Tag Archives: diy

Tufted Headboard from an Ugly Couch

So you probably remember my post about painting my loveseat and I mentioned how my plan was to reupholster the bigger couch. Well, I sort of halfway did that. While I was trying to decide what kind of fabric to cover it with, we were storing it in the bedroom because we didn’t have any other space for it. I started to think about how even after I did that project, where would I put the finished piece? The apartment could really only comfortably have one six foot couch in it and I didn’t feel like getting rid of the couch I so painstakingly recovered a few months ago. That’s when this new idea popped in my head. This whole time we’ve been in this apartment I knew I wanted to make myself a tufted headboard and after having the couch in our bedroom lined up perfectly with our bed for a while it finally clicked in my head to covert the couch into a headboard.

Here’s a photo of the couches I found at Goodwill. The one on the right is the one I used for this project. I hated that fabric, so it had to go.

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Painted Couch

Well, it happened. I joined the ranks of the crazy people who looked at their couch and thought, “I should paint that.” I had seen a few examples of people painting their couches online, and after reading all of them, I decided I would just forgo the textile medium and just use latex paint. My reasoning was that latex paint was already very flexible, so I wouldn’t need the medium for that. Also people use the medium to heat set the fabric, but from what I know about that stuff, it’s to set the paint so it doesn’t wash out in the washing machine. And I’m not throwing my couch into the washing machine any time soon.

This whole thing happened when I went to Goodwill to look for a coffee table or dresser. So of course I found an awesome love seat and couch that I couldn’t just leave there. The only bad things about them were the grandma floral fabric and broken springs. Both easily fixable. I made sure we would be able to get them home somehow (we have a small sedan… not really fit for transporting a love seat and a couch) and then bought those suckers. Here’s a breakdown of this project:

Love seat and couch – $115

Uhaul(we need a truck…) – $55

Oops paint (grey, eggshell finish) – $5

 Total – $175

Really, I only painted the love seat, so I didn’t know if I should include the couch in the prices and everything, but I did anyway. If you wanted to split up the couch cost and Uhaul cost between both couches, it would be around $90 for this love seat project. Anyway, here’s a picture of these guys at Goodwill:

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Published again!

Look what I got in the mail today!

How exciting!  About two years ago, I was contacted by Lisa Butterworth, Associate Editor of BUST, about putting a tutorial for my cassette tape coin purse in issue #61 of BUST Magazine.  Of course I said yes.  It was very cool to see my work in a big magazine like that.  Fast forward to about 5 months ago and I was contacted by Debbie Stoller, Editor-in-Chief of BUST, about a book they were putting together that is a compilation of the best DIY, how-to and advice articles from the past 15 years of their magazine, and I was included!  After the book was completed, they sent me a copy, and I received it today!  Sooo pretty!

I’m really excited about it, and I plan on going through the book this evening and marking each project I’m interested in doing.  Yay!

 

If you’re interested in buying the book (and helping me make a few bucks as well) you can buy the book here!

New Suede Shoe-Slipper-things

I was lurking around on the internet the other day and came across these viking shoes.  As I scrolled through the post, I saw it was a tutorial on how to make them, so of course I had to make some myself.  I went out to my craft store and bought some leather remnants for less than$5 and hoped there would be enough to make a pair of shoes.

Before I cut into the leather, I made a pattern out of felt and put it together.  I made some modifications to the original pattern to try to make them into flats instead of sandals and I wanted to make sure it would work.

Here’s the pattern all put together

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Ay Sus!

I’m Filipino-American so I know a few silly Tagalog words here and there that my mom says now and then.  My little sister and I like to combine some of these words to make completely nonsensical phrases.  One of these gems is “Ay sus ginoo, sapatos puwet kugmo!”  Any Tagalog speaker now should see that this doesn’t really make any sense, but that’s the point!  “Ay sus ginoo” is an expression.. kind of like saying “oh my god.”  I’m often greeted with that expression from my mom when I’m just goofing around the house.  The rest of it is literally, sapatos= shoes, puwet= butt and kugmo= booger.  So yeah, as you can see, it makes no sense.  Spanish speakers may notice the influence their language has had on Tagalog.

Anyway, the point of this post is that my sister and I wanted to make shirts with this phrase on them.  We would always talk about it, but never really do anything, so randomly I decided I was going to make mine at least… I didn’t know what shirt she wanted to use, and I didn’t know if she approved on the final layout of the letters.

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Here’s the printout.

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Drawing on mugs is fun!

So this post today is for two reasons.  First and foremost, I made some kickin’ rad one of a kind mugs.  I got this idea thanks to craftster, roboarsonist.  She used a ceramic paint pen by Pebeo called Porcelaine 150 and used it to draw some designs on a few mugs.  Once I saw that I knew I had to try it.  I went to Michaels and grabbed myself one pen and then to Goodwill to grab up some mugs and then went to town on them.  Well, actually only two of them so far… and here they are!

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The poor mans dress form

Soooo, not everyone has enough money to buy a dress form.. especially nowadays.  Luckily for those of us who would like one, it’s not too hard to whip up a cheap one if you have the right stuff.  There are a zillion tutorials on how to make one for cheap.. whether it be with paper-tape, paper mache or duct tape.

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Cassette tape coin purse

So, many of you know that I make cassette tape wallets.. After a few weeks of using mine, I found out that they’re not ideal for storing lose change.  It slides out of the sides when you unzip it causing you to scramble around on the floor to collect your change.  Or maybe that’s just me.  In any case, it inspired me to make a coin purse version of the cassette tape wallet.  I wanted a metal purse frame clamshell thing as a closure instead of a zipper, but I didn’t want to pay 5+ bucks for one (yeah, I’m cheap) so that was really the only thing holding me up from making one.  However, after cleaning my room the other day I found an old wallet which happened to have a coin purse attached.. perfect!  The wallet was already falling apart, so I just ripped the frame out and got crackin’.

These are my materials:

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a cassette tape, a metal purse frame (I’m not sure of the size because I just ripped it out of that wallet) and fabric.

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Wind me up!

Phew, it’s been a while!  If you guys hadn’t noticed, this blogging thing is pretty difficult for me to stay on top of.  Hopefully soon I’ll be able to post somewhat regularly, haha. :)

I’ve done a few things between now and my last post.. one of the biggest things being attending the Austin Maker Faire.. and I know I’m going to be a few weeks late, but I’ll eventually post a few of my pictures from there.  I also made a duct tape dressform for my little sister and I’ve started a jacket.. which has been sitting in my room half finished for about a week.  Oh yeah, I just made these awesome earrings, but you’ll just have to wait for those pictures because this post is really for my… halloween costume!

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It’s time to dye some shoes.

A week or two ago, my little sister asked me if I could dye her shoes black because she didn’t like the blue and red plaid.  I finally decided to do it and share the process with you guys.  This is my first time dying shoes, so I might have done some things strangely, so if there’s any way I can improve, please let me know!

What I used:  shoes, dye, a container, gloves, cotton balls(not pictured)

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