ten months to get any of my supplies organized mostly because I really wanted to do it right, whatever that means. I thought that if I could organize it perfectly prefect my life would be calm and I could move on to the next crafty endeavor. Truth be told, who am I kidding? Even if I did actually organize it perfectly perfect there is no way I would keep it up as I am not exactly a type A person, ya know? So here you go, a mini diy for organizing your crafty crap. If I had a room to put it all in it may very well be organized quite differently. Since I do not have a room but a plastic shed, this is what you get. Enjoy!

Mister works at a small company that receives and sends a LOT of packages. These boxes were recycling bin bound so he swooped up a bunch and I made them pretty. The first thing I had to do was pick out fabric. And since, like I said, I am NOT an A type personality, I went with whatever fabric I could find in whichever box was open.

 

I then cut out pieces of fabric and ironed them as smooth as I could, making sure to roll them up all pretty for a picture.

 

All of the boxes were flipped so that the ends were facing up. I brushed on a coat of mod podge using a foam brush.

 

 

Next, I smoothed a cut of fabric over the whole sticky surface and continued utnil all my box ends were covered.

After the mod podge dried, I used my handy-dandy fabric scissors (the ones with the green handle) to trim all the way around the edges. It was a little hairy at times but I managed.

 

 

 After these sat in a heap in the living room for a few weeks (see? definitely NOT a type A) I got to adding labels which I made by folding over smallish rectangles of fabric in half and stitching all the way around. A trim with pinking shears or scissors evened them out and those too were tacky-glued atop the fabric covered boxes.

 

 

I used Bic permanent pens to label them up after they were filled with crafty chaos.

 

Finally, I stacked them into my ugly plastic storage shed, shut the doors and then sat down for a jar of iced coffee and a cookie (or two). The best way to fit the most into the shed as it was (mister put shelves in it back in Los Angeles and it housed my fabric) was to store the boxes on their sides. It isn't nearly as pretty as a fancy crafty blogger would have or share but it works and now I can find my twisty bits and whiz-bangs. I can also see some of my favorite fabrics in use (I tend to horde fabric and not use it but I am trying to remedy that quirk of mine). Now I can throw a crafty night and actually find my crafty bits.

diy: chair leg cozies from doilies

 The mister and I have been living in the new tiny casa for almost a year now. In fact, we just renewed our lease for another year so I suppose we're staying for the time being. One of my favorite things about the tiny casa is the black and white checkered floor in the kitchen and hall. One of my least favorite things about the tiny casa is the sound of the table and chair legs as they SCREECH across that happy black and white checkered floor.

For the past eleven months I have been meaning to get some felt upon the bottoms of those chair and table legs but so far I have yet to do it. Then, I spotted a nifty hand knit chair leg cozie somewhere on the internet. I wish I could find it again, after a search I found many but not the the one I first saw. Hmmmm. I loved the idea but since I cannot knit or crochet I tucked it away in the back of my noggin.

Eventually, the idea made its way to the front of my noggin and I came up with this project after uncovering my happy pile of thrifted doilies. Now, you too, of the fiber arts impaired can whip up a batch for your table and chairs (as long as you have some rectangular doily placemats).

*1 rectangular/squarish  doily

*oodles of pins

*scissors

*sewing machine

*measuring tape

I have a bundle of crocheted table runners and placemats in my stash. I have even more of the circular sort but sadly could not come up with a decent conversion with those, so rectangular it was. I also had to use two different pieces to accommodate all the legs I had to cover but that's okay since I think the variety kicks things up a bit. If only I had some in other colors or the patience to dip dye or something. All you need to do is fold your placemat in half width-wise and pin heavily into place.

To begin, stitch the open side of your folded crocheted piece using a small zig-zag stitch. You may wish to get all matchy-matchy with your thread unlike me who is lazy and uses whatever is in the machine. If your doily is proving to be stubborn and not budging under the foot of your machine, try pinning the piece to a sheet of wax paper. This only helps a little but can give you something to hold onto as you gently tug the whole shebang through your machine. If you are a fancy-pants stitcher you probably have the know-how to remedy this without the wax paper. You also are probably an accomplished yarnster and have no need to follow along with my wonky humble tutorial here so just go back to your awesome granny squares (yes, I'm jealous).

