Phew, this is a busy time of year!  Richard and I have both been selling our art at art and craft fairs all over Portland, Oregon.  I create my work under the label Knot Ugly Designs and Richard has been selling his work under the business name Sinister Concept.  Our art and  sales have really been the focal point for both of us for the last few months, which has left less time for DIY Lounge.

You might be wondering, what’s happening with DIY Lounge? Well, we’re working on a number of different projects, such as emceeing at the Scrap fundraiser, speaking on a panel about DIY culture and getting a new HD video camera.  Recently, we’ve decided to shift our focus away from the TV show concept and back in the direction of crafty videos.   We will definitely continue making craft videos featuring Richard and I, as well as online video tutorials.  We’ll still offering Birthday parties and other art parties at both collage locations in Portland Oregon, too.

This Saturday and Sunday Richard and I will be selling our work at Crafty Wonderland.  The sale hours are 11am – 5pm at the Convention Center in Portland Oregon.  We hope to see you there!

Now you can be Sustainable and Sauced at the same time . . .

Wine vending machines?  Yes please!  These machines now exist in French grocery stores. Bring  your own reusable bottles, or you can get one at the store. Pick your favorite wine red, white, or rosé and fill it up.

This concept was introduced by Astrid Terzian. She started this plan in fall 2008 to be both eco-conscience and thrifty.  Due to the fact that there is so much less packaging the wine can be shipped much more efficiently.

The first machine was installed in June 2009 at the Cora supermarket in Dunkirk and now they can be found in eight supermarkets in France.

Regulations permitting this will come to the US within a year. Word has it that the wine trade industry is working on this concept for the the US as we speak!

When times get tough, the tough find ways to reduce their cost of living.  One way to avoiding purchasing your daily lunch out at a restaurant is to do-it-yourself and pack a lunch for work or school.  There are other benefits to packing a lunch, such as the health benefits of knowing what is in your food, how it was prepared and where it came from.   Packing a lunch can be a simple operation if you don’t mind lots of PB&J sandwiches, but for the rest of us it’s nice to have other options.  I purchased these containers from Amazon for my son’s lunches, because he’s a huge fan of rice with soy sauce and I wasn’t sure how I was going to pack such a small quantity of liquid in the containers that I already had.  I am not typically a big advocate of simply throwing money at a problem, but when it comes to lunches having the proper equipment for the job is important, plus, come on, these little containers are so darned cute!  Keeping hot things hot and the cold things cold, using reusable, eco-friendly containers and trying to use containers that are BPA-free are all important parts to having a healthy, tasty lunch.

Here is a cool green option for lunch bags.  These lunch bags are made by Becky Striepe of Glue and Glitter. The great thing about Becky’s lunch bags, in addition to the obvious that these bags are stylish and cool, is that they come with silverware, matching cloth wraps to hold the silverware and this nifty eco-friendly, BPA-free container that has 4 removable containers within the container.  I have purchased this exact bag and can tell you that the quality is great.  If you are the crafty type and you want to DIY your own bag check out this book, in which Becky has a featured pattern.  Sewing lunch bags and other sewn accessories is really just one of Becky’s talents.  Another talent, well, really a passion of her’s is writing about green alternatives to everyday life.  You can find her writings at greenUPGRADER and Care 2 make a difference, where she writes about vegan recipes, green living and so much more.

Now I want to leave you with one final note for inspiration . . . a friend of mine, Cathy Pitters, of Bossa Nova Baby and Crafty Wonderland told me about this awesome site that has inspired her to make authentic bento lunches for her son.  It’s called Just Bento and it’s just amazing!  Every few days the author of the site posts different bento ideas.  If you get really inspired there are all sorts of other sites and stores out there with fun bento ideas including all sorts of bento accessories for making and carrying your bentos in.  Tah tah for now, I’m off to make myself lunch.  All this food talk has made me hungry!

by: jen

All local Portlanders know about Scrap, but in case you are not local or you live under a crafty rock let me tell ya.  Scrap is an organization and storefront that takes donations of unwanted and overstock supplies including paper, fabrics, tiles and resells these items at very affordable prices to the community.  Scrap’s focus is on environmental sustainability and community education.  Since they are a non-profit organization they must do annual fundraisers in order to maintain this fabulous business model.

This year their fundraiser is called “Incognito”,  a masquerade ball held at the Oregon Zoo Ballroom.  The night includes a silent auction, dinner, a Junk to Funk fashion show, live auction all with music provided by the Transcendental Brass Band.  This event is scheduled for Thursday, October 28th.

Best of all, Richard and I will be the emcees for the event!  We are really excited to use our crafty personalities for such a great cause.  We totally believe in Scrap and feel that their mission is the type of creative fundraiser that we can get behind.  To learn more about Scrap, their fundraiser, Incognito, or to get tickets, check out our links.  Hope to see you there!

