Tutorial – How to Sew a Slipcover, Part 2

Part 2, FINALLY!

I know, I move at turtle speed sometimes.

Part 1 is here if you need it.

So let’s get started. Here’s my naked couch, stripped of all it’s cushiony goodness. (It seems weird that this is the first photo of the actual couch I’ve posted. Kinda dumb, in hindsight.)

Step 1

Last time I told you to go collect some thrift store sheets to use as a muslin, yes?

You COULD forgo the muslin and use these steps on your actual fabric, if you like to gamble, or you’re super ballsy, or really confident. I’m usually all of those, but I still made a muslin. I really didn’t want to eff this up, so I went the safe route, but if you want to roll the dice, be my guest. You’re dangerous!

Grab a sheet and tack it to part of the surface of your couch. I’m going to start with the front of one arm.

You can just stab some pins through the sheet so it lays flat. Or if you don’t want to put pins in your couch for some reason, I suppose you could use tape or something like that.

You can ignore all the marks for now. When you have it laying nice and flat and even, trim around it, leaving a good seam allowance PLUS extra. 3 inches would be good for now.  Mine has already been trimmed… otherwise it would’ve just looked like a mess of a sheet draped over the arm of my couch.

We’ll trim it down more when we’ve got it all pinned and fitted.

Step 2

Choose another surface that abuts (hehe) the piece you’ve already pinned and trimmed. In my case, I’m going to do the piece that wraps all the way around the arm.

Pin it in place the same way I did with the front of the arm. Now, start pinning the two pieces together where they meet.  It’s usually best to start at the center (in my example, I started pinning at the top of the arm) of the soon-to-be seam. Avoid puckers, you want nice clean seams. Some designs might require some darts or gathers, you’ll have to figure out what works best for your piece of furniture.

Pull the pieces taught, but not so tight that you stretch the fabric out of whack and wind up with wonky muslin pattern pieces. Read more

How to frost a window with contact paper – photo tutorial

If you’ve read my recent posts you know two things.

1. I love Contact paper.

2. I moved into a new house a few months ago.

The new house has a problem. That problem is that there’s  a window IN the shower. This window is a problem because it looks directly onto the street.

No, sir. I don’t like it.

Put a curtain over it, you say! But what about all that nice natural light?!

No, no. A curtain won’t do.

When we lived in an apartment a few years ago, there was a living room window I wanted  to cover without blocking the light, so I cut out a bunch of squares of clear Contact paper and stuck them on the window. It looked like a cool mosaic frosted window. The Contact paper is cool because when you want a change, or you’re a renter moving out, you just peel it off.

I did something similar in our basement here, since we have big egress windows that look directly at the neighbors (more on that in a minute). Even though we’re not renting, and I could have actually etched the glass or painted it with frosted glass spray, I just didn’t want anything permanent.

I knew I wanted to use the Contact paper in the bathroom, but I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to use one continuous piece of Contact paper, so there wouldn’t be any gaps you could see through. Someone would have to stick their face right up to the glass to see through the gaps, but I still didn’t like the idea.

I could have just put the plain sheet over the window and left it at that, but that would have been easy, and easy is boring.

So the OCTOPY ATTACK! window was born…

 

 

All you need is some Clear Contact Paper, some scissors, Sharpies, and some time. Read more

Revamping with spray paint

There were a lot of things in this house that I thought would wind up in the garbage because they were so dirty/funky/etc. Like every single door in the house. I thought, “that’s gonna have to go eventually”. But since I was already painting damn near every room in the house, I washed them, slapped on some primer and paint, and I’ll be damned if they didn’t look almost brand new. At the very least, not in need of replacement. (This is where we cheer because that means more money for FABRIC!!!  Mwahahahah.)

Anyway, I was surprised how awesome your standard items -i.e. walls, trim, doors- looked with a fresh coat of paint. What I hadn’t considered was painting some of the house’s hardware. In my lightswitch revamp post, I mentioned painting a light fixture.

Enter the bathroom light fixture:

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Gussy up a light switch cover

Do people still say “gussy up”?  Well, I do. So there.

This tutorial from gurl.com inspired me to tackle some of my boring old light switch covers.

Some of the light switch covers in this house were worse than boring.

Look at the funk!  Let’s get out the trusty old Contact paper!

The cool part about using Contact paper is that it peels off nice and clean. So if you’re a renter and can’t paint things or do any permanent decor changes, Contact paper is the answer! When I was in college, we couldn’t paint in our dorms. We had these ugly old particle board dressers and desks, and I just covered all the drawer faces with this checkerboard Contact paper.

It also means you can switch the pattern whenever you feel like it. 5 minutes and you’ve got a whole new light switch cover.

And one final bonus: it can be easily wiped clean (more so than fabric and paper anyway), so it’s a good choice for a kitchen or bathroom.

Tips for your Contact paper cover: trace your cover on the back of the paper and leave a 1/2″ edge for folding over the back of your switch plate.

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I Sharpied my Sewing Machine!

