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...]

WhatTheCraft Handmade Giveaway – Zahoomi gift card winner

Congrats to our winner of the Zahoomi giftcard giveaway…

Vanessa!

Thanks to everyone who entered, be sure to check back tomorrow for another round of handmade giveaway magnificence!

WhatTheCraft Handmade Giveaway – Zahoomi handmade marketplace gift card

This week’s WhatTheCraft Giveaway is sponsored by Priya of Zahoomi!
All of us handmade fiends are always on the lookout for the newest handmade marketplace. So here’s your chance to get acquainted with Zahoomi!

The winner of this giveaway will receive:
a $25 gift card to use in the Zahoomi marketplace

[Read more...]

Recipe: Muffnuts aka Muffin Donuts

A while back I was pondering one of nature’s biggest mysteries… the doughnut. I thought to myself that there must be a way to recreate the donut at home, in a somewhat healthier manner. I.E. Not fried.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a classic fried doughnut, but they’re really only worth all that evil fattiness if they’re fresh. And I’m not in the habit of getting up at the crack of dawn, which makes getting fresh ‘nuts from the local donut shop hit or miss. Usually miss.

It didn’t take long to find a recipe for a donut-muffin hybrid. A doffin, a duffin, a monut, a muffnut. Call it what you will, I was intrigued.

Last night, having a hankering for something sweet, I decided to test drive the muffnut, and I am pleased to tell you, it passed with flying colors.

 

 

Here’s the recipe, originally from Baking Bites.

(I love the explanations in the recipe. I’m a habitual fiddler when it comes to recipes, so I appreciate someone telling me why I should not fiddle with certain aspects beforehand.)

NOTE: After a lot of comments from other muffnut testers, I thought I should point out that these muffnuts are most similar to cake donuts. If you’re expecting a Krispy Kreme style yeast donut, you’ll likely be disappointed.

 

Cinnamon Sugar Muffnuts

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used 1 cup white and 1/2 cup white whole wheat with excellent results)
• 2 tsp baking power
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (fresh! oh yeah!)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

(for rolling)

• 1 TB butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional… you can mix it up and try different spice combos, too!)

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color, about 1 minute.
3. Mix in the oil, milk, and vanilla.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. A few lumps are okay.
5. Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 14-18 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining 1/2 cup of sugar into a small bowl. Mix in the cinnamon.
8. When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar.
9. Cool on a sheet of parchment paper. (I cooled mine on a wire rack like the original recipe stated, and they kind of stuck. Boo.)

 

Fresh out of the oven, they are nice and crispy on the outside, very much like a donut.

The next day, they’re softer… and somehow they taste even more like a donut, to me.

I can’t wait until fall, because I’ll be experimenting with apple and pumpkin muffnuts, and replacing the coffee with my favorite donut companion, apple cider.

WhatTheCraft Handmade Giveaway – Thread Couture winner!

Congrats to our winner of the ThreadCouture pattern giveaway…

Kat!

Thanks to everyone who entered, be sure to check back for more awesome handmade giveaways!

WhatTheCraft Handmade Giveaway – Thread Couture sewing patterns

This week’s WhatTheCraft Giveaway is sponsored by Surayya of ThreadCouture!

[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:

[Read more...]

Recipe: Chicken + Spinach Enchiladas

These are not your traditional slathered-in-red-sauce enchiladas. They’re better.

When I first found this recipe and decided to try it, I thought the sauce sounded too simple. Milk, chicken broth, peppers, and spinach? Isn’t that going to be bland? Do I even like corn tortillas? As it turns out, this is one of my all time favorite recipes. I have been known to make it twice in a month because it’s so damn good.

I’ve tweaked the original recipe a little. If you want to see the untweaked version by Rick Bayless, it’s here: http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=167

[Read more...]

Brusha brusha brusha!

This post brought to you by Tom’s of Maine. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am super mega picky about toothpaste. I don’t want whitening and I ESPECIALLY don’t want toothpaste made by a company that tests on animals. The answer: Toms of Maine! And they’ve got a new flavor especially for kids: Silly Strawberry.

My two favorite things about the toothpaste have to do with flavor. I am very selective about toothpaste flavor, because a lot of toothpastes, especially kid’s toothpaste, are disgustingly, cloyingly sweet. Other natural toothpastes that I’ve tried kinda taste like soap. And I probably don’t have to tell you that soap is not a good flavor.

Silly Strawberry is just barely sweet, and you can taste that the flavoring is from real strawberry extract and not some fake lab-made psuedo-berry flavoring. It makes brushing much more refreshing than when you have a mouth full of chemicals.

The second thing I like about the flavor is that unlike minty toothpastes, Silly Strawberry did not leave me with a mouth tasting of toothpaste after I rinsed. Sometimes that lingering minty freshness can be nice, but have you ever taken a big swig of juice after brushing your teeth? Yuck. So now I can have my cake and eat it too, right after brushing.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the toothpaste is a very pale (and natural) pink color. Even though I know Silly Strawberry doesn’t contain any artificial dyes or sweeteners, I was still expecting strawberry toothpaste to be bright pink or red. Don’t get me wrong… I love bright colors, but I’d prefer that my food (and toothpaste) not be filled with superfluous chemicals just so it LOOKS a certain way.

For some fun with the kiddies, check out the Tom’s of Maine Silly Strawberry Story Hour. On Wednesday, March 14 2012 (7:30 PM EST), there will be a reading of Kristi Yamaguchi’s new children’s book  It’s A Big World, Little Pig. (Kristi Yamaguchi!! Oh, don’t mind me, I’m kind of a figure skating dork.)

Participants of the Silly Strawberry Story Hour will have the chance to snag a free sample of both the Silly Strawberry toothpaste and Kristi’s book.

Be sure to follow @TomsofMaine on Twitter or like their FB page at Facebook.com/TomsofMaine for additional updates.