 

Measure your table/chair leg and add 1/4" to the measurement (if your leg is squarish, if your leg is round, cut your measurement in half and then add the 1/4"). Measure out your measurement from the zig-zagging you just did and zig-zag some more. Move your doily over one sewing foot away from the edge you just stitched and begin another zig-zaggy run. Repeat, removing pins as you go, until you have all the channels you need or your doily runs out. Don't forget to move a sewing foot away from each channel otherwise you will go to cut and realize you do not have enough cozies. Trust me on this...I learned the hard way.

 

Carefully cut in between the channels you made. Cut as close as you can to the stitches without cutting any threads. If you planned this right, you should have as many little pockets as you intended.

 

 

 

 

Turn those pockets inside out and cross your fingers they will fit your table/chair legs. If you find your cozies are a wee bit too big, use a small piece of double stick tape to anchor them to your legs.

 

 Ta-da! No more marky-marks or screechy-screeching across my happy black and white checkered floor!

diy: denim American {inspired} flag

 I made a flag! The best part is that it came out just as pretty as I imagined it in the noggin. Here are the steps I took to make it, if yer a fancy-pants stitcher you'll have it all figured out and probably more orderly. If yer not, follow along as I am wonky at best!

I am a lazy stitcher. I don't measure, I just make. I cut and snip and snip and stitch until something clicks and the end product is finished. I have been collecting denim for a while to make this flag in time for July. It was inspired by a photo I saw either on a blog or pinterest. I don't think I pinned it or maybe I did and I am too lazy to search for it right now. Either way, my flag in now way looks like the image I saw but it did give me the idea to repurpose my denim pile (plus a few added pieces thrifted for variety).

materials

*1-2 pairs of jeans (more if you want more variety)

*1-2 pieces cut from a man's button down 

*sewing machine

*thread

*pins

*scissors

*old pillowcase or piece of scrap muslin or fabric

Cut out yer backing piece to the size you want. A pillowcase is a good size to use. I used a piece of faux linen that was already floating about the tiny casa.

 

Snip and tear away at yer denim pile (tearing gives you nice raggedy edges) until you assemble a pile of scraps that will cover yer base piece. Use long lengths to emulate the stripes of the American flag but make sure to think outside the norms and include seam and pockets, etc.

Layer away until you are happy with your design. I snapped this picture then went back and move the long plaid strips to create my star-box area. I also added a few contrasting bits for variety.

 

 

After I layered it all down, I pinned it all into place but found it too bulky to work with. So I took a picture then removed the tops bits keeping them arranged as I layered them and added them bit by bit. I would however, recommend pinning down your longest lengths and stitching them along one edge to keep them in place. 

 

 Oh wait, before you go about unpinning it all, flip the whole thing over and trim excess edges to square it all up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Bring the happy jumbled mess to your machine and stitch with a contrasting color. I first stitched along the right side of the soon-to-be flag, anchoring  down the long strips. Then I pinned the next layer and stitched and so on. Mix up your stitches for variety.

 Don't forget to put all yer pins back in the pincushion as you unpin. I have a bad habit of not doing that and my bare feet have paid the price dearly. I originally wanted to use some of my vintage costume jewelry pieces for the stars but have no idea where I tucked those away. Instead, I cut up the trimmed scraps into smaller bits. bunched them up, and stitched those on using one long continuous stitch. I wasn't able to get 50 little bits on but 35 made the cut and it still inspires one to think flag! (at least, I hope it does).

 

Next up, I made a casing so that the flag could go on a pole (like a real flag). To make the casing, I tore a long strip from the leg of a pair of jeans and folded it in half lengthwise. I pinned it so that it would not unfold then I pinned it to the left side of my soon-to-be-flag. Brought it all back to the machine and stitched away, including closing off the top so that the pole would stop and not go al lthe way through the tube. 

After snipping away some of the loose threads I sat back with a sigh and admired my handy work. So cool! **click here to see me waving my {freak} flag.