DIY

DIY Disease

When do you realize that you have DIY Disease? Is it when you realize, for the nth time, that you’ve seen something you *know* you can recreate yourself, better/to your specifications, regardless of how many other projects you have lined up? Do you find yourself with a growing to-do list that mostly consists of “I really need to CLEAN HOUSE” type things while you madly focus in on the latest “I can make that myself!” project? No? It’s just me?

Okay, it’s me and The Mechanic. We both suffer from this disease. We’ve joked about it for a while now, me with the sewing and him with the building. We see something we like and we just know that we can make it better, better fitting, to our specific needs, better made, handmade, made in the USA. You name it, we’ve said it. And tried to do it. Which means that some things go undone, like the weekly vacuuming (a serious matter in a house with three rabbits that track hay everywhere), washing dishes, trimming rabbit toe nails, or even hanging artwork that has been sitting around for nine months since you moved into your house. (Editor’s note: blogging often gets pushed to the bottom of the list as well….)

ref=”https://tinlizzieridesagain.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5844″ rel=”attachment wp-att-5844″> They look adorable but they are *a lot* of work.[/ca

So I gave up a bit. I bought plain white tee shirts instead of making them as planned. I gave up on adding anything else to my pattern or fabric stack. I simply feel overwhelmed and need some time for menu planning, cleaning house and slowly working exercise back into my post-surgery recovery. I decided that as much as I want to make my entire wardrobe, it’s simply not going to happen this summer, or maybe this year. Instead, I can’t plan/buy anything else until I finish my list. And some things may not stay on this list.

Navy linen paperbag waist wide-leg pants, McCalls 7726
Gecko stripe tee, Friday Pattern Company Sunny Dress/Tee pattern
Finding Dory skirt*, Simplicity 8391
Teal linen shirt dress, undecided
White floral blouse, Vogue 9299
Reflective Camo anorak, Closet Case Patterns Kelly Anorak with lining
Beauty and the Beast tee shirt*, maybe Pamela’s Patterns Pretty Peplum Top
Charley Harper top, Tilly and the Buttons Orla Tunic

tinlizzieridesagain.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5830″ rel=”attachment wp-att-5830″> <– Skirt Tee Shirt –>[/caption]

Let’s be honest though – that’s a ton of sewing! Not much in the way of summer basics, but now that I have plain white tees to go with the crazy print stuff I love to make, I’m good for a while on basics.

What helped alot was taking a two-day mini sewing staycation this past week. First, I altered a wearable muslin dress I made earlier that I now love; this New Look 6095 in seagull print cotton might be a summer fave. Then I made a third Vogue 8805 with a second gorgeous piece from Marcy Tilton Fabrics. Lastly, I am halfway done with my navy linen wide-legged paperbag waist McCalls 7726 pants. I’ll finish those next weekend.

zieridesagain.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5843″ rel=”attachment wp-att-5843″> DIY Disease means I never properly clean up my sewing space because I’m too focused on SEWING

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Obviously taking time off work to catch up on sewing isn’t something I can do all the time, but I’m really glad I did. It was healing, in a way. It allowed me to slow down and not feel so frantic.

esagain.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5845″ rel=”attachment wp-att-5845″> See the squirrel on the railing? I think it was scolding me for relaxing.

[/caption]Of course…. I added one more thing. I decided to make our preteen niece a Harry Potter purse for her birthday later this month. Apparently she still likes Harry Potter, so I thought that rather than buy her a gift, I’ll make her something. I’ve never made a bag from a pattern before, so I’m using this Sew Sweetness Polaris Bag pattern to learn some proper techniques.

And that is a perfect example of DIY Disease. Do you have it as well?

*Yes, I’ve gone a bit off the thematic deep end and I’m making some Disney pieces to wear to Disney World later this fall. I can’t help myself…..

My DIY Reflective Shoes Experiement

Wednesday, April 6, was National Walking Day, an event promoted by the American Heart Association, and a day that my office promoted to our communities. It was also a good day to wear my new sneakers* – my DIY reflective sneakers!

I ordered a small (2.3oz net weight) can of Albedo 100 Reflective Spray, after the company liked one of my (many) reflective posts on Instagram. A Swedish product, made in the USA, “designed with nordic conditions in mind” – the possibilities seemed endless with reflective spray paint!!! Oh the things I was planning in my head.