I’ve always wanted to paint my Singer 301, because it’s beige and beige is… well, beige. So when Sharpie asked me to be part of the Sharpie Takeover, and I started thinking, “What will I Sharpie?” the first thing that popped into my head was: SEWING MACHINE.

I chose my other Singer to Sharpie, because it’s white and would show color better. The beige will have to stay beige until another day.

Here it is.

Boring. White. Plastic.

 

And here’s the “new” version. Way cooler.

 

Hardcore Nightmare Before Christmas fans will probably recognize that I used Sally’s dress as the inspiration for my pattern. What better pattern for a sewing machine than one inspired by a rag doll who sews herself up when her arm gets ripped off?

I used regular Sharpie permanent markers. Depending on what you draw on, you might want to seal your artwork, or it might eventually start to rub off with a lot of use. Also, if you make a mistake, rubbing alcohol will take off MOST of the ink.

Now before you start running around trying to amass all of your Sharpies (I swear they grow feet, like scissors. I know I have 20 Sharpie in the house but I can never find them when I need them!) so you can doodle on your appliances, don’t forget to submit your Sharpie creation to the Sharpie gallery at Sharpie.com, so you can get featured in the Sharpie Takeover Youtube video!

Plus, I have 2 fantastic words for you, my friends. SHARPIE GIVEAWAY. Sharpie has generously offered to provide one lucky WhatTheCraft reader with a Sharpie grab bag! You get a set of Sharpie minis, fabric brush markers, Fine Point pens, highlighters, and Liquid Graphite pencils (these are mind bogglingly awesome).

 

The giveaway starts on Monday, so don’t forget to head back here! In the meantime, check out our current giveaway with Briar Muse!

Tutorial: Lace Lampshade

by: inkodye

This project is shockingly simple, yet produces really beautiful and unique results. We were able to transfer the pattern of lace onto our lampshade by using the photographic property of Inkodye. It’s like magic! The lamp we used was found at Ikea for $15, but any cotton or linen lampshade will work perfectly.

 

Total tutorial time: 20 minutes

Used in this project: Inkodye Red Orange

 

Materials. All we used for this project was a cheap lampshade, some lace, a sponge brush, a few push pins, and of course Inkodye!

 

Prep. To extend and lighten the dye add water. This step is optional, but it allows your bottle of Inkodye to last even longer!

 

Mix. Stir the dye and water mixture to ensure even coloring.

 

Paint. Coat the lampshade with the Inkodye mixture, making sure to cover the canvas completely.

 

Pin. Next, use simple push pins to secure the lace. We pinned along the seem of the lampshade in order to keep the front flawless.

 

Snip. Cut off the extra fabric so that the print is undisturbed. Then, align and pin the bottom.

 

Develop. Watch the colors deepen and develop in the sun! We left the lamp out for about 5 minutes, rotated it, and left it out for 5 more.

 

Unravel. Remove the lace from the lampshade to expose the beautiful printed pattern. This is our favorite part!

 

Scrub. Wash with laundry detergent and water to remove excess Inkodye. Don’t be afraid to scrub hard; Inkodye is very permanent! Let dry.

 

Illuminate. Now you can display your newest piece of art anywhere around the house. Voilà!

 

Handmade Showcase: Let’s Have a Picnic

The grass is green, the leaves are out, and the sun is shining! It’s picnic time! Bust out the grill and the hamburger buns!

Or you can sit back and relax, and have a picnic vicariously through these handmade goods!

 

 

 

 

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Tutorial: No Sew Roman Shade Style Curtains

This very clever tutorial shows you how to convert mini-blinds to a fabric curtain (similar to a Roman shade design) with NO SEWING.

Cute, quick, and cheap, just how I like it!

I’m actually disappointed I didn’t find this sooner, before I made a bunch of rod-style curtains for my windows!

Click here for the tutorial.

Tutorial: Upcycled T-shirt Rug

If you have a mountain of t-shirt scraps like me, and you hate throwing said scraps away (also me), then you’re probably always on the look-out for projects that use those scraps. This rug tutorial from Family Fun is just that.

I’ve seen other t-shirt rugs and t-shirt rug tutorials (most of which involved crocheting, which I don’t really know how to do), but this is definitely the coolest one I’ve seen. Using a hula hoop as a frame, the t-shirts are woven together. No sewing, knitting, or crocheting. Anyone with a hula hoop and some t-shirt scraps can do it!

I’ve stopped buying textile rugs because my cat has some sort of Rug Radar when he pukes. Plus, they’re a pain to keep clean. But I think one of these t-shirt rugs would make a perfect bath mat. Plus, once the rug gets funky, you can toss it out and make a new one!

Click here for the full tutorial.

Tutorial: Moss Graffiti

This tutorial from Popular Mechanics (which is actually an excerpt from More Show Me How) is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. PAINT WITH MOSS!

The possibilities are endless. I like the idea of writing some sort of message in moss for the neighbors or passers-by to see.

See the full tutorial here.

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