The Best of DIY

Have an old futon from college days? Well don’t get rid of the cushion when you upgrade to a more comfortable living room set, up-cycle it into a floor cushion. I found this idea over at Apartment Therapy Boston. Apartment renters Sarah and Megan had the idea to cut up the cushion from their futon and use it as stuffing for extra seating. Find you favorite sturdy fabric from a craft store and sew your very own custom floor pillow.

Check out this mod polka-dot oilcloth table cover over at Twig and Thistle. You could use it as a work tablecloth for all your crafty projects or if you just like the look of it you can use it as your regular dining room table tablecloth. The tutorial for this tablecloth is for a square table, but I’m sure with a little tweaking and creativity you can make it fit a round table as well. This is a pretty simple project involving only your favorite piece of oilcloth, thread, scissors, a sewing machine, pencil and measuring tape.

My cat sure loves to sleep on pillows and anything fleece, this Patchwork Pet Bed would be perfect for him. Jenny Ryan, author of Sew Darn Cute created this Patchwork Pet Bed sewing project posted on Apartment Therapy. This is a pretty inexpensive project, you can re-use old sweaters or go thrifting to find some sweaters to cut up. Follow the step-by-step tutorial over at Apartment Therapy to make your pet it’s own little snuggly bed.

WeeWonderfuls makes the cutest hand sewn dolls and stuffed animals. The artist is also nice enough to post free patterns for some of her toys. The Pointy Kitty stuffed animal is so cute, you can download a pdf pattern to create one for yourself. You can also join the flickr group for this pattern and post a picture of how your kitty came out.

I found this really cute DIY T-Shirt Shrug tutorial over at Cut Out and Keep. It was created by user EVEnl. This would be a great way to re-use those old t-shirts and make them into something fashionable. You may need a membership to Cut Out and Keep to view this tutorial but it’s worth it! You can find some other great how to’s.

Lazy May came up with this really neat needle book where you can store all of your thread and needles. I’ve seen all different kinds of needle holders but this one is very unique. You can download the pdf pattern here.