happify's Profile

I'm a bit of a reusable bag lover and my current favorite is the flip and tumble (flipandtumble.com). While I'd been meaning to get one for ages since I'd been following them since pre-production, when I finally did, I was pleasantly surprised. I really like the colors and wrinkliness of it (my baby boomer mother does not) and the way that i can use it across the body. The only complaint I have is that it's made in China and I'm trying to avoid purchasing things made there for human rights reasons.

I agree with the other comments IF this is a purely business decision. But it seems like it's really more of social-commentary-in-business-clothing going on. I think it's important to get people to think about the ecological/ethical consequences of the most mundane decisions and this seems like it's one way of starting that conversation. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, though.

I have two of these sort of things. Quarters go into a bowl for laundry. Everything else (pennies, nickels, dimes) goes into a donation bank for a charity that provides emergency poverty relief locally.

Okay, I uploaded (poor) pictures with instructions here: http://flickr.com/photos/happify in the "home" set.

Feel free to ask any questions or make suggestions. I'm really enjoying the process so far (except for the bit where I want to have it done already and it isn't but the actual working on it isn't unpleasant).

I'm currently (as in right this minute while browsing online and listening to This American Life) making a duvet cover like this out of two flat sheets. I'd ordered the West Elm pintuck duvet cover (despite its cost) but when it kept getting delayed in shipping, I canceled the order and decided just to make one.

I googled quite a bit trying to find tips and ideas on how to best do it and I did find the Martha Stewart stuff, but I found it easiest to make up my own.

Advice:
1. For a fullsize duvet cover, I'm using a queen flat sheet. I think a king wouldn't be out of line, depending on spacing/sizing.
2. You've got to figure out where you want your tucks. If you want them to be roughly squares, then you cannot just grid out squares because your gathering of fabric will shorten one side. Lots of weird fabric math where you're trying to figure out not just numbers, but how the numbers affect how the fabric will look.
3. I've ended up with two overlapping grids of 4"x4.5". I'm gathering between 3/4" and 1" per tuck, with three stitches each. A tuck doesn't entirely get rid of the fabric, hence the .5" extra in my square and the larger amount of fabric being gathered. I go through each stitch once, knot the thread, and then go through each again and knot twice. I should end up doing a total of 880 tucks.
4. I'm using a fabric marking pencil to make my grid. I'm not doing it all at once because with handling, the lines become difficult to see. I make sure to leave at least one line between what I'm working on and what I need to grid to measure from (since the fabric doesn't lay flat once it's tucked).

I'll take pictures of it in progress and with some explanation tomorrow, if people are interested.

Midwest urban pride for Obama/Chicago coming from Mpls here!

I think you only buy one and the reason it's on a hanger is not to hang clothes from, but to keep it where you need it. My father regularly used such a brush on his suitjackets and generally would hang them, still on the hanger, from the top drawer of his dresser as he brushed the lint off. And this brush one is too narrow to really be good for a heavy coat.

Sarahrae, I do have a photo of it in quite a messy state (for the Cure) at http://flickr.com/photos/happify/2944853359/. It's currently cleaner than that though, I promise!

I'd love to hear how the drawers are being used when it's a coffee table. I have two, one used as my desk (and hence storage is along the lines of what mollywtx does) and the other is legless and currently stores pants/misc.

I'm looking for a vintage stool of the era of that orange one. My budget's in the Craigslist range at this point, but I have no idea where to even come across such things, esp. since I need it to be 28"+ (to function as a stool for the library card catalog I use as a desk). Any suggestions?