How to Install Grommets (Eyelets) in Fabric the Easy Way!

 Knowing how to install grommets (they are also called eyelets) is a useful DIY skill to have. You can fix a tarp or make it more hangupable (a word I just DIY’ed on the fly because I’m creative like that.)

Crafty folks use grommets to make no sew shower curtains, yard flags, or any and all things hanging. I use grommets to make historical clothing, which are why my sewing button hole skills are nonexistent.  You don’t need to know how to sew to install an eyelet.

Do you want to learn? Of course you do! Keep reading my tutorial to learn how.

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How to Set Grommets/Eyelets

How to Make Reusable Makeup Remover Pads

I use disposable face wipes when I travel for the convenience but once I’m out I forget to buy more until the next time I go on a trip. Besides, I try to limit the amount of one time use disposables I use on a regular basis and let’s face it, wash cloths are reusable and face wipes are not.

Too bad I have a bad habit of by passing the wash cloths at night and not washing the makeup off my face before I go to bed. Why? Laziness I guess. 

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Fortunately, I found some leftover terry cloth fabric during one of my Spring decluttering and cleaning binges. I turned that into a reusable and green answer for my lazy face washing problem – reusable terry cloth makeup remove pads.

 

How to Sew Terry Cloth Makeup Remover Pads

20 Warm Winter DIY Clothes We Love

Trying to buy warm winter clothing and accessories after Christmas is difficult because all of the stores are selling bathing suits!

Which is great if you live somewhere warm enough to wear a bathing suit during the winter.
For the rest of us, if we want warm winter clothes it’s recycling and DIY or die freezing time!

 Save these ideas to your Pinterest boards for later! Share them with your friends!

20 DIY Must Haves to Keep You Warm This Winter

Dog Coats and Boots for Dogs Who Hate Wearing Clothes

Lacey, our snow warrior princess loves to romp and play in the snow. Her dachshund side goes into overdrive. She investigates every little foot print, crack, or hole in the snow when she goes outside and take care of business.

Being part Cavalier King Charles Spaniel means her natural fur dog coat is longer than a barley there dachshund’s but Lacey doesn't last very long in low winter temperatures, nor should she when the temperatures are so dangerously low.

Girlfriend needs a winter dog coat.




Too bad my dog hates to wear a dog coat.

My 10 Best DIY Projects of 2014

Wow, 2014 was a great year for Condo Blues! I made a lot of changes behind the scenes to bring you the best projects and content possible. My hard work paid off because more of you have stopped by to my virtual home to say hello.

 

Let’s look at the 10 most popular posts on Condo Blues in 2014!

Captain America On Your Left T Shirt

Not a week goes by after Husband comes home from a training run that he has a story about how someone refuses to follow the rules of our running/biking/walking/rollerblading trails and almost causes an accident.  Apparently folks like to use the center of the trail instead of keeping to the right hand side. Verbally signaling when they are about to pass someone, which should be on the left, doesn't always happen either.

The first time we watched Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier (we see every Marvel movie at least three times in the theater) Husband leaned over and excitedly whispered in my ear, “See! See! Captain America has good running etiquette!” during the scene where Steve Rodgers is out for a  jog and calls out, “on your left” every time he passes a fellow runner.





I knew right then and there I needed to give Husband a Captain America On Your Left t shirt as a gift. I couldn't find one in a store so I made one! You can too. Here’s how.

How to Make Bottle Cap Pattern Weights

I use some of the same sewing patterns more than once and if I use straight pins to pin the pattern to the fabric before cutting it out - holy pattern pin holes Batman! My patterns get pin holed to shreds.




Pattern weights keep sewing patterns from slipping and shifting on the fabric when you cut it out. They don't leave holes or marks in your fabric either. I have a lot of Christmas sewing coming up. I figure it was about time I used pattern weights instead of straight pins.

I tried using metal bottle caps as pattern weights. I wanted my weights to be be heavier.  I could have filled the bottle caps with plaster of Paris to add weight but I didn’t want to deal with the mess. 

How to Make a Fluffy No Sew Tutu

I need a costume for a performance. I came up with a costume idea with a kooky Dresden Dolls, Steampunk, Katy Perry, vaudeville kind of vibe. Best of all I my costume includes a tutu!

I have always wanted to dance in a tutu as a kid but unfortunately modern dancers don't do the tutu. Sorry Martha Graham, this gal is making her long denied tutu dreams come true!

No Sew Halloween Apron

My sister and I are foodies. We often send each other email with the subject line MAKE THIS and a recipe. During one of our conversations the subject turned to food, as it usually does, and how cooking messes can ruin clothes.

There is a solution for that. It’s called an apron.

Halloween is my sister’s favorite holiday. We share the same warped sense of humor. I made her a no sew apron I know she’ll wear for Halloween and quite possibly during the rest of the year to serve as a funny warning to others.

Don’t Make Me Poison Your Dinner Apron

How to Fix a Hole in Shorts without Sewing!

All of my summer shorts are too big after I met my weight loss goal. It is a nice problem to have.

Fortunately, I had a couple of pairs of pants lurking in the back of my closet that make better shorts than pants. It didn’t take much time or effort to cut and hem the pants into shorts (learn how I make pants into shorts here.) It is a trick my mom used when I blew out a knee on a pair of pants or jeans as a kid. Boom. I got a new pair of shorts.

Green. Cheap. And most importantly, I had the perfect pair of shorts that weren’t too short or too long. 

