An orange throw for the living room

I've been hunting for an orange blanket for the living room. Easier said than done, since I wanted something attractive, preferably patterned, AND big-sized. I like to wrap myself up like a burrito, not just daintily cover my lap, you know? It's the best way to watch TV. (Side note: one of the greatest clips from Parks and Rec is a tour of Tom's apartment: it's blankie heaven.)

I found this organic cotton twin-sized blanket at my local Target. It's orange and beige with a geometric pattern, and my feet don't stick out. Perfect.

Reupholstered Craigslist chair project

Remember when I was getting quotes on reupholstering the Craigslist chairs? The two places I'd contacted quoted me $550 for the pair, plus fabric. A deal breaker that compelled me to try it myself. Done! Guys, I'm so proud of myself! I know this isn't the hardest upholstery project, especially because the chair padding was in great shape, but it involves sewing. Ew. Not my favorite thing at all. But I did it!


Here's what they looked like before. Nothing wrong with that, except maybe the ratty pillow that came with them. But I need color. My modern and mid-century-loving self is deferring to my "try to respect the house at least a little bit" self. Our parlor is going to pretend to look a little Victorian, thus the Louis-esque chairs. But to keep it fun, I picked a crazy-colored upholstery fabric with an ogee pattern, which you see a lot in retro prints. It's soft and a little bit velvety (Iman's Malta Tourmaline). Nice.

I thought maybe I could pull off this project with my manual stapler, but after some testing, I determined the staples didn't quite go all the way into the wood, and it was very hard to wedge them into little nooks and crannies. So I bit the bullet and bought a Porter-Cable air compressor from Home Depot (it came as a set with a nail gun, which could prove useful) and a Surebonder 9615 pneumatic upholstery stapler from Amazon. I'm in LOVE with these tools. Even though it was an investment, they cost about 1/3 the price of having the chairs professionally done, and I can use them on future projects. Oh, and I also bought this Double Rock staple remover, which was a life saver.

This isn't going to be a tutorial for how to reupholster a chair, since there are good ones online like this one. There's also the great book by Amanda Brown, Spruce: A Step-By-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design that I mentioned yesterday, and to which I referred while doing this project.


But mostly I just took apart what the guy before me did, and copied it. I labeled the old fabric pieces with a Sharpie, marking where it went on the chair and which way was up, and then cut out new pieces in the same size.

I was most nervous about sewing cord around the edge of the back piece, because it had to fit perfectly into the chair frame. I traced the old piece onto wrapping paper folded in half to ensure a symmetrical pattern, then traced that pattern onto the new fabric so I knew where the cord should lie. I cut a generous inch or so outside that line. Then I laid the cord along the line, folded the excess over it, pinned, and sewed it.


And it fit! A little tugging was required in one corner, but I yanked that bad boy into shape.


I tucked the staples up under the cord and you can't even see them.


I made double welt cord (find a tutorial here or in the book) to cover all the staples around the bottom of the chair. I've never made piping before, but the $3 piping foot I bought made it a piece of cake. It was... dare I say it... fun? You can make this cord by purchasing actual double welt cord that's "double" already, or buy regular cord, just twice as much. I used actual double welt, but next time I'd use regular cord. It's cheaper, softer, and easier to find, and the sewing is the same.

After I had the chair all covered with fabric, I wondered how I should attach the cord. The stuff I removed had been stapled on, and you could see most of the staples when you looked at the chairs. Everything I read online said to hot glue it, and so did an upholsterer I asked, and so does Amanda's book--although she says to use a more intense glue gun than the dinky little craft one I have. She also mentioned a gimp stapler as an option. Which I also don't have.


So I just used the pneumatic gun and pressed firmly to embed the staples between the two cords, hiding them in the slight fuzziness of the fabric.


It worked fine and they're almost all hidden. And this way the trim will be easy to remove in the future. I thought maybe I could line up the pattern on the cord with the print on the chair, but realized that's not possible because the cord fabric is cut on the bias. That's okay. My perfectionist self can accept that.

