How to makeover a chair

A couple weeks ago I bought a brown, scuffed up chair from our local Salvation Army and turned it into this for our bedroom. I think I'm in love with it.

How to do it:
1. In your workshop (or dining room, in our case), flip your ugly chair over and remove the four screws holding the seat on. The seat will now lift off. Set it aside.

2. Sand the whole chair to rough up the finish a bit so the paint will stick. Smooth off any scratches or weirdness. Wipe the dust off with a cloth.

3. With a brush, apply a coat of general-purpose latex primer. Don't worry that your chair looks hideous after this step. Then put on as many coats of latex paint as you need for an even finish. I put on three over the course of two days. This is a pain.

4. To recover the seat, flip it over and remove the staples or tacks that hold the fabric on. Don't be grossed out by the condition of the foam cushion under there. If it's icky, just go buy new seat foam at a fabric store. A piece of new seat padding is available for a couple bucks and comes wrapped in plastic and perfectly sized. I was astonished. It turns out most seats are a standard size. The foam piece is perfectly rectangular, so just trace your wooden seat bottom onto it with a pen and cut off the wedges with a scissors to form a trapezoid that fits your seat.

5. Stack the foam and wood bottom onto a piece of fabric and use it as a template to cut a new seat cover, leaving enough margin to be able to fold your fabric around to the underside of the seat. When positioning your seat on the fabric, pay attention to the pattern in your fabric so your seat will align nicely with the repeats. (This fabric is Peapod.)

6. Use a staple gun to tack the new fabric cover snugly onto the seat.

7. Screw the chair bottom back onto the chair, and you're done.

Make an ironing board cover

Here's the ironing board cover I made from Herb using this easy tutorial. A perfect project for the sewing-challenged, like myself. If you can sew a somewhat straight line, you can make this. And a note: don't forget to leave the opening to feed your string through the casing. I sewed the whole thing shut and had to rip a couple stitches out. :)

Maybe I will actually iron my shirts now. Doubtful.

Modern Flora™ project gallery

Caroline sent over this photo of storage bins she and her mom have already made from The Fabric. I'm delighted! We've started a Flickr group for anyone who wants upload pix of their own projects or see what others have made. I've added a link to the sidebar so you can check out the gallery as it grows.

Update: Caroline made a tutorial for these!

Various project tutorials

Decoupaged canvas from Chris Glass
Pop-up flower card at MetaCafe
Oilcloth lunch bag at Tumbling Blocks
Paper chihuahua (and many other animals) at Canon's Creative Park
Bag made from fused plastic bags at Modern Cottage
Bowl made from magazines at A Little Hut
Fabric luggage tag at My Longest Year

Simple notecard with buttons

I stole some cute buttons from my mom's stash and repurposed them here. If you want to make this easy notecard, download the PDF template and print it out. (Each sheet makes two cards.) Cut the sheet in half and fold the two cards. Attach some colorful buttons with hot glue and round the card's corners if you want. This could make a quick and easy Valentine, especially if you use red and pink buttons.

How to paint a file cabinet

A recent project. Our steps:
1. Hunted for a file cabinet in all the major office stores. Became dismayed to learn they only come in black and a nasty putty color. Had hoped for white. Settled on the only silver cabinet we saw.

2. Carted it home. Became dismayed to see that it stuck out like a sore thumb in the office. (Accentuated by the fact that the north corners of our room have slanted walls that prevent sliding a cabinet all the way back, so it literally stuck out. But we expected this part.)

3. Impulsively decided to paint it white. Googled to learn how.

4. Determined we needed: sandpaper, spray primer, and spray paint for metal. Got these at Home Depot.

5. Detached any removable hardware that we didn't want painted, e.g. the drawer handles.

6. Sanded the cabinet to rough it up and remove any oils transferred from our hands. This helps the paint stick. Wiped off the dust with a damp cloth.

7. Put painter's tape over any hardware we couldn't detach that we didn't want painted, e.g. the lock and side edges of drawers.

8. In a well-ventilated place (okay, it wasn't, but I don't want you to sue me if you follow these directions and end up getting high), we put down a drop cloth and sprayed a coat of primer on the cabinet. Followed directions on can for application and drying time. Started with the back side to get our technique down. Worried that it looked uneven. (Turns out it doesn't matter. It will be covered up later.) Used up one can of primer.

9. Applied as many light coats of spray paint as needed for good coverage (three, in our case). Note: don't spray on too much at once or it will make drips that run down the side. Luckily that spot is in the back. Used up 1.5 cans of spray paint. Allowed it to dry. We like it!

Note: If you know ahead of time that you're going to paint a cabinet a color you can't find anywhere, and you don't have the cabinet yet, you may as well buy a used one and save some money.