Vintage Train Toy Box Nightstand

My grandfather made me this train toy box when I was a little girl. As you can see, he made it with a lot of love.

And skill. My grandfather had mad carpentry skills he learned from his father the carpenter.

My train toy box has tremendous sentimental value. It was also the most difficult item to keep and make work in the new guest room/craft room. This is the only place we have room for my toy box. Husband suggested I repaint it to go with the color scheme I first wanted for the room.

I quickly vetoed that idea.

Every ding bump and scratch on my toy box came from two little girls having a good time pushing each other around their playroom in this train.

This vintage toy box on wheels probably horrifies some kid safety expert because the wheels and vehicle aren’t incased in bubble wrap and the children riding in it didn’t wear safety suits and helmets made from organic feather pillows. Thank goodness we survived!

How to Make Crutch Covers and Pads

I am diligently going to physical therapy and doing my daily homework exercises to heal my leg injury. My physical therapist is happy with my progress. I hate wearing the boot, but it helps with pain management so well I don’t need to take painkillers that make me loopier than I already am or spend my day with my leg incased in ice bags.

That’s good. It also means I am in The Danger Zone.

I am in that place where I feel better and need to try going without the boot for a little bit each day which makes it easy to overdo it and take a step backwards in the healing process the following day. This is easier to control at home. It may not be so easy when we have houseguests because I know we will do a lot of walking.

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Craft Supply Wall Storage and Room Tour

My craft room is starting to look like a real studio!

I painted the craft room/guest room last summer. Then I lost steam on this room and let DIY fear take over when it came to making  over the current furniture. That fear stalled the project until I got a little help from a friend.

 Pin these craft room storage ideas on your Pinterest boards for later!

How to Make a Petal Skirt Craft Apron

Spilling food, paint, and random beverages on myself is my superpower. It has been all of my life. Lucky Me!

I ruined more clothes than I should because only until recently did I clue in that aprons protect clothing from spillage and splotches. Smart > me.

 I made this craft apron longer in the front and sides because that's where most of the paint splotches end up on my clothes.

Saint Patrick’s Day Shamrock Skirt

Saint Patrick’s Day is right around the corner. I figure I better get some green duds in my new and smaller size or I will run the risk of getting pinched. No Saint Patrick owies allowed!

How to Make a Ho Ho Ho Christmas House Flag

 I like to hang a flag as part of my outdoor Christmas décor because it helps my guests identify my house in a neighborhood where most of the houses look a like.

I usually go with flying the Dannenberg at Christmas per Danish tradition. Unfortunately, my Danish flag has flown more than its share of holidays and birthdays (another Danish tradition) and needs to be replaced.
Lacey’s first Christmas with us is the perfect time to start a new Christmas flag tradition.

I didn’t say it was a good tradition, just a  new and funny one.

I used fabric I had on hand to replace my nylon flag with a cloth homemade Christmas flag.  I used a little bit of mathematical/scientific/geek shorthand to make Ho cubed because I didn’t have room for Ho, Ho, Ho.

Husband didn’t buy that excuse either.

Then we had a comic in depth discussion on the correct way to Ho, Ho, Ho. I say it should be mathematical, Ho cubed. Husband argued it should be scientific notation H three O three.

How to Make a Geek Christmas Flag

No Sew Drop Cloth Placemats

I use tablecloths to hide the fact I need to refinish our dining room table and haven’t gotten around to it. Lacey likes my tablecloths because she figured out how to use them to pull things off the table and into her eager mouth. 

I guess I better get some placemats, huh?

I got my inspiration for this project from some of the little bits of supplies I wanted to use up while I was clearing a path through the crap meticulously cleaning and reorganizing my craft room. 

How to Make Drop Cloth Placemats

37 Doctor Who Crafts

I am a big, big, big Doctor Who fan. When I needed more USB ports on my computer I bought a Doctor Who TARDIS USB computer hub (if you need more USB ports on your computer you can learn more about it here.)

(Disclosure: I am also including affiliate links in this post for your convince)

I write notes at my desk with a Sonic Screwdriver Pen (check out all of the Doctor's sonics here!)

I bought a bought a Tom Baker Era TARDIS Key Keychain here shortly after I discovered the classic Doctor Who episodes playing on public television and carried it for years until it  wore out.

For those of you who don’t know your Who, Doctor Who is a British science fiction show about a Time Lord named The Doctor who travels through time and space in his ship the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) which looks like a police box and saves the universe from bug eyed monsters.

The show first aired from 1963 to 1989 and took a little break until they made a Doctor Who TV movie in 1996. The BBC brought Doctor Who back in 2005. This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who. 

I put together a collection of Doctor Who DIYs and crafts to celebrate the geekiest week of the year. On November 22, 2013 the BBC will simulcast the Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special around the world and, if you are lucky, in 3D a local theater!

 Pin this list of ideas to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

Allons-y!

Drop Cloth Patio Chair Covers

It only took me 8 years to realize I should do something to protect the chairs on my front porch from rain and winter snow unless I want to keep making my chairs over every two years or so.

That is not a difficult thing to do. But I’d rather spend that time working on a new project, like helping our girl Lacey become a balanced and confident dog. That project gives kisses!





My chair projects do not give me kisses.

Sad Lisa

Highball Halloween Party!

Happy Halloween!

Today is one our favorite holidays because it is all about frivolous fun. I got my costumer on and made a rare set of matching costumes for Husband and I to wear to this year’s Highball Halloween party. We were Raving Rabbids!

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!

I’m glad I made our full length Rabbid suits from fleece. It was freezing that night!