First Attempt at Tufting

Reupholstered my kitchen chair with a stretch velvet, which is probably just suited for Christmas dresses for 5-year-old girls, and some vintage brass buttons.  Documenting it here before it gets covered in Nutella fingerprints and spilled milk. 

Testing out a piping presser foot with some recycled gift bag handles and scrap wool felt. I am thinking this would look cute as a pocket detail.

Découpage canvas

My first try at découpaging paper napkins to a piece of a scrap canvas. I love how it looks like it is printed directly on to the canvas!

My life just got 1.88% better

Attach a mason jar to your blender for personal size smoothie making!!

You have no idea how redunk excited I am to come across this! I spent my whole day looking for a replacement for my glass blender jar that had chipped. It was going to cost me $28 bucks to have one shipped from the manufacturer. Then I thought I could probably just buy a whole new blender for that price. Lo and behold I saw a personal size blender on Amazon for a disturbingly low price ($14.69). Trying to resist buying anymore cheap plastic crappola for my home, I restarted my glass blender jar search hoping for a better deal. And THEN I stumbled across this idea! Apparently this concept is an oldie (40-50 years old!?) but looks like it is making a comeback due to the popularity of the "Magic Bullet" type blenders out there.

 

I ran around the apartment looking to see if any of my glass jars fit my blender base. I took a TJ's tomato sauce jar out of my recycling bucket, ripped off the label, washed it out, and twisted it on, it fit, sort of, but wasn't deep enough to include the rubber gasket. I moved on to an empty instant coffee container and it fit gloriously with the gasket and all.  I gave it a test run with some water to check for leaks. Everything was A-O-K. I then proceeded to have a horror-movie-flash-vision of the glass shattering and flying all over the place and impaling everything in its path. Soo...I decided to run to my parents house and get one of their tempered glass canning jars to play it safe. I made my smoothie and drank it straight out the jar with my stainless steel straw and it was awesome! A little white trashy....but awesome! I am going to save so much time/sink space not having to clean my large blender jar and an extra glass! If you try this make sure you only fill it halfway and don't use anything hot because the steam might make it explode(not good).

Good re-use of bubble wrap/ air cushions

Other than recycling it for other packages, it works well to keep your boot legs in shape while not in use.

Does not work well for:

Skinny Jeans
 
Unless you want to creep yourself out.

Orange peel extraction experiment | Part 2

Removed the orange peels from the vodka and vinegar. I left them in the jars for 25 days. Too long? Maybe.

Looks like nice urine samples set up by the windowsill to disturb the neighbors. That'll teach the peepin' toms!

 

Next step:  I will leave out the vodka infusion for a week so the alcohol can evaporate...let's see how that goes!

Hoodie -> Leggings

I tried it...converted one of my zip up hoodies into funky leggings! After disassembling my hoodie I started to build up the leggings with the arms first and then stitched all the pieces together until they looked like m.c. hammer pants.  A few hours of cutting stitching darting and gusseting and I have some wearable pantaloooons.

Fair Isle Leggings

I would like to make a pair that look something like this. This is a photo of my legs squeezed into the arms of a slightly too snug hooded sweatshirt.  Since I haven't been wearing this sweatshirt anyway, I am going to take it apart and see if I have enough material to make a full pair of leggings for myself.  I think with some brown boots and a tunic it might look cute and less pajama-y.

First attempt at needle felting

I've never thought about doing needle felting before until I bought some wool yarn and the description said,"great for needle felting".  The light bulb finally went on to start using my yarn scraps for something useful.

The first project ~ Unintentionally Creepy Oven Mitt!

I used the wool from the shrunken pillowcase debacle, which I first mentioned in this post from last year and scrap yarn that I had been saving in a glass jar for a few years. [insert happy recycling dance]

I have no idea if I did *it* right, but I guess time will tell during usage.

life is too short to wear itchy sweaters

I converted the sleeves of an old itchy wool sweater to over the knee socks. I've been wearing these all week under my pants and they've been keeping my legs nice and toasty.

To make:

1. Cut off sleeves on the shoulder seam line.
2. Crochet around the entire top edge.
3. Put them on and measure around thigh to see how long you have to make each strap.
4. Add fasteners, I used snap fasteners but I think it would look cute with wooden buttons as well. You can make one long strap instead of two and have it button on the side instead of the back.

With the rest of the material I am going to try to make house slippers, maybe felted?

I'm ready!

I am ready for Halloween folks. I am going to go as a woman who cares about her dental cleanliness!

I found the black tooth powder right away in Manhattan this past Friday and purchased it. The clerk kindly informed me (good customer service in New York, what a concept!) how to use it:

1. dip your wet finger into the powder and rub it onto your teeth and gums for about two minutes or so
2. brush powder around with a toothbrush and rinse

The powder was very finely ground with a hint of menthol flavor. No horrible burning minty sensation (or gum bleeding) after brushing. Hooray! I look forward to seeing what happens to my teefers and gums with continued use.

P.S. Also functions as a great way to frighten your spouses/children/roommates/pets while getting dental cleanliness! Win/Win.

obsession of the week:

making envelopes with scrap paper.

I folded the paper over so I couldn't see the writing, added the eyelets, sewed the edges shut and then glued it into my sketchbook. Et voila! A new handy dandy envelope for collecting more scraps of paper/business cards/receipts.

Here's the other one I made with used cardstock.

lip balm organizer

based off one of the patterns in Lotta Jansdotter's book, Handmade Project. The instructions were in Japanese , so it was trial and error. Mostly error... So sewing experts look away or you will cringe! I added the fabric strip in the inside for organization and the loop with the (temporary) ring so I can hang it up.