News: Malleable Wooden Textiles
Elisa Strozyk's wooden textiles fold and drape in beautiful forms. Incredible how a hard material combined with a simple, pieced construction can take on both sculptural and fluid qualities. Truly innovative.
Elisa Strozyk's wooden textiles fold and drape in beautiful forms. Incredible how a hard material combined with a simple, pieced construction can take on both sculptural and fluid qualities. Truly innovative.
It turns out that the popularity of soft circuit electronics has leaked out of the interwebs and into the hands of the U.S. military. Soft circuit electronics allow you to literally sew electronics circuits into fabric using flexible conductive thread instead of wire. Soft circuits can be used for all sorts of fun projects, like the TV-B-Gone Hoodie and the Heartbeat Headband.
Is your earring collection exploding all over your room? Are you finding one earring under your bed, and the other by your bathroom sink? Get yourself organized with help from a DIY made earring display! To make this organizational tool, you will need:
This instructional video demonstrates how to make a Muppet style puppet. You will need markers, scissors, tape, a hot glue gun, spray paint, spare fabric and foam, and two ping pong balls for the eyes. Make a Muppet.
To use your washing machine you will need washing powder and fabric softener. Load the washing into the machine making sure you've separated whites from colors. Choose a low heat for delicates and a high heat for badly stained clothes. Use your washing machine.
This is a small sample of knitting, shown from cast-on to bind-off. Topic covers how to weave in cast-on and bind-off ends, and how to avoid those loose side stitches. This is a long overall stitch demo, from just string and sticks, to knitted fabric! Great tips for how to deal with common problems. Begin knitting.
For boutis, stuffing is inserted between stitched layers through small openings made by separating the threads of the backing fabric. Once the stuffing is complete the threads are pushed back into position to close the holes. Marie Yolande demonstrates the "white on white" process with contrasting colored threads for better clarity. Click the RealPlayer or Quicktime link to start the video. Quilt boutis provençal.
Shifting fabric, snags, and puckered seams are just a few of the pitfalls in working with silk. From choosing the right needle, thread, and stabilizer, to pre-shrinking and final pressing, learn how to simplify this intimidating process and correctly sew silk. Sew silk.
Crafter Shannon Barnes shares her technique for making flaunt cards, adorable greeting cards that can be used for any occasion. You will need mulberry paper blank folded cards, templates (you can get from the article part of the video), glue stick, 3-D fabric paint, pen or marker. Make flaunt cards.
This video demonstrates the massé shot, in which the cue stick is almost vertical and a bottom left English is used to curve the cue ball around obstacles. This type of shot drives the cue ball into the table and can cause damage to the table fabric. Despite the risks, a large-curve massé looks very impressive. Make a large-curve massé shot.
Making Your Own Roman Shades Are you an everyday Martha Stuart? You know, one of those do it yourself creative people who can make better household items than you can find at the store. It so, I found a great (quick to the point) video that will help you design and make your very own set of Roman Shades.
Katie's Pinkachu (Pink Pikachu) Costume and Farmville Costume Contest entry!
Fashion designer Manel Torres has teamed up with scientists at Imperial College London and designers at the Royal College of Art to invent spray-on clothing, an instant, sprayable, non-woven fabric-in-a-can.
If you've ever wondered how paper gets recycled, find out for yourself by turning your used, unwanted paperwork into fresh homemade paper that you can use again. Any type of paper can be recycle, whether it's used computer paper, paper grocery bags, or old flyers.
Uh-mazing...London based designer team Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz have created a dress embroidered with 24,000 LEDs.
Solar Shades Looks like it's going to be another hot summer and this time of year, I always get questions about the best kind of Shades for the home! I may be a little bias in my opinion because I'm going through a more minimalist "less is more" style in my life right now. Taking the more modern design approach that is very popular right now, I wanted to talk a little about Solar Shades for the home.
I made this dress to attend a wedding, using a Laura Ashley pattern that is sadly now out of print (M5232, View C, http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m5232-products-4726.php?page_id=522). It's supposed to be a modern style, but I used a stiff brocade as my fashion fabric. When I was done, I realized that the stiffness of the brocade made the skirt flare out and give it a 1950s style silhouette. I love this because it's like stealth vintage!
With a few meters of fabric you can do this strapless dress. For a cocktail party, to wear it with jeans. You will be the more chic and stylish girl in the room!
Learn how to fix stretched sweater cuffs with the folks from Martha Stewart's REAL SIMPLE. Don't give up on that sweater with the loose, stretched-out cuffs?just follow these simple tricks to tighten the material, and you'll be ready to put that pullover back into rotation in a snap. These tips will help you fix those old, stretched out sweater cuffs.