I am SO delighted with how these turned out! I mentally congratulate myself on my good job whenever I walk by them. It's so obnoxious to brag, but I don't care. I'm telling you, they're awesome. If you've ever thought about attempting this kind of project, I know you can do it.

A DIY upholstery manual from Spruce

This might be the book you've been looking for. Because maybe you're overcome with compassion when strolling through thrift stores. Ugly chairs in antique malls cry out to you, "Help me, help me!" But you avert your eyes and hurry past. Sure, that chair has a gorgeous shape and could be a knockout in the right fabric. But you don't have a clue how to rehabilitate something so complicated. With a longing glance over your shoulder, you shove aside your feelings and move on. Maybe someone else will rescue it.

Or maybe you could do it yourself with the help of Amanda Brown's new book: Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design. Amanda runs Spruce, an upholstery shop in Austin, Texas, and has written posts for the Upholstery Basics column on Design*Sponge. Her new book is a hefty 392 pages and teaches how to reupholster virtually any piece of furniture.


The book opens with a color-coded guide so you can focus on the area of your furniture you need to work on. Let's say your chair has a channel back. If, like me, you've never heard that term in your life, no sweat. Look for it in the picture and turn to the corresponding page.


There you'll find step-by-step instructions for how to execute it. (Bookmarks are included!)


My favorite spreads show an array of completed projects. They get the gears turning and make me want to reupholster everything in my house.


The manual shows how to replace the guts of furniture, not just how to change the fabric. See how to replace springs, webbing, padding, and all sorts of innards and giblets.


Learn how to sew welt cord and cushions.


Projects teach how start from a bare, stripped-down frame...


and arrive at a completed piece of furniture (extra points for orange).

Watch the book's video trailer to learn more. If it sounds like it's up your alley, you can get a copy of the book here from Spruce or at other retailers.

Spruce Ugliest Chair Contest
Share your ugly chair photo on Facebook right here and win upholstery supplies, design recommendations from Amanda, and a signed copy of the book. Even if you don't have a hideous chair to share, it's fun browsing the contenders.

Blog Tour
Follow the blog tour for more peeks inside this manual and chances to win copies:
Monday, 11/4 -- Bromeliad
Wednesday, 11/6 -- Our Humble Abode
Thursday, 11/7 -- Inside Storey
Friday, 11/8 -- HGTV's Design Happens
Monday, 11/11 -- Seventh House on the Left
Tuesday, 11/12 -- Making It Lovely
Wednesday, 11/13 -- Our Style Stories

Tomorrow I'll share photos of my newly reupholstered Craigslist chairs. I did it, I did it!

Now available at Renaissance Ribbons

Renaissance Ribbons, the wonderful manufacturer who has brought some of my sold-out ribbons back to life, just added them to their online retail store. Dachshunds, squirrels, scissors, and more. You can now buy these by the yard here, or find them wholesale right here from Renaissance. Lots of brick and mortar shops around the country are also carrying them. Stay tuned for new designs coming out next year!

Fabric addicts, beware!

I was poking around online for interesting fabrics for pillows, lampshades, and wall hangings (especially vintage textiles), and found lots of things that grabbed me. I try not to buy fabric without knowing exactly what I'm going to do with it; otherwise it tends not to get used. But these bold prints sure do tempt me. Quick, buy them so I won't!

1. Mid-century upholstery fabric, 9 yards available as I write this.
2. African pink and black diamonds
3. '70s orange and black upholstery fabric
4. Swedish VANJA orange and blue botanical print
5. Orange, green, and gray barkcloth
6. Nani Iro Raisin double gauze by Naomi Ito for Kokka

Halloween kitty desktop wallpaper

Happy Halloween! In honor of the day, I amused myself making cats when I'm supposed to be working. If you want either of these kitties as desktops, grab them here:

Download dark cats (1680x1050 px)
Download light cats (1680x1050 px)

Artwork for personal use only, as always! Have a fun evening, and may you eat lots of chocolate.

