Thursday, February 11, 2021
How to Put a Removable Pompom on a Knit or Crochet Hat and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 568
Thursday, January 28, 2021
DIY Dollar Store Valentine's Day Wreath and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 566
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
12 Real World Ways I Went Zero Waste This Week
Some of the things they don’t tell you about trying to reduce your household trash with zero waste living is that it depends a lot on where and how you want to live. Most of the year’s worth of garbage in jar folks have access to big fill your own container stores, year round farm markets, or huge gardens where they can grow almost everything they need. Not all of us are that lucky, would rather not drive all over the place, or crunched the numbers and found some the prices in those shops sky high. *raises hand*
But’s not to say that zero waste is impossible! Instead try the more realistic goal of concentrating on reducing your household waste than making it absolute zero. By focusing on reusing, the Rule of Half, recycling, reducing, and composting (when the bin isn’t frozen shut) my family has reduced our weekly household waste to approximately one grocery store size shopping bag (ish. We reuse any packaging, dog food, etc. bags for garbage which means the size varies) a week. We average a 3/4 full recycling bin every two weeks. We also give ourselves a break if our output is more than that because we have seasons and that can determine what we can do and how we do it.
To give you some realistic ways to reduce your household waste (and possibly save some money doing it) I made a list of the zero waste practices, tips, and tricks I do in a normal week to give you some ideas and jump start your thinking machines to find a zero waste solution that works for you!
Sunday, November 8, 2020
How to Make Bottle Gnome Christmas Decorations
So personally, I think it is best to decorate with the not so fickle recycled variety and make quick and easy bottle Christmas gnome decorations! Although, just like the Irish leprechaun, Danish gnomes don’t go away after the holiday and you can decorate with gnomes all year round if you like.
This is a very forgiving Christmas craft project because the way you make your gnome is only limited to your imagination and what craft supplies you have on hand or want to use for this project.
Monday, October 19, 2020
How to Make Comfortable Padded Headphone Covers
I found a set of headphones with a microphone I forgot I had in that random box of cords you’re supposed to have when you hit 30. The foam ear covers where deteriorated but the microphone windscreen was fine. What good luck I thought! I don’t have to by a new pair! I used them for my next Zoom meeting.
Of which, the last half an hour was the longest of my life because the bare headphones hurt my ears. OW!
I went into my craft studio, gathered materials, popped on an audiobook (I use Audible. You can Try Audible and Get Two FREE Audiobooks here,) and started to play. In the end I had new cute and comfortable ear covers for my headphones. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
Let’ do this!
How to Make Replacement Headphone Covers
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
How to Sew a Skeleton Skirt with POCKETS
I plunked a bolt of skeleton print fabric on the store’s cutting table.
Fabric cutting lady: what are you making?
Me: A skirt
Fabric cutting lady: Oh! Are you getting ready for Halloween early?
Me: No. Just making something fun to wear for every day.
Fabric cutting lady: (Gives me a blank stare because she doesn’t know what to do with this information and says nothing. This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten this response from her about one of my weirdo projects.)
That doesn’t matter because I made a cute, twirly dirndl skirt that has pockets!
Save this sewing idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
And you know what?
You can make one too!
Sunday, July 26, 2020
3 Quick and Easy DIY Face Mask Lanyards
When I have to go out and about on a necessary errand to two, I'm required to wear a cloth face mask.
As always, I try to batch my errands to save gas (eco friendlier and all) and most importantly, time.
Which means, I usually take off my mask by the ear loops when I get back into the car. Then I hunt to find where it shifted around while I was driving to my next stop when it is time to put the mask back on again (always using the ear loops as recommended!) I need a better way to keep track of my cloth face mask in between the short times I remove it and need to put it back on again.
I took my inspiration from the floating sunglasses strap similar to this one I use when I’m at a water park or pool to keep my sunglasses from sinking if they are accidentally knocked off my face. In no time at all I a cloth face mask lanyard. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)
Well, actually I made 3. Two handmade face mask lanyards and one cloth face mask chain because it is such a quick and easy project to do.
Let’s make stuff!
Save this idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Soapmaking and Friday Favorites Linky Party 538
Monday, July 13, 2020
How to Make a Recycled Aluminum Can Butterfly Necklace
I don’t drink a lot of soda but every once and awhile a pop can will cross my path. Once I finish the beverage I have two choices:
1. Recycle the can in the recycling bin.
2. Recycle the can into a cute necklace.
Today I am going with Option 2 because it will make a much more entertaining tutorial than Option 1 and it will give me a chance to answer I often get: How do you smooth the edges of a cut aluminum can?
It’s easy! Let’s get started.
How to Smooth and File the Sharp Edges of a Cut Aluminum Can
Monday, May 18, 2020
How to Clean Caulk Off Clothing
I had a quick little caulking project I needed to do and didn’t bother changing into paint clothes because I didn’t think I’d get messy.
Which of course meant I got several big smears of caulk on one of my few pairs of good jeans.
It. Never. Fails. Why won’t I learn?
Pin this hack to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
Can these jeans be saved? Yes they can! It is very easy to remove caulk spills from clothing. here’s how.
How to Remove Caulk From Clothing
Monday, March 30, 2020
How to Caulk Around a Toilet
I went with a Watersense rated Delta Faucet Company toilet (you can find similar toilets here.) (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.) I had such a good experience installing one in my powder room because every single thing you need to install the toilet comes in the box down to a screwdriver and the Watersense rating means it is water efficient (I think of it as the Energy Star rating for plumbing) without the hit or miss of not quite flushing everything that needs to be flushed like a duel flush toilet.
But before I can completely cross Install New Toilet off my punch list, I need to caulk around it (and also along the new tile next to the bathtub. Fortunately, you caulk around a bathtub the same way you caulk a toilet. Let’s do this!