Eight years ago when I decided to start a small creative business there was one regular craft show that happened a couple of times a year.  If you wanted to get your wares into stores through either consigning or wholesale accounts you had to do all the leg work yourself.  First, you researched which stores might be a good fit for your product, pounded the pavement, set up appointments, hoped the store owner was available and best of all, they would want to carry your work.

That is why last night’s I Heart Art Mixer Match was so incredibly cool.  Think speed dating for artists, except instead of trying to get a date the artists were attempting to woo wholesale accounts with local store owners.

Artist (left) receiving feedback from local business owner Nicole Prevost, owner of Union Rose (right).

The event was put on by I Heart Art, which is a group devoted to advocacy, education and support for Portland’s vibrant community of makers.  This is a collaborative group between Etsy, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Museum of Contemporary Craft, and the Portland Etsy Team.

Store owner (left) meeting with Lea of LeaK Arts (right)

One thing that I thought was really interesting about this event was that there was a wide assortment of artists all looking to pitch their products to stores.  There were many new faces and many people who have been making and selling their product in stores for years.

New faces that are unknown to me.

Ordinarily pitching your work to anyone, especially a stranger, is a nerve-wracking experience.  As you can see this was practically a party.  I’m sure there were butterflies in the stomachs of some of the artists and yet this was an incredible opportunity for artists to connect with store owners, practice their pitch and grow their businesses.  This is one of the things I LOVE about Portland’s Crafty/DIY community – unique ideas and collaborations turning potentially painful situations into a good time.

More new faces.  I liked this shot because you can see the frenzy of store owners digging through this artist’s product.

In a perfect world artist walked away from this event with new stores to sell their wares, but in many cases it was just an initial contact.  A great way for stores to see what new locally handmade products are out there and for artist to have the opportunity to receive feedback about their work, their pitch and their overall presentation.

Left to right, Torie and Cathy owners of Crafty Wonderland meeting with the owners of Burdy Fly Away.

Not every artist had product that was a fit for every store owner.  In some cases when the store owner wasn’t interested in the product offered by the artist, so store owners gave constructive criticism with the goal of helping artists land that next wholesale account.  You could think of this as an opportunity for artists to have many informational interviews and brush up on their pitching skills.

Devi (standing) makes necklaces with bread tabs for charms, which are made of gold and silver.

In case you are wondering why the atmosphere is so unbelievably cool at this event, it was held at the Design Within Reach, which has some incredibly cool furniture.

Owner of  Moxie , (left) a local boutique in Portland, meeting with an artist looking to find some wholesale account love.

If you want to read more about this event check out  The Etsy Storque, Handmade in Portland, or The Garden of Leah.

by: Jen

Last week I told you that I was going to do a mini upholstery project and I was able to complete it, phew!  It took a little more time than I had expected, but it’s done!  I am a very visual learner and always wish that tutorials had more pictures so I have designed this tutorial for all the visual learners in the house.

I had a few ideas in mind when I began this project:

1. I wanted to do it on the cheap.
2. I didn’t want to reupholster the entire love seat because most of it was in decent shape.
3. I wanted to use very easy to work with materials.
4. I wanted to create a piece with high style, but using very simple processes.

I found this loveseat on the side of the road one day with a free sign on it and quickly discovered that it was hide-a-bed too.  This was perfect because I had been looking for the right kind of extra bed for my son’s room for when he has friends sleep over.  The only issue was that both of the arms of the piece were really torn up.  I decided what this loveseat needed was a mini upholstery make over so I set to the task of reinventing this piece.

This project requires time more than anything else. It’s not hard to do and the costs are minimal.

Here is a picture of the finished piece so that you can get an idea of what we are doing here.  I decided for symmetry’s sake that I needed to alter 3 parts of this loveseat.  It didn’t feel balanced to just redo the arms so I decided to carry the effect through by detailing the back of the loveseat too.

Materials + Costs + Time = Loveseat Reinvention!

• 2.5 yards of 30% wool 70% rayon felt in olive green $19.98
• 1 yard of 30% wool 70% rayon felt in dark grey $9.99
• 2 packages of dark brown embroidery floss $1.18
• a curved upholstery needle and one straight upholstery needle $3.99
• straight pins
• large fabric cutting scissors
• small fabric cutting scissors
• paper cutting scissors
• pattern paper $10.00. Newspaper can work in a pinch
• marker
• tape measure
• sewing machine (optional)

Total cost for this project is $45. 14.  Please note that I only costed out the items that I had to buy for this project and you will have many of these items, such as the pattern paper for your next project.

