crafters delight: fabric by the yard on amazon
After painting our master bedroom a warm gray and adding white crown moulding, I started the hunt for window treatments. Roman shades were out because of the window depth, as were any treatments that left the top edge exposed. I went through all the usual online sources and failed to find anything hubs and I could agree on. So on to DIY. I must have looked at hundreds of fabric samples before stumbling onto a link that took me to Amazon. For fabric by the yard. Who knew? The prices are great, the search as intuitive as finding anything else on the site and the shipping nominal. Although by the time the Great Compromise of 2012 was over none of these fabrics were left on the table, they’re still share-worthy. 1 Dwell Studio Bella Citrine, 2 href=”http://www.amazon.com/Butler-Midwest-Modern-Martini-Mustard/dp/B0015RDPYA/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ac_8″target=blank”>Amy Butler Midwest Modern, 3 href=”http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Waverly-Small-Blackbird-Fabric/dp/B003DW8T7S/ref=sr_1_10?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1328472299&sr=1-10″target=blank”>Waverly Blackbird, 4 href=”http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Thomas-Dahlia-Aegean-Fabric/dp/B006K5B7S8/ref=sr_1_48?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1328472433&sr=1-48″target=blank”> Thomas Paul Dahlia in Aegean. The prices range from $8.98 a yard for the Amy Butler (2) to $28.98 a yard for the Thomas Paul (4). Here’s hoping you find one on Amazon you love. With over 27,000 to choose from, the odds are with you.
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love! improv diary’s low budget marimekko curtains
Shelterrific reader and fellow blogger, Debra Immergut from sent over this amazing idea. It’s taking some scrap Marimekko fabric and using it as base for some darling curtains. As Debra explains:
I had an orange, yellow, pink, and green floral Marimekko bedspread when I was a kid in the seventies. I’ve had an incessant desire for this Scandinavian-designed gorgeousness ever since. Thanks for getting me hooked on the expensive stuff, Ma!
I really can’t bring myself to spend the full 4o to 60 bucks a yard that Marimekko fabric usually costs. So to get my fix, I drop by the “clearance” section at Textile Arts, a fantastic online fabric shop that specializes in Scandinavian goods. Every so often, excellent Marimekko bits and pieces are to be found there, often for less than $20 a pop. It’s one of my most treasured secrets, but now I’m spilling the beans to you, darling blogosphere!
My collection of Marimekko pieces are all in odd sizes. Some are big enough to tack on the wall, and I do that. Some are just folded in a drawer, and occasionally I just take them out and admire them. One day, I realized I could use two of the scraps to dress up some bland white bathroom curtains. And so I did…
Click on over to Improv Home for the complete how to and a few other Marimekko scrap ideas!
look! reader makes d.i.y anthropologie “trinket” candleholders
A few weeks ago we were ooohing and ahhhhing over Anthropologie’s trinket candleholders — but gasping at their price! The one-of-a-kind pieces were assembled from found objects, but at $400 a pop they seemed a bit over priced. Surely, we can make these ourselves? we asked. And you answered! Reader Kathleen made these hot little numbers before the holidays as a gift idea. Here’s her take, below:
I made three, but forgot to photo one of them before giving as a gift! I used a Dremel tool to drill w a diamond bit. And it did end up costing about $40-50 each to make with lamp parts, drill bits, and all the other pieces needed. I would recommend using felt or rubber washers between the pieces where a nut is used to tighten the stick. I didn’t at first and the parts kept coming loose. The rubber or felt is good to conform to the trinkets w/out being so hard against the fragile ceramics. They came out great though!
$40 or $50 sure beats $400! Well done Kathleen. We’ll be hitting up spring yard sales for some appropriate trinkets soon.
from beer bottle to beer glass, part one: ‘cutting with string’ fail
If you enjoy beer as much as we do in our household, you probably share the love for microbrews. One of our favorite makers is Portland’s Hopworks Urban Brewery (or HUB), whose Abominable Winter Ale features art (by Martin Ontiveros) as cool as the beer is delicious. We love the Abominable so much, we’ve decided to keep him around by turning those empty bottles into snazzy drinking glasses.
Now, we’re pretty handy, but we don’t own a glass cutter, so of course I Googled for other ideas. I landed on this tutorial on cutting a bottle using string and acetone. As you may have gathered from the post headline, it was not a rousing success. It looks so easy in the video! What did we do wrong?
Step one: Tie a string around the bottle where you want the bottle to be cut.
Step two: Soak the string in nail polish remover (that’s the acetone — we used a small ramekin for this).
Step three: Place the string back on the bottle (wear gloves and keep the open acetone far away from you) and set the string on fire with a match; rotate bottle to distribute the fire. (I did the “one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand” counting thing for between counts of 12 and counts up to 20 and beyond while the string was on fire.)
Step four: plunge the bottle into a sink filled with icy water and apply pressure to both ends of the bottle — voila! the bottle should cleanly snap at the string. Except in our case, when the bottle should do NOTHING AT ALL, not matter how many times you try.
First we tried cotton string: caught on fire, but bottle did not break.
Then we tried cotton yarn: soaked up more acetone, burned better, but bottle still did not break.
Then we tried several rows of cotton twine that looked more like what they use in other videos online): burned well. Burned for an entire minute. Bottle did not break.
These bottles bear mute testimony to how many times we tried:
Next step: Anyone have a glass cutter? — Mary T.
want it now: mod gingerbread house
I am always tempted to make a gingerbread house, but never get around to it. Perhaps I’m not inspired by the traditional Hanzel & Gretal cottage style they all have. Well, it looks like I have found my dream gingerbread house, The Modern Gingerbread House. It’s so cute I don’t want to eat it – I want to live in it! With classic mid-century style it comes with a rock garden and garden. Add a few teal and orange gumdrops on the roof, and you’ve got centerpiece any mod homemaker can be proud of. Get the kit at uncrate.com, $80. — Angela M.
