Condo Blues: July 2019

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Friday Favorites Linky Party 487

Time to add your fantastic and creative craft and DIY projects, recipes, and ideas!

Let's Party!




Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:



Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL
Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!



You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Industrial Beach Bathroom Remodel and Design Mood Board

After hemming and hawing for too many years after a plumbing accident, I’m finally replacing the flooring and remodeling my guest bathroom. Part of the reason I was stuck in the bathroom makeover department is that I still like most of the things I did to that bathroom when I painted and decorated it the first time, like the wall color.

Well that and knowing that while I love searching every tile shop in the city for my heart’s desire, my husband would rather I cut off his arm with a rusty table saw than shop even though this is his house too and he wants and absolutely should have a say in the decision.  Interestingly enough, when it came to selecting floor tile, we bought the exact opposite of the black and white mosaic tiles I thought we might choose and went with his suggestion of slate tile because he wanted something more interesting. Which made me love him even more because I’ve always wanted a slat floor somewhere in this house. Besides we have another bathroom we need to do. So chances are, I’ll get my choice in that room. That way we both win!

My new bathroom floor tile!

We were in agreement with a lot of the design and décor desires of this second bathroom. First off, it’s not the Master, so we can go with something a little more fun and different in this room. As much as I make fun of almost every residential bathroom in my lakeside home town being nautical, I lean toward ocean beachy influenced by one of our first vacations to the Dominican Republic.

After the flooring was decided, I turned to the vanity and other bathroom accessories and décor. I was concerned the ideas in my head might being going with too much white on white. I was also concerned that the things I want to keep may look out of place with the things I want to change in the remodel and vice versa. I figured the best way to see if I am going in the right décor direction is to create a bathroom remodeling mood board.

Let’s take a look!

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Friday Favorites Linky Party 485

Time to add your fantastic and creative craft and DIY projects, recipes, and ideas!

Let's Party!




Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:



Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL
Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!



You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

How to Make Embroidered Insulated Can Koozies

Somewhere along this road we call life, we ended up with several matching  promotional insulated can and bottle drink holders.* 
*Or can Koozie.Or coosie (cozy, cosie.) Or huggie. Or bottle hugger. Or beer sleeve. Or bottle jacket. Or the so awesome I can’t decide which name is my favorite: coldy holdy or the Australian stubby holder.
I didn’t think they were very useful at the time and tossed them into the back of a kitchen cupboard that is so close to the ceiling I never use it.

It was only after I learned you can ripen avocados in a neoprene can Koozie like the avocado bag I don’t have (an avocado ripening bag looks like this for reference) that I put those now deemed useful beer huggies into a lower cupboard where I can easily find and use them to ripen avocados.  (Disclosure: I am including some affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

If the insulated bottle holders didn’t all match I could pull the drink cozies and use them as drink marker charms when we treat ourselves or guest to our recent retro soda pop (check them out here!) obsession.

Let’s fix that and make embroidered insulated bottle koozies!


how to sew a unique embroider can beer bottle insulated sleeve
Save this tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

How to Machine Embroider Insulated Bottle Sleeves


You can easily sew insulated beer Koozies from scratch (you can buy the insulating fabric here) or machine embroider on a plan insulated neoprene can sleeve (you can buy plain can cooler sleeves here ) if you like.

In my case, I wanted to upcycle the  free promotional insulated beer coolies I have into something cuter than a walking advertisement for a company I’m not going to use.

You will need the following supplies for this craft project:


Insulated foam drink holder

Jersey fabric – I tried covering a soda pop sleeve with cute cotton fabric and it didn’t have enough give to put a can inside it. A few experiments later, jersey fabric worked the best as a functional can holder. I used plain t shirts I bought on clearance at the craft store.

Embroidery sewing machine – I have this sewing and embroidery machine and love its versatility!

Machine embroidery stabilizer

Embroidery machine thread

Sewing machine thread – yes, there really is a difference between machine embroidery and sewing thread

Seam ripper – I have a handmade seam ripper necklace similar to this one and never lose it while I’m in the middle of a sewing project !

Scissors

Sewing gage

Tailor’s chalk or pencil

Straight pins

Step by Step How to Make it Tutorial


1.  Hoop your stretchy fabric and embroidery stabilizer and use the embroidery machine to machine embroider a design onto the fabric with embroidery thread, if desired. You can hand embroider the design if you desire.


how to embroider an insulated foam can bottle beer koozie sleeve


Caution: It is better to pick an embroidery design that is light on thread that will allow your fabric and cozy to stretch around a can or bottle than a more dense and thread intensive design that doesn’t allow fabric movement.
2. Use the seam ripper to open the sides of the foam drink huggie and lay it flat. We will use this as our pattern in Step 3.


how to sew a can bottle beer huggie holder
Hey! It looks like a Tie Fighter! Pew! Pew!


3.  Using the flat bottle cozy as a pattern, trace it with the tailor’s pattern onto your embroidered fabric.
Tip: Make sure you trace your pattern slightly larger than the cosie on to leave a seam allowance on the sides and enough fabric to fold over the top of the coozie and sew into place to make a neat top hem. The sewing gauge will help you measure and mark a consistent seam allowance.

4. Pin the fabric to the bottle snuggie. Use a stretch stitch to sew the bottom sides of the fabric to the snuggie. If you do not have a stretch over lock (serger type) stitch on yours sewing machine like I do, you can use a stretch zig zag stitch.
Tip: You want to use a stretch stitch when sewing your beer cozy so it will allow the neoprene to contour to the bottle or can you put in it.
upcycle and sew a free promotional can bottle beer jacket


Tip 2: To keep the embroidered stretch fabric from slipping and otherwise trying to go wonky when removing the pins to sew it, I use a quick spritz of textile spray adhesive like this kind to keep the fabric and neoprene in place while I remove the pins as I sew.

5. Fold the the fabric over the top edge of the beer coolie, pin it into place, use a stretch straight stitch to sew the hem into place. Repeat this on the other side of the coolie. Trim the excess fabric with a pair of scissors if needed after sewing the hems.

how to personalize a bottle can beer cozy holder

You might want all of your pins to go in the same direction - unlike me - oops!


6. Fold the koozie in half, right sides (the pretty part) together and pin into place. Use a use a stretch straight stitch on each side to sew the koozie back together again. Trim the excess fabric with a pair of scissors if needed after sewing the side seams
Tip: To make sure you don’t sew the bottle holdy too small to hold a can or bottle, you can try sewing just over the foam and onto the fabric. Or not. It’s up to you.
7. Turn the koozie right out, pop your favorite drink inside, and enjoy
If you’d rather buy than DIY, check out the following options –and more! – below!

Check out these unique can cooler hacks on my food blog Lazy Budget Chef!

12 Ways to Reuse and Recycle Can Koozies

Did you enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Condo Blues RSS Feed or to Condo Blues by Email.


Thursday, July 11, 2019

Friday Favorites Linky Party 484

Time to add your fantastic and creative craft and DIY projects, recipes, and ideas!

Let's Party!




Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:



Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL
Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!



You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

Friday, July 5, 2019

Friday Favorites Linky Party 483

Time to add your fantastic and creative craft and DIY projects, recipes, and ideas!

Let's Party!




Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:



Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL
Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!



You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!