Last-minute Halloween paper crafts

It's not too late to make a last-minute Halloween paper toy! Get the fam printing and folding these free DIY projects tonight.
Retro pumpkin treat basket at My Paper Crane
Little desk dracula by Samantha Eynon (scroll down on the page to find him)
Cute Halloween menagerie from Happy Thought

Download high-res images from the Rijksmuseum

The Dutch national museum Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has digitized 125,000 works from its collection. They're available as high-resolution downloads free for personal use. Another 40,000 images will be added every year until the entire collection of one million pieces is available.

You can create a free Rijks Studio account and categorize all your favorite images in folders, sort of like Pinterest. (Browse other users' collections here.) You could download your favorites and decoupage them onto your calculator or print them on tattoo paper and stick them all over yourself. Another option: recolor them and make stationery like these examples by Flow Studio. Have fun!


(Thanks for the tip, Jet!)

Giveaway: iPhone 5/5s battery case

Uncommon, the company that makes customizable cases for your iPhone, iPad, iPod or MacBook, has some of my patterns in their image collection. You can pick your favorite design and apply it to the case of your choice. Then Uncommon will make it for you and mail it to you in a flash.

Now they've added a customizable iPhone 5/5s Power Gallery™ case to their lineup— a case you can switch on to charge your phone while you're carrying it around in your purse. And they're giving away one case with any Jessica Jones artwork! It's a $119.95 value; not too shabby.

Some specs about the case:
- It gives your iPhone 120% extra battery life
- It features an LED power indicator, so you always know how much power you have left in your case
- You can turn the case battery on and off easily
- It has a 2200mAh battery
- The case comes with a micro USB charge & sync cable, headphone jack extender and a full instruction manual

Check out your six pattern choices here.

To win a case, enter the giveaway by Thursday at midnight EST using the Rafflecopter widget below (it might take a second to load below this paragraph— wait for it!) A winner will be selected using random.org, emailed, and announced in this post on Friday. International entries are welcome.

Update: The winner is Hanna, who lives-- get this-- "just outside Oslo." Outside Oslo is the name of my last fabric collection, so clearly it was meant to be!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Brass: love it or hate it?

My new house has a crazy mix of fixtures and hardware. I'll give you a tour. Above is the light fixture inside the front door.


Here's one in the second floor hallway at the top of the stairs. My favorite.


The door hardware is gorgeous. The knobs and backplates are almost all original, and there are a ton of them since every room has three doors in it. (This is no open-concept house, that's for sure.) Look at that plate on the pocket door. So pretty.


Here's a hallway wall sconce as we head back toward the dining room. Hmmm. Yellow.


It coordinates with the bright yellow dining room chandelier.


A theme repeated in the guest bathroom upstairs. (The bathrooms have painted trim; the rest of the woodwork throughout the house is dark.)


A lacquered brass-plated toilet paper holder will make you feel like a king sitting on a throne. Fancy.


Which brings me to this. The downstairs bathroom has matching fixtures, but they're eclipsed by the navy painted-over sheets of plastic faux tile on the walls, lending the room a creepy cave-like feel. The wallpaper adds something, too. I don't know what the something is, but it's not good.


Even the toilet has a bright brass handle for optimal luxury. (Look— there's a claw foot bathtub! I can't get far enough away in this tiny room to take a full picture, but it's wedged in there. It could be special, but the rest of the room is not doing it any favors.)


And then there's this guy in the kitchen. This is not a black and white photo—the fixture is nickel and charcoal gray.

I have to admit that before moving in, I had no interest in brass, copper, or gold of any kind. And now my tastes have done an about-face. (I just pictured my tongue flipping 180 degrees and it was a weird mental picture.) I just can't visualize a lot of shiny chrome, nickel or stainless steel in here. Some silver surfaces are nice mixed in, but the warm wood and age of the house seem to call for darkened, aged brass. The bright yellow 80s stuff is still pretty unappealing to me, but bronze, brass, and copper metallics are making a comeback in accessories and interiors. What do you think about brass?