Why Should I Caulk Around the Toilet?
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
How to Plant an Indoor Hydroponic Herb Garden the Easy Way!
Also there is the whole I forget plants need water to grow thing. The only reason I can keep a succulent alive is that they thrive on low light and neglect.
I’ve been interested in hydroponic gardening (growing plants in water instead of soil) ever since my husband and I saw an exhibit on aquaponic gardening (similar to hydroponics except fish in a tank fertilize the plants.) I looked at several of them off and on but most of them needed preparatory (and spendy) seed pods that weren’t always what we were interested in growing or eating. Fortunately, on Christmas morning my husband unwrapped our gift and learned that you can use your own seeds to grow whatever you like in an AeroGarden.
We set up our indoor hydroponic herb garden and have been enjoying cooking with fresh herbs all winter which feels decadent because up until now, that as been a summer only thing.
How to Set Up an AeroGarden Indoor Hydroponic Herb Garden
Sunday, February 16, 2020
11 Floor Tiling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
It is also a DIY job that is easy to mess up if you don’t follow a few precautions first. You really don’t want to put in all of the work of tiling a floor only for the tiles to eventually come loose or crack after the job is done.
1. Not adding an extra 10% of tile to your tile order – Depending upon the design, you may need extra to match up the pattern in the room. It is also good to have extra tile on hand just in case you cut one incorrectly or worse drop one and break it.
Friday, February 7, 2020
How to Make a Teapot Cozy
Which pretty much negates the reason for making a small pot of tea.
The solution is to put an insulated tea pot warmer on my hot little pot to keep the tea inside it nice and warm as I slowly sip the day away...
Oh, who I am I kidding? I’m usually sewing and forget I made the pot of tea that is sitting on a table across from my sewing machine until hours later.
Either way, a tea cozy is a super simple sewing project to make and is a fantastic fabric stash bust project. I added machine embroidery from a file that came with my machine to get a little more practice in on hooping the embroidery fabric – easily the most tedious, difficult to get right, and important step in machine embroidery.
Let’ s make something!
How to Sew a Simple Tea Cozy
Sunday, November 24, 2019
How to Make Outdoor Scandinavian Christmas Gnome Decorations
I was severely bummed.
It was all the encouragement I needed to shop IKEA for the materials and go with my original plan of making a set of outdoor Christmas gnomes built around tomato cages. Since storage space is at a premium in my condo, I made my Christmas gnomes (which we Scandinavians call Tomte or Nisser) as a temporary slipcover. That way I can use the cages in my summer garden, clean them, and use them again during the Christmas decorating season. If you have the storage space you can permanently hot glue the fabric to your tomato cage instead of holding it in place with clothes pins like I did.
How to Make Scandinavian Christmas Gnomes
Sunday, September 29, 2019
How to Dye Suede Shoes
I was very nervous about messing up this project and put it aside for quite awhile after I bought the dye. Once I got up the nerve to do it I learned dying shoes a new color isn’t hard, just a little messy so make sure you protect your work surface and you’ll be fine.
How to Dye Shoes a New Color
Sunday, September 22, 2019
How to Make a Jester Costume
I need a new jester costume for renaissance festival and historical performances and when I want to dress to empress on Halloween.
This time, I went for the Crazy Person Challenge of sewing a jester costume with a homemade diamond pattern quilted fabric. I made new everything from the skin out:bloomers, hoop skirt, skirt, bodice, and hat. This project took four months to complete.
Which just goes to show you I don’t just play a fool on weekends, it’s more of a 24/7 lifestyle. I’ve never quilted before and after this project I may never quilt again!
How to Make a Female Renaissance Jester Costume
Monday, September 16, 2019
How to Make an All Weather Elizabethan Jiffy Pop Hat
I’d like to make something a little different than the traditional jester asses ears I’ve worn in the past. (Asses ears are the name of the jester’s hat with the points and bells on the end.) Since Elizabethan jesters and fools often made fun of their betters and sometimes wore parodies of the style of the nobility to mock them, I decided to make a HUGE British bonnet as an homage to my jester mentor who wore a GIANT flat cap.
But most importantly, I want a hat with a brim to keep the sun out of my eyes.
This style of brimmed hat with a poufy top goes by many names: British toque or bonnet, Spanish toque or bonnet, Italian toque or bonnet, or by the modern nick name The Jiffy Pop Hat because it looks like a Jiffy Pop pan after it has popped (learn more about Jiffy Pop here if you are unfamiliar with this treat that’s fun to eat.)
Elizabethan men and women wore this style of hat. The poofy hat in the sepia photo is made with buckram. The hats in the color photos are made with plastic canvas. As you can see you can't tell from looking what the hat form is made from. the only difference is the plastic canvas is weatherproof and also stands up any and all abuse an actor may put it through.
How to Make a Hat with Plastic Canvas Instead of Buckram
Sunday, September 8, 2019
How to Clean Rusty Chrome the Non Toxic Way!
Sunday, August 25, 2019
How to Wash a Baseball Cap the Easy Way
Not to mention, putting on a hat = instant good hair day!
Baseball caps are my casual hat go to. I often wear one when I am working in my workshop to keep my hair out of my face and out of the way of power tools.
Which means over time, my baseball hats can get sweaty, yucky dirty.
How do you wash a baseball cap without ruining it?
More importantly, most dishwasher detergents aren’t made to clean fabrics and have ingredients that fade fabric.
But mostly it’s the heebie jeebie skeeved out thing.
Fortunately there is a very easy and non toxic way to clean a baseball cap that doesn’t involve doing dishes or ruining your hat in the dishwasher or washing machine. Here’s how.