Paige Davis, of Trading Spaces joins Martha to decorate hand towels with stencils. Materials you will need are hand towels (flat weave), sheet of paper, letter stencil, tape,
Crafter Betz White shows Martha Stewart how to make felted tea pin cushions. Materials needed for this project are a wool sweater, pins, scissors, needle, thread, fabric glue,
Pull ToyI love dogs, but the toys can get really expensive. This is an easy to make, inexpensive way to make a toy that really works. My dog loves it! The materials you will need is an old dish towel and a pair of scissors.
Valances add a great touch to windows that you do not want to cover completely, but that you also do not want to leave bare. Bare windows can seem cold and uninviting, and adding window dressing such as a window valance will make your room much more homey and warm. There are several styles of valances from which to choose. This valance is a single rod valance requiring a 2 1//2” flat curtain rod. Although this valance is intended to be poufed, it can be left as a flat valance for a more tradi...
Watch this video from This Old House to learn how to lay a flagstone walkway. Steps:
Watch this video from This Old House to learn how to build a retaining wall. Steps:
Napkins can either be dull sheets of fabric or paper that you wipe your extraneous pot roast red sauce on or fantastical works of art that put the finishing touch on your table decor.
This video will teach you how to iron your dress shirts so you look your best. Learn how to iron cotton and synthetic fabrics! You will need a steam iron, an ironing board, a spray bottle with water, and of course a cleanly laundered shirt. No more wrinkles! Remove the creases and get a more professional, put-together look. Iron a shirt.
Everyone dreams of having super powers. Flying, invisibility, and x-ray vision are popular, but my favorite is fire power! I've always wanted to be Wheeler from the Captain Planet kids show, and now I can with these handheld fireballs of awesomeness. The fireballs burn at a low temperature, so they are safe to hold in your hand and throw (shoot) at imaginary enemies.
So I totally blanked on taking pictures of my last project so I could share it, mea culpa. Instead, I figured I'd write a post on all the different ways you can sew a pouch.
Learn how to screen print/ silkscreen a tshirt using the method of stenciling. Have you ever wanted to paint your own shirt?
You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a cool and scary costume for Halloween. This tutorial teaches you how to create a mummy and witch costume with old clothes and just a little bit of fabric. For the mummy costume you will need long johns, muslin, black, gloves, black craft paint in a spray bottle. For the witch you will need a women's blouse, a black broom skirt or any black layered skirt, black paint, gray dye, and a cheap black witch hat. You can decorate the witch hat with trim ...
In photography, using filters over lenses is a common practice and provides a great way to set the mood or to create an artistic image. The only problem is that they can be quite costly and there currently aren't many available for cell phones specifially. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this, and all you need are everyday objects that can be found around the house. If you're a purist and don't want to rely on filters provided by camera apps, this is a great way to experiment with ...
UK-based designer Dominic Wilcox's Speed Creating Project presents the challenge of making something creative everyday, for 30 consecutive days. Wilcox's best results are pointless in an utterly delightful way. True junk drawer resourcefulness. My 7 favorites below; click through for all 30.
Chase the winter blues away by adding bright splashes of color to your boring winter tights. Using inexpensive nylon tights, fabric paints and basic craft supplies, you can do pretty much anything to transform your neutral-colored tights into something more colorful and fun.
Got a bad sweat stain on the underarms of your light-colored clothing? You probably have something in your kitchen or medicine cabinet that will help get rid of the stain immediately. Aspirin, table salt, lemon juice, white vinegar, baking soda, and even meat tenderizer (make sure it is unseasoned!) are some of the many common household ingredients you can use to make your sweaty clothes look brand new again.
Gliding + falconry = parahawking, a unique and exhilarating experience. Birds (vultures, eagles, hawks) are trained to "guide" a paraglider
The microwave has an extraordinary number of uses that goes above and beyond reheating your cold leftovers from last night's dinner. For food-related uses, the microwave can also make your lemons more squeezable for maximum juice output, roast garlic heads, decrystallize hardened honey, dry up fresh herbs, and more.
The possibilities are infinite when it comes to DIY gift wrap. Instead of the usual Christmas-themed wrapping paper, make your packaging look funky with old maps, music sheets, calendars, and other material to encase your loved ones' presents.
Are the furniture pieces in your living space starting to look faded, old and beat up? Gather some milk, vaseline, pecan nuts, lemon juice, olive oil and toothpaste, and you already have a fine assortment of tools to help you restore your wooden, leather, vinyl and glass furniture to some of its former glory.
What do you do when you accidentally stain your favorite article of clothing with coffee, red wine, or pasta sauce? If you aren't within immediate reach of laundry detergent or commercial stain removers, you can use many common household staples such as baking soda and white vinegar to remove the offending stains right away—sometimes even better than their commercial counterparts.