The first thing I did was to wrap the pattern paper around the areas that I wanted to cover and pinned all those areas to the best of my ability.  Then I began to trace the lines of the piece so that I could have something to follow as I developed my pattern.  My strategy was to turn this piece into a pattern and a map of sorts so I would know exactly where to place each piece.

Next began cutting into the paper and removing the parts that I didn’t need for my pattern.  You can see that I began cutting where the arm and the back of the lovseat come together.  Once I did this I realized that I had made a mistake when cutting my line and needed to add 1/4 of an inch to one little section.  I used scotch tape to do this.  Tape is magical when drafting patterns because it can fix any mistake and it reinforces the pattern to keep it from ripping. 

At the right we are seeing the  pattern from the inside of the arm of the loveseat.  I finished tracing my lines and then cut out the rest of the pattern.  Below you can see my tape in the background of the picture.  I used it any where that I didn’t have a clean line or any where that I felt that the pattern needed to be a little bit larger.

* I didn’t add any extra material to this pattern for a salvage edge.  The reason for this was that felt won’t fray so you don’t need to worry about this.  The only exception to this was the front parts of the arm.  I think it’s easier to show you than to tell you so keep reading and I think you will see what I mean.

** I also didn’t sew any of this pattern on a sewing machine except for the part where I used the salvage edge, but  you could do this entire project without machine sewing if you choose too!

OK, this is what I was talking about.  If you look at the picture to the right you can see that first I traced the lines of the loveseat and then I added 1/4 inch to the piece for a salvage edge.  This is the only place where I added extra fabric to the pattern.  For the rest of the piece I used the raw edge of the felt.

*** The only problem with using the raw edge of any fabric is that you MUST cut very straight lines, so I spent some extra time on that.  Small, sharp scissors are really great for this because you can do more precise. detailed cutting.

Once I laid out the front piece I realized that I should leave the skirt of the original fabric, because I felt that if I covered the front part with felt to the floor it would look strange.  So what I decided to do was remove the part of the pattern.  You can see that I created a line where the original skirt had been and cut away that part of the pattern so that the entire loveseat would still have the plaid skirt wrapping around the entire piece.  When you are reinventing something these are the details you must think of.  How do I show what is already fantastic about this piece, but hide or fix what doesn’t work?  How do I marry these two components together?

Next I cut out the back of the loveseat.  This piece provides no other purpose than creating balance, style.  I could have left it out, but the arms would have looked sorta lonely and I couldn’t have that.  I just cut this out free-hand.  Then I cut out a grey piece that was slightly smaller than the green piece.

One of the many benefits to working with felt is that you can see how something will work just by laying it on top of the piece of furniture and it will mostly stay in place.

Next I removed the pattern pieces that I cut for the arm of the loveseat.  I laid my arm pattern piece out on the green felt and pinned it down. I cut felt around the pattern pieces.

Whenever I cut out a pattern I always spend a minute or two placing the pieces on the fabric and seeing how I can cut out the pattern without wasting extra fabric.  You can see here that I found that the front arm pattern piece fit nicely where the side arm was.

I am not sure if you can see this clearly or not, but what I have done here is once I finished cutting one of the arms I flipped the pieces over (to create a mirror image) and placed them down on the remaining green felt.  I pinned and then cut out these pieces.

Another thing that is nice about working with this better quality felt is that one side of the felt has these natural fiber bits in it and the other side is just plain, which makes it easier to tell which side is which.

Now you can see in the picture at your right that I matched the pieces up with the wrong sides facing out and pinned them to get ready to sew them together.  This is the front part of the arm we are looking at, at the right.  I chose to use my sewing machine for this part of the project, but you could very easily hand stitch this part too.

Once I finished sewing this part I cut little slits all around the curved areas so that when I flipped the piece right side out it laid flat and the curves look really clean.

Please note – my sewing here is not perfect.  Creativity wins over perfection every time.  Don’t let anyone tell you differently   Those slight imperfections won’t show once we are done.

I also cut out some grey pieces to frame the front of the arms.  See picture below.  I just cut these pieces out free-hand.  As long as they are symmetrical and fit on the arm they will look great!

Now the piece is really beginning to come together!  I have the piece pinned in place so that you can see what it will look like.

I decided next that I wanted to do the blanket stitch on all of the grey pieces that needed to be attached to the green, which are the back piece and the front of the arms.  I used a straight upholstery needle that was large enough to fit all of the embroidery thread on.  I didn’t have to remove any threads for this project.   Sewing this took a while, but was worth the time because it will add extra reinforcement to the piece and make it stronger than a simple running stitch would.   I put on a radio show and got to stitching.

Here is a close up shot of the arm.  I decided there was too much slack on the front of the arms so I pinned and then re-sewed the arms.  You can always make items you sew smaller.  Making them bigger is much harder.  This is why I usually have to take things in once or sometimes even twice to assure a really great fit.

