ideas - inspiration - stuff

Thursday, May 8, 2014

collective design fair

i attended the opening night of the collective design fair last night, at moynihan station in manhattan. twice as large as last year's edition, the show features an exceptionally curated group of galleries and dealers, all with an extremely unique point of view on design innovation. highlights include the new designs by india mahdavi  and the quirky scandinavian antiques showcased at dienst + dotter. but in the end, what really caught my eye were the amazing jewelry designs, such as the deer antler collars by jennifer trask, and the insect necklaces by marta mattson. unbelievably gorgeous! the show is open through may 11, don't miss it...








Wednesday, May 7, 2014

t-shirt hats - the easiest diy!

t-shirts are probably among the most widespread item in our closet today: we buy them on vacation, we get them free as promotional swag, we end up with siblings' cast-offs. there are expensive designer shirts, work-out and sports shirts, shirts proclaiming anything from your political affiliations to your chosen brand of cat food (i had one of those). the pile can easily grow out of control. here's a fun project for the shirts you're ready to part with. step-by-step instructions are below the image.



tassel hat:
 1. turn t-shirt inside out, iron and place flat on work surface.
 2. cut in a straight line from armpit to armpit, so that you are left with a tubular piece of fabric. the height of your tube should be 17” high; if it is longer, cut tube down to a 17” height (so basically, any t-shirt that measure 17” or more from hem to armpit will work for this project).
 3. measure 8” across from the left side seam and draw a vertical line with pencil or tailor's chalk. pin both layers of t-shirt together and cut vertically to the right of this line, leaving about a half inch seam allowance.
 4. machine stitch on this line, so that you now have a tube that is 17” high and 16” diameter.
 5. from the rest of the T-shirt, cut a strip that is 8” long and a quarter inch wide.
 6. turn tube good side out, gather and double-knot firmly together with this strip at 10” height.
 7. cut the rest of the tube that sticks out above the knot into quarter inch vertical strips.

cat hat:
 1. turn t-shirt inside out, iron and place flat on work surface.
 2. cut in a straight line from armpit to arm pit, so that you are left with a tubular piece of fabric. the height of your tube should be 17” high, if it is longer, cut tube down to a 17” height (so basically, any t-shirt that measure 17” or more from hem to armpit will work for this project).
 3. measure 16” across from left side seam and draw a vertical line with pencil or tailor's chalk. pin both layers of t-shirt together and cut vertically to the right of this line, leaving about a half inch seam allowance.
 4. machine stitch on this line, so that you now have a tube that is 17” high and 32” diameter.
 5. fold over your inside-out tube vertically, and make a mark on the fabric fold at 8.5” high. from there, using pencil or tailor's chalk, draw a curved convex line to the top corner. flip over and repeat the process on the other side.
 6. unfold and cut to the right of this curved u-shaped line (though both layers), leaving about a half inch seam allowance.
 7. machine stitch on this line and cut off seam allowance diagonally at both ears, making sure not to cut into the stitching.
 8. turn hat good side out.
 9. fold over existing bottom hem by one inch to the inside of the hat. pin in place and machine stitch, leaving a 2” opening.
 10. cut an 18” long piece of flat elastic, attach a safety pin to one end, and use that to feed it through the opening. make sure to hold onto the other end of the elastic. once elastic has been fed all the way through, machine stitch both ends of elastic together and hand sew 2” opening shut.
11. last step: make a single knot in each “ear”. done!