Gifts to make for guys

An anonymous reader recently wrote: "My husband wants to do make-or-bake Christmas and I don't really do manly crafts—do you have any ideas for what I could make for a guy?" Uh, that's a tough one. Here's the best I could come up with:

Print-and-assemble modern calendars (I think I want to make that faux bois model shown above for myself!)
A T-shirt made using one of these screen-printing short cuts: this way or this way
The ever-popular paint chip business card holder
A boot rack
A lamp using manly fabrics: this or this, perhaps? "Manly" is so subjective.
A duct tape wallet
Suede iPod sleeve
Box made from playing cards
A pinhole camera, for the guy who needs a whole new hobby (see impressive gallery)
Clock made from a book cover (We found one made out of a Jimi Hendrix record album once that Alex was drooling over. This has great potential for coolness.) You can get clock movements at Michaels or other craft places.

(Image above from Canon)

How to make 25 paper Christmas ornaments

Here's a roundup of ornaments you can make from paper.
Above left: I made with these instructions
Above right: I made with these instructions

(Update: this is now an old post; some of the links no longer work.)

More:
Printable snowflake 1
Printable snowflake 2
Paper snowflakes stapled together into something 3-D
Not 3-D, but nice snowflake cutting templates

Origami star
Ornament made with circle cut-outs
Flower ornament
Ball-like star
Ball-like... ball
Flower ball
Geodesic ball
Multi-colored balls made this way, but fastened with wire
Many-pointed star
Mini star-shaped booklet
Glitter star ornaments
Moravian stars
Recycled paper ornament
Crystal ornament free download plus a gallery of inspiration
Huge spiky starOrigami Christmas tree 1
Origami Christmas tree 2
Kirigami Christmas tree 3

Happy folding!

How about orange ornaments?

Here's a paper ornament I made the other day during a coffee break with my downstairs neighbor. They're hanging in my office windows. The ornaments are, I mean—not my neighbors. That would be creepy. To make your own:

1. Download the template here.
2. Print it on colored paper.
3. Cut out each shape, score it on the dotted line, and fold it in half so the printing is on the outside. (It's easiest to cut out the middles after the shape is folded.)
4. Use a glue stick to adhere the side of one piece to the side of the next piece, and so on.
5. Trim off any parts that hang over or don't match up properly.
6. Poke a hole through the top and thread some string through to hang.

Craft project: Retro ornaments from foam

I had a few sheets of that strange craft foam lying around, so here's my attempt to make something out of it. You can download the template I whipped up right here.

You'll need: Foam sheets, sharp scissors, X-acto knife for cutting out holes, craft glue, string for hanging, and tape.

What to do: For each ornament, cut out two "frame" pieces, one solid ornament piece with the center intact, and whatever doodads you want to stick in the middle. Form a loop with your thread and knot the ends. Tape the knotted end to the top of one side of your solid shape. Then glue your frame pieces on each side like a sandwich, hiding the ends of the string. Glue some doodads to the hole in the middle. Place it under a light book while you wait for the glue to dry.

Tips: Cut your shapes very carefully. Make the inner solid piece a tiny bit smaller than the frame pieces so it doesn't poke out around the edges. Once it's glued together, don't try to trim the edges further. It will end up looking like your dog chewed on it. Cut it well the first time.

Make a messenger bag

I made a bag using this helpful tutorial at Craftster. I changed a couple things—most obviously, the orientation of the bag. I'm very slow at sewing, so I will never start a bag business. That's what I learned from this endeavor.

Cool red fabric on flap and lining is from my friend Megumi in Japan. Fun little button is compliments of Orange Beautiful's schwag bag.

DIY pencil cup

A quick little pencil cup I made this weekend to satisfy a crafty urge:

Wash out an empty soup can and measure the height and circumference. (If you don't have a tape measure, just use a strip of paper and mark off the measurements on it.) Cut out a rectangle of felt to those dimensions. Be precise so that the ends of the felt will butt up together but not overlap when wrapped around the can.

Cut shapes into your felt; then cut coordinating fabric patches that will peek through your holes. Stick the scraps to the back side of your felt. (The felt should be fuzzy enough to hold them there temporarily.) Spray some adhesive onto your can and wrap it with the felt piece, taking care to match your seam nicely in the back. Fill with pencils. All done.

Fall craft projects

If you feel a hankering to make some decorations before Thanksgiving rolls around, here are some ideas:

Twig coasters at Martha Stewart
Ultrasuede leaf placemats, also from Martha
Those fall leaf garlands everybody was making last year. Martha's leaf template seems to have disappeared when her new site launched, so you can use this one instead.
Roses made from maple leaves at haha.nu
Felted acorns made by Betz White

30 Days of Gifts to Sew

The folks over at Sew, Mama, Sew! have compiled "100 of the best sewing tutorials on the web" and will feature a couple each day during the month of November. And November starts today! So go have a look and see if you get inspired to make your own gifts this year. To view the schedule for the month, click here.

How to make fabric panel wall art

Here's how to make a giant piece of wall art for your room.

Choose some fabric with a large-scale pattern. Go to your local art supply store and buy 4 lengths of wood frame made for stretching canvas. The wood strips have corners designed to interlock. (Or you can cover an existing blank stretched canvas, but it will get pricey if you go very big.)