At the right is a great shot of the curved upholstery needle in the green felt and the blanket stitched edge that I did earlier.

When working with a curved upholstery needle it is important to find the rhythm of needle.  I would suggest doing a few stitches on a practice piece before you get going because working with a curved needle is different if you never have before.  The eye of the needle was large enough that I could fit the entire embroidery thread on the needle at one time.  Again, I didn’t have to remove any threads for this part of the project.  I wanted a chunkier thread look.

When attaching the felt to the actual loveseat I used the back stitch. This also took some time.  Finding the spacing for the stitches takes a few minutes, but after awhile you naturally find your groove.

At the left is a great close up shot of back of the loveseat or maybe I should say the front.  Here you can see me getting started with the back stitch and you can see the blanket stitch that I did all around the grey pieces.  I also chose the blanket stitch for the grey pieces because I wanted the pieces to lay really flat and I felt that if I used another stitch the two pieces wouldn’t seem as seamless.

I stitched the back stitch to the front piece and the arm pieces on the outside of the loveseat and on the inside.  Why the inside too?  Because this is a hide-a-bed and will get a lot of wear and tear.  I would recommend sewing your piece on the inside too even if it’s not a loveseat for stability’s sake.

Here is a picture of the completed piece, close up so you can see all of the hand stitching.

Here is another close up shot that shows all of the details in the hand stitching on the arm of the loveseat.

This project has a handmade look to it.  Your stitches don’t need to be perfect.  The handmade-ness adds character and charm to the piece.

Below is the finished version of the loveseat all set up in my son’s room.   All and all this project took me about 12 hours to complete, which is longer than I wanted to spend, but good work takes time and for the price of all the materials it was a great deal.

How often can you take something that looks kinda drab and for $40-1sh reinvent it?  Not that often.  I hope you all enjoy this project!

It turned out great and as you can see it has been approved of by the little dog too.

by jen

This summer has been an amazing and crazy time for the DIY Lounge crew.  We’ve had so much support and interest in this project and have been approached by many people offering support in whatever way they can.   Jen and I have been producing blog content and beefing up our networking and marketing efforts.  We’ve been attending many events such as “The Summit of Awesome“, which have have been hotbeds of like-minded people who want to further the idea of a more crafty world.

As you may know, our fundraising effort with Kickstarter.com was unsuccesful but this has been a blessing in disguise.  So we are embarking on a new effort with the fundraising site, Indie Go-Go, which we will launch this fall.  We are very excited about this new fundraising site which allows us to keep all the money raised even if we don’t meet our funding goal.

Last but not least, we have had an addition to the DIY Lounge family. Our director, Patrick Cummings who has been extremely busy filming the upcoming season of “Axe Men” for the History Channel welcomed a new baby boy, Declan Riot.

Keep your eyes peeled for our weekly cocktail/crafting recipes, tutorials and more video content.

Don’t Deny Your DIY!

Richard

We are very excited that Morgan at Etsy offered me the opportunity to create a blog post describing our project, DIY Lounge.

It went live the other day and we’ve been receiving many compliments and well wishes.  We are hoping that this will invigorate our Kickstarter fundraising campaign.

If you haven’t read it yet please click on the link below.

Dear Faithful Friends and Fans,

As you know we are going to be appearing at the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Spring Sale.  We will be doing some filming, interviewing, etc. One of the many things we’re really excited about is the DIY Lounge Raffle, a chance for us to raise some money for the project and a chance for you to obtain some awesome swag for the price of a raffle ticket.

We are so honored and excited by the generous contributions.  One of our favorite companies is, Namaste, a company specializing in bags and accessories specifically designed to carry all of your knitting, crochet and miscellaneous craft products.

These vegan bags and accessories meld form and function seamlessly. Here are a few examples:

So, don’t forget to stop by and say hi.  We are really excited to be part of the Crafty Wonderland Family.

Cheers,

D.I.Y. Lounge will be a sponsor and presence at the upcoming, Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Spring Sale.  We will be on-site taping the event, showcasing artists and their wares and promoting our upcoming TV show.

We are very excited about having a presence at our favorite Handmade Bazaar.  Cathy Pitters and Torie Nguyen have been wonderfully supportive of our fledgling show and we hope to return the favor by showcasing this great event.

This time Crafty is going to be a two day event, Saturday May 1st and Sunday May 2nd from 11AM to 5PM.  Remember the admission is free and the First 200 Shoppers receive some goodie bags filled with some handmade goodness.

So stop by our booth and say hi.  We will be selling raffle tickets for some amazing prizes with all proceeds going to produce the TV Show.

See you there!!!