But first I wanted to test it out on something I didn’t really care about, just in case. I hunted around for a pair of fun yet cheap sneakers that I’d want to actually wear – as I’m not a fan of sports shoes, I wasn’t interested in an investment. I found a cute pair at Payless Shoe Source that fit the bill, but of course, not only did they not have my size in the store, they were not available anywhere anymore! Gah! Then I found this really great Addidas pair on clearance in Macy’s – see, the Ballston Mall does have some good finds! (Sidenote: the Ballston Common Mall is generally known around town as a miserable, sad excuse for a mall, and we are all eager for Ballston Quarter, coming in the far future.)

The iridescent stripes on the side closed the deal on these shoes!

I took them outside to spray them. The directions on the can Said to shake vigorously for “at least 1 minute” and to repeat during the application. As it is a clear product, it was hard to see what I’d sprayed, except for the white rubber part on the right shoe where I started. I was surprised when I ran out of spray paint shortly after starting the left shoe! I don’t know if I over-sprayed the left shoe, or if this small can is just not enough for two shoes.

Spraying the shoes – see the gray spray on the white rubber? oops. Got carried away there.

So here are the results:

Can you tell how the first shoe I sprayed, the right shoe, is nicely covered, but the left shoe is not? Bummer! Especially since I prefer the majority of my reflectivity to be on my left side, aka, the car side. I feel a bit lopsided, too, but I guess no one can really tell. Also, since this spray paint is intended for fabrics, it clearly doesn’t work well on the rubber, as it is scratching and peeling off. The product apparently washes away, and I tried to wear them in the rain recently, but I can’t tell that it washed off. I guess if I sprayed a jacket and then washed it, I would notice. However, given how little I purchased and covered one shoe with, I can’t imagine trying to re-reflective something all the time.

: Out in the wild

: Funny how you can see reflective flecks up my pant leg!

I’m not as happy with this experiment as I’d hoped I be, but that’s partially user error, I think. I doubt I’ll try this again, but you never know. Maybe it would be fun on spectator shoes, where I wouldn’t try to cover the entire shoe.

Naturally, I love these shoes because I love anything reflective, and I really love the shoes anyway. I know I’ll wear them regardless! But then I found these gorgeous Nike cherry blossom shoes and now I really, really, really love these more… They could be reflective, right? Like the Capital Bikeshare #BikeinBloom!

Serious lust…

*Seriously, what is the appropriate current term for these shoes? I grew up calling them tennis shoes, and I refuse to call them “runners,” but what *are* they?!

Making the World Our Own

As much as I hate to admit this, Pinterest has been my wedding crutch. Although the ratio of things Pinned to things being used is pretty slim, I did one DIY Pinterest project that I’m actually really excited with. I changed the world.

Our wedding theme is travel, so there are flags and maps and globes throughout out the invitations, program, website, decorations, and so on. When I found this Pin and blog post about a chalkboard globe, I got really excited about what a great sign this could be as part of our reception. However, I already knew how expensive globes are to buy (at least in the DC metro region). “Pick up a cheap globe” must work better in other parts of the country. So until my Matron of Honor mentioned that they inherited an old globe with their new house, I didn’t think I’d be able to do this.

The globe they inherited must be from the early 1990s – Germany is one country, but the USSR still exists. I felt a bit sad about covering up that history, but did it anyway!

Although the author of the blog painted her globe with a paint brush, The Mechanic said that spray paint would be easier and more cost-effective. What would we do with a whole can of chalkboard paint in a rental apartment? Good point. So I bought Rust-Oleum Chalkboard Flat Black Spray and a primer. Then I waited for a weekend when it wasn’t too humid, nor too windy, so I could set up “shop” by our dumpster and do some spray painting.

: Spraying the gray primer first.

: Looking somewhat like the Death Star, we hung the globe in the window of The Mechanic’s bike locker van to dry a bit before we moved it inside.

I was really pleased with the way this project turned out! The globe looks amazing, and the acrylic stand that I initially didn’t like, looks so chic with the black matte globe. Although I had said we could offer it to The Mechanic’s niece, I want to keep it for myself!