At my local art store the wood strips were standing in bins, available in lengths all the way from super short to too long to manage. I bought 2 each of 50" and 34." Each piece was just a couple bucks. Push the corners together, pounding them with a hammer if needed. Cut your fabric to a size somewhat larger than your frame; you'll need enough to wrap around to the back. Iron the fabric; wrinkles will show!

Position your fabric the way you like it and use a staple gun to tack it down. I stapled along a long edge, then did the opposite side, pulling it very tight. Next do the short sides, one at a time. Trim off any extra fabric that hangs past the inner edges of the frame. To finish the corners, tuck in the extra fabric as if you're wrapping a present and then staple it down. It doesn't matter how you do it as long as it looks tidy from the front. The art store gave me a wooden tool to help with this, but it's not essential. Attach a picture hanger (or maybe two if your panel is large) and hang.

This fabric is Pernilla from Ikea, now discontinued.

How to do fancy things to your Blogger template

Note: this post is now super old and probably obsolete.

I'll be the first to admit I am a print designer, not a web programmer. I am html-challenged. But by some miracle, I was able last night to convert this blog to a three-column template all by myself! Which means you can do it, too. Everything I know about altering a standard Blogger template I learned from my friend Google. Here are the tutorials I've used for doing stuff to my blog, in case you want to try it:

How to make your sidebar links open in new windows

How to convert your Blogger template to three columns

Note: If you do attempt to monkey around and get stuck, please don't ask me to review your code. That does not sound like fun to me. Post your question in the forum following the tutorial you're using. And remember: before making any changes to your template, download a backup copy of it or you might be reeeaally sorry.

Make a mini saddle-stitched booklet

I have a stack of scratch paper that's been sitting on top of my filing cabinet, annoying me. You know how when you print emails, sometimes there's nothing but one line of text on the second page? It's stuff like that. And yet in my purse, I never seem to have any paper whatsoever, so I scribble people's email addresses on the backs of crumpled receipts. So here's my solution: tiny notebooks.

You will need: Mostly-blank scratch paper, clear contact paper, decorative paper, a ruler, something that cuts paper, a stapler, and a pin.

I decided to make my notebooks 3"x4" when folded. If you want that size, find a piece of decorative paper that's at least 6"x4" or print yourself something on one of the pieces of scratch paper. (I printed some designs I made in Illustrator.) Laminate both sides of the sheet with clear contact paper.

You could also make little cut-paper collages on your notebook cover or laminate your kid's drawings.

Cut your decorative paper and your scratch paper into 6"x4" pieces and fold in half. (I used 8 pieces of scrap paper to make 16-page booklets.)

Fit your folded blank sheets inside the cover. Swing your stapler all the way open if it won't reach to the spine and carefully align it on the fold. Press just enough to make a staple come out and make indentations in the paper, but stop pushing before the staple crumples into a flattened mess. (Unless your stapler is powerful enough to poke all the way through; mine's not.)

Set the staple aside and use a pin or needle to poke all the way through the paper stack in the places where your hole indentations went. Then push your staple through, turn the paper stack over, and use your fingernail, letter opener, or screwdriver to close the staple. Repeat for the second staple.

Close your new booklet and let it sit under a heavy book for awhile to press it shut. Voila.

DIY projects

Learn how to distress a picture frame by Lara Berch
Learn how to decoupage a chair by Apartment Therapy:San Francisco
Learn how to make your own bubble mailers by 27 Things
Learn how to cover a lamp shade with decorative fabric by Lara Cameron

A shrinky plastic project

Readymade magazine sent me a sample of their shrinky sheets awhile back (you know—that Shrinky Dink stuff from when you were a kid). And I've finally gotten around to trying them out. I know I'm going to make Readymade very happy when I say this, but OH MY GOSH, IT'S SO FUN! I used some of my own designs (you might see more soon; stay tuned!), and here's the result.

How to make:
1. Inkjet, draw, or paint on the sheets.
2. Cut them out.
3. Hole-punch them if you want.
4. Bake at 325º for 2 or 3 minutes on a piece of cardboard.

They'll curl up and then flatten out in the oven. After you take them out, you can mash them flat with a spatula when they're still hot if they didn't flatten quite enough. My printouts were about 230% larger than the finished product turned out. I wanted the circles to end up 1.5 inches in diameter, so I printed them at 3.5 inches.

There were two kinds of sheets in the sample kit: white and clear. The photo above shows the white kind. Below are the clear ones followed by a side-by-side comparison.



If you want to make some too, you can buy the sheets in the Readymade store, at Dick Blick, or just google for inkjet shrink film.

Make some stuff

Some links to projects out there:

Wipe-clean coasters from Allyson Hill
Wine glass photos, a funny party idea from Photojojo
Paper mice with cheese at 3-Eyed Bear (click the mouse photos until you get to the PDF download)
Baby bib at Nested (cool site for design-minded parents)
Pop-up cards from Robert Sabuda
Strings of lights with paper shades and canvas rugs at Martha Stewart