Here are some crafting tips for making new covers for seats or pillows, creating easy repellents, or finding ways to keep certain insects away. These hacks are more practical and suitable for people who enjoy crafting and prefer to fix things themselves. It’s especially great for those who want to make their home more comfortable, save money, stay clean, and find reasons to stay indoors and work on these projects.
Define DIY Crafting
A quick Google search will give you the definition that DIY is an acronym for do it yourself. Crafting means the hobby of making decorative things by hand. Together, DIY crafting means an activity done by yourself, specifically doing it yourself without the help of a professional, meaning you can still do it with friends or family.
What people typically think of when they hear DIY crafting consists of indoor tasks like sewing, painting, embroidery, or handmade jewelry! Well, here are some hacks listed below for that part and also something to help with the bug situations outside during the summer for any unlucky souls in the warmer areas of the country or those with type O blood who still want to do a little knitting on the porch.
History Fact
In the past, crafting was used more as a description of someone’s occupation. That’s because the word craft comes from the Middle English word for strength or skill. Those words were also derived from an old English word, craeft, and that word came from the old German language word for strength, further meaning “skill in planning, making, and executing.“.
There were a lot of private artists mastering their crafts of pottery, among other things, back when there weren’t exactly professionals but people who had more experience than the normal villagers in making items. Think of ancient villages like Mesopotamia. It was mostly clay crafting; from making bowls, cups, and urns to eventually discovering new materials for ceramics, each region had different materials depending on their lands.
Pillow Covers
Do you have any old clothes lying around that you never wear? Or are curtains and blankets too small to use, but the memories attached to them are too sentimental to throw away? Any cloth really works; this hack merely requires fabric.
Do you ever come across those pillows at the store when your available selection is limited? The pricey ones have comfortable fabric, while the cheaper ones are okay but have a less pleasant texture. This often leads you to opt for the more affordable one. If you don’t, that works. For those who do choose budget-friendly pillows, here’s a way to get the best of both worlds.
Quick! Find the pillow with the most uncomfortable texture, get your old blanket or curtain, lay it out flat with the pretty side facing down, and put your pillow in one corner of it. Mark the size of the pillow on the fabric with a marker, flip the pillow to mark its other side so that you have two, then draw a bigger outline around both with a couple extra inches for room and a longer space. Cut out the big outline and fold the fabric in half, with the pretty side you want to display on the inside; the longer side will be used to tuck in and close it when done.
Sewing
This type of crafting doesn’t require any special stitch work – just one that will give you a clean, seamless line with no holes. You only need to stitch three sides since we’re crafting a pillow cover that can be easily taken on and off the pillow for the convenience of cleaning.
If you struggle with stitching in a straight line, don’t rely on the comb trick. It didn’t work for the author, and there’s no guarantee it will work for you. Plus, the thread may not cooperate as well as you’d hope. Follow the lines marked on the fabric. If the lines aren’t straight, get a marker and ruler to mark out some cleaner lines to follow. The needle should also help you keep things straight.
If you struggle with getting the thread into the needle’s eye, either lick it to straighten it or twist the end tightly. If that doesn’t work, depending on how big the eye is, cut a very skinny strip of paper, fold it around the thread, and push that through the hole. After that, stitch on the lines marked for the size of the pillow only on three sides! You don’t have to curve your stitching at the corners. This method helps with other types of crafting as well, such as crocheting.
Pillow Results and Ideas
Once you’re done, flip the new cover inside out, see that the corners turned around by themselves, and put the pillow inside. Use the extra-long excess fabric to tuck it in and close it. Nice and comfy. You can also use this crafting trick for a chair with an uncomfortable back or if the paint or pleather is rubbing off.
Using an old shirt is recommended as it’s easier and less work since the shirt already has the shape needed for the chair’s back to wear. Use a simple ladder stitch, also known as the invisible stitch, to close the collar area and the holes for the sleeve after you’ve cut them off. If the sleeves are long, they can be used for crafting or placed onto the arms of the chair afterward.
Wasp Repellants
A small yet very significant fact that should be known about wasps is that, like bees, if you kill one, the rest of the swarm will come. As in, if you kill a wasp, swat at them, or if the wasp stings you, they’ll release a pheromone that essentially calls for help. So, for anyone trying a certain method of killing them and then leaving their dead bodies in a pile in the hopes it’ll act as a warning sign to others, don’t.
Find thin gray fabric and a small, inexpensive lamp to craft a protective wasp deterrent. Cut the fabric into wide, long strips to wrap over the lamp in layers, and find someplace high to hang it. Wasps don’t like competition, and it’ll ward them off. Give it a few days, and then go looking for the most likely empty nest. It’s still recommended to call a professional to verify they are gone.
Mosquitos
If you’re a cozy type of person, then crafting this next project will be simple and pleasant. We’ll be crafting coffee incense! You can buy coffee candles at the store too if you want the scent without the work; they’d be helpful for home and for work offices and cubicles. Mosquitoes dislike the smell of coffee, making this a pleasant crafting activity for coffee lovers. It repels them, but it doesn’t kill them, so there’s no need to clean up their little bodies off your patios or porches either.
Grab some coffee grounds or mix, used, unused, or burned! It all works, especially burning them; it makes the smell travel farther. Get a candle, used or unused; it doesn’t matter. Sprinkle the coffee grounds around the wick, and then light it. If you don’t have a candle, get a jar and fill it up with 90% coffee and just a bit of oil. Place some toothpicks standing upright in the middle, or a matchstick, and light it. It will burn just as long as any regular candle.
Crafting the coffee grounds into incense works too. Get a wide bowl or tray that is not flammable, put the coffee grounds into a pile in the middle, stick some toothpicks into the pile, and make sure they stay upright before lighting the sticks. Now you have some cool autumn decor, and you feel less sleepy because of the smell!
In the case of Mosquito Bites
For unlucky people who were born with type O blood or just seem to attract mosquitoes more than others in general, here’s something to use while working on your mosquito repellant projects. Antibiotic cream and eye drops work surprisingly well on soothing bug bites, as proven by the author, who has used both out of desperation. This is less crafting and more of a hack—something to recover from all the bites you’ve endured before you found this article.
The types of antibiotic creams made for numbness are recommended. If they can numb the pain, they can numb the itching. This is also especially helpful if you’ve already been scratching at a certain spot. You can get pain-numbing cream over-the-counter at the store.
Cozy Home
These hacks are very beneficial for those who stay at home often or who want to make their home more comfortable to be in. With how warm it’s been, insects are difficult to avoid, so it’s nice to have some cheap crafting projects to relax your mind and take protective measures. You can use as many homemade coffee candles or incense sticks around your home as you want, so long as you make sure they don’t sit burning in closed areas without proper ventilation. Put them outside or leave them on the dining table; the smell will reach the mosquitoes.
Even if you don’t have a wasp nest issue, that’s what the lamp part is for—something interesting to light the cloth at night, which could also be useful as a spooky decoration when Halloween comes. Crafting pillowcases and seat covers from old fabric or clothes will help you save and declutter your space. Fabric is valuable if you know how to use it well. Good luck with the bugs, and have a relaxing time crafting!
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