Free font: Fantaisie

Fantaisie is a typeface designed by Lev Berry, based on lettering from 1882. It comes in six varieties you can layer and color to create depth and gorgeous titles. Best of all, it's free for commercial use. Wowzers! Get it here. Along with the fonts, the .zip file contains interesting examples of Fantaisie in action, plus tips for working with it.

DIY idea: bookshelf wall at The Wit

This past weekend I spent a night at The Wit hotel in Chicago and noticed the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in this lounge. See those faces? Let's look closer.


All of those black and white portraits are formed from the spines of books.


Each book wears a jacket of plain black paper over its regular cover, and then a slice of a face is glued to the spine. (No books were harmed in the making of this project.)


If you need a statement wall in your house, copy this idea! Print and slice up a mix of celebrities, artists, and world leaders, or immortalize your family and friends. You're not reading that set of encyclopedias anymore, are you? Repurpose them as artwork.

Excellent pumpkin carving tools

When asked recently if I wanted to test a set of Grampa Bardeen's pumpkin carving tools, I declined. Then I read more about the product and was charmed by the quality and the story.

The family of grandpa Paul Bardeen has created a fabulous set of tools modeled after the ones he used to use. Blades and scoops come in various sizes for speedy cutting and finer details. The handles are some sort of very hard plastic, and all saw teeth are treated with Teflon to protect them and make them slide more easily. Every tool in the box is WAY safer than using knives. Which I have done in the past and will never go back.

Included in the carving kit are cutting patterns and poking tools to trace designs onto pumpkins. My favorite part was the newspaper insert with instructions and a family history with photos from the 1940s.




Last night I tried out the tool set. Instead of cutting around the stem of the pumpkin, I followed the suggestion in the instructions to cut a 5-6 inch hole in the bottom of the pumpkin. This way it's easy to set the pumpkin over a light source resting on a flat surface. And the top stays intact and looks nice.


I cut the bottom circle in half so I could push it in and then pull it out. Then the tedious, slimey part: scraping out the guts. The scooping/scraping tool worked great for that, though it does get a little slippery.


Try to refrain from eating the raw innards, though they do look delicious.


I wanted to make a design in which I could try the drilling tools. These come in three sizes and allow you to cut perfectly round holes by twisting the tool. So I sketched a very How About Orange design with retro-looking flowers, and drilled all the holes first. Piece of cake. My favorite part!

(Note— a fine-tip dry erase marker works great for drawing designs directly onto pumpkins, and it wipes off easily.)

After drilling holes, I cut the straight lines and larger shapes with the various saw tools. It works well to move the saws up and down like a sewing needle; they cut easily through the pumpkin rind.


I carved as the sun set, and when I finished, I set the pumpkin over a couple of LED flickering tea lights. Behold the cuteness!

And then I moved the pumpkin to an uneven part of the bench and turned my back for an instant. In that instant, the pumpkin tipped over, rolled off the bench, and smashed on the sidewalk.

I stared in horror, and then started giggling uncontrollably because there's something very satisfying about smashing a pumpkin, even accidentally.

It's okay. I'll make more and recruit the neighbors to help.

If you want to start a carving tradition with your family or friends, get Grampa Bardeen's carving kit here at Amazon. Find more info and carving tips at GrandpaBardeen.com. The set is high quality and will last for years and years, I'm guessing. You could use it all autumn long to make pretty lanterns for your porch steps or decorations for Thanksgiving. Carve simple leaf shapes or abstract designs, and your pumpkins don't have to be just for Halloween.

Update: A request has been made for a photo of the deceased pumpkin. Here it is. May it rest in peace.

Floral fall wallpaper freebie

Need new fall wallpaper for your phone or desktop? Check out the lovely work of illustrator Lisa Rupp. She's posted an autumn design right here, and you can find her full set of wallpaper freebies here. They're in pretty color palettes with great textures– download your favorite!