Friday, May 6, 2016

Quick Tip: Sewing Leather

Just popping in here to share another quick tip. 

When sewing leather you are apparently not supposed to pin it, because pins will leave holes in the material. Also, trying to push a pin through leather is durn hard, I've discovered. I did try, and bend about five pins out of shape before giving up. 

So what to do? I saw a suggestion to use paperclips instead, but I actually don't have any. Shocking, I know, but we try to keep things as paperless as possible. 

What I do have, however, are hair pins. Incidentally, what I used in my last quick tip, too. Is there anything hair pins can't do?


For leather, anyway, they work great. They are easy to use, just push them in place. They have a really good grip, so they will stay put. And they don't leave a hole behind. 

Just don't sew over them like you would with a regular pin. I just pull them out just before I'm about to run over them and they are just perfect.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Quick Crochet Tip

I thought I'd share something I've used since I started crocheting. This is ridiculously simple, but I'll share anyway. 

If you need a stitch marker (and let's face it, if you crochet something that involves counting, you do) use a hair pin! 
Just a regular hair pin. It works perfectly.
  • It's easy to place 
  • It's easy to remove 
  • It stays put
  • It's lies flat so it doesn't get in your way
  • It's cheap
  • And you likely own one already!
Obviously, this works for knitting as well!

Friday, January 29, 2016

Candle Stick Upgrade

This is actually an old project I redid. I bought a set of blue handmade candlesticks at a thrift store a few years ago for 1€ each. I thought they'd make a nice project and I painted them white and added some beads which I also painted white. But they never felt quite right and after awhile ended up on the top self of my closet. 
When I recently went through that closet I rediscovered them. They sparked no joy, so I was about to send them back to the thrift store, when the upper string holding the beads gave up and scattered on the floor. And I thought "hmm this looks much better with just one string of beads, and might look even better with beads of a different color for a bit of contrast."

Luckily, I have a huge basket full of wood colored beads I got at a thrift store for 2€, I think the were originally a car seat cover. It took about a minute to change the beads and now I love these candlesticks.
Isn't weird how they look completely different with that one change?
Here they are on our kitchen table. I've been lighting the candles even if we are just eating take-out kebab and I have to say they really set a nice mood.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Easy Fabric Covered Book DIY

This is really the easiest project in the world, but here goes.

First you need a book. I'm determined to learn to play my ukulele better this year, so I ordered this Ukulele for Dummies book. Tells something about my amazing ukulele skills! 

But it's a really good book. It starts with very basic things and moves to, from what I can tell from glancing it through, very complex ones. Everything is explained very clearly, including the strumming. When I tried to learn it from the Internet (as you do), most of the advice was on the lines of here are the chords, just strum what sounds the best. Er... Can't do that, I'm afraid. But Ukulele for Dummies explains it beautifully.
Now, my one problem with this book is the cover. Yes, how shallow! In my defense, it's bright yellow and looks like a sale notice. I've been keeping it in a drawer so I don't have to look at it all the time, and getting it out when I wanted to practice felt like a chore.
So I covered it with fabric.
This project is seriously super easy and only takes a few minutes. I just took an old striped pillow case, cut it up and just glued it straight on the cover. That's it! 
It is slightly see through, but not enough to trouble me.
I think if you have several books you'd like to cover, they would look really cool covered with different patterns. Flea markets are always full of old mismatched pillow cases. You could even use handkerchiefs or scarfs.

I'll never suffer an ugly book cover again!

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Hama Bead Mario Wall

Jake expressed a wish before Christmas that he'd like to have a wall that looks like a Mario game. Well, well. As you wish. I'd previously only done snowflakes with Hama beads, but thought it was great fun and jumped at a chance of doing more.
I was a bit worried because I haven't really played any Mario games, except Mario Kart and Super Mario World and I couldn't really tell if the images were "correct" or from the same game (seriously, this is the stuff I worry about). But luckily Mario Maker came out, and I decided since they were doing it, it was OK for me to combine elements from different games too.
I got all the patterns from Pinterest (where else?), except the princess Peach in a cat suit which I had to improvise. I based it on a picture of Tanooki Mario.
I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and I think Jake was too when he opened them on Christmas Eve. At least, he posted them on Facebook straight away. That's always a good sign. 
It's not quite the whole wall, but it's a start and there's always next Christmas!
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