Furoshiki (???, furoshiki) are a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth that were frequently used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods. Although possibly dating back as far as the Nara period, the name, meaning “bath spread”, derives from the Edo period practice of using them to bundle clothes while at the sent? (public baths;public furo). Before becoming associated with public baths, furoshiki was known as hirazutsumi (??), or flat folded bundle. Eventually, the furoshiki’s usage extended to serve as a means for merchants to transport their wares or to protect and decorate a gift.

Last weekend I was in a craft store and there was a display of gorgeous wrapping papers. I love a fancily wrapped gift. However, as we all know, it creates an absurd amount of waste for just a moment or two of beauty.

I’m about to make one using some soft cotton and some flannel. Basically I am going to make a small blanket and also wrap a gift in it. Two gifts in one and nothing is wasted!

The iced ones are cuter for a felt creation I think. Instructables member Alishye has posted this tutorial on hjow to make your very own felt play food Pop Tart!

For small items a lightbox is a great way to get a soft, difused, uncluttered photo that really showcases the product and not it’s surroundings. You can buy and expensive one from photography stores and you can also make one on the cheap and get great results.

there are tons of good DIY lightbox tutorials on the web and here are just a few that I have found.

Strobist has a DIY 10$ Macro Photo Studio tutorial that steps it out for you ad gets great results.

This DIY light tent tutorial from Digital Photography School looks similar.

Cheap Shooter has made a lighbox from PVC pipe.

I guess it depends on what you have lying around!

you can see peoples results in this flickr pool DIY Lightbox Addicts. OO, here is a flickr pool for other DIY photography equipment! I love the internet!

This is a cute way to make your kids a puppet theater.

It is back to school time and if you add in a bit of velco for a closure these would be great ot take to school no matter how old you are.

For pattern and instructions check out Skip to my Lou’s post.

Here’s an excerpt from her description:

This is a zine within a zine with some extra bits! ‘Make your own…Borrowers Zine’ has 20 A5 (half-sized) pages, plus a micro-zine & rescued page inserts (see below), a magnifying lens, an embroidery chart, not to mention a pair of miniature knitting needles modelled on Homily’s own! There are illustrations throughout, borrowed from the many different editions of ‘The Borrowers’ that have been published, over the years.

Based on the premise that Borrowers do, in fact, exist (there is yet to be a satisfactory alternative suggestion proposed for the consistent disappearance of small, everyday items), this zine traces the history of Borrowers from Lilliputian times onward in a comprehensive chronology. It also examines their representation in the literature of Mary Norton & others, and consideration is given to the most likely habitats for contemporary Borrowers.

Go read the whole description on the Etsy listing. It sounds so worth 10$!

Visit So September to download the free pattern!

Login with the username “guest” and the password “pattern”.

Hello, I know what I will be doing this week, just call me ‘guest’!

Their search form looks great and really gives you many options to narrow down what you are looking for. You can find free clothing, needlework, embroidery, crochet and quilting patterns!

Go to it! Let me know what you find!

UPDATED:
So the free pattern downloading started yesterday and ends on August 25th 2009.

This archive is by no means perfect. There are some broken images and finding sewing instructions to go with your pattern pieces appears to be rare. BUT STILL. It’s awesome and having the shape of the pattern pieces is one step in the right direction.

Materials list:
# Micronized Titanium Dioxide
# Zinc Oxide
# Sericite Mica – Matte Finish
# Magnesium Stearate
# Yellow, Red & Brown Iron Oxide Pigments
# Jojoba Oil
# Vitamin E Oil
# Essential Oil (opt.) I used Geranium mostly since I love the smell, but it also has excellent qualities to help relieve pain, soothe anxiety and stress, diminish swelling and inflammation, and is renowned for healing burns, wounds, and skin ulcers, dry eczema, burns, shingles, ringworms, lice, acne, herpes, cuts and wound – Ok, so I don’t have all of those problems, but it sounded promising. Mostly I love the smell.
# Mortar & Pestle or small grinder
# 30g (3oz) Sifter Jars
# measuring spoons
# cosmetic brush (large full brush for foundation)

The materials list looks exotic but you can actually get everything you need at your local hippy pharmacy or grocery store or online! Ponte Verde Soap Shoppe is listed as a good resource and they seem to have many other recipes for cosmetics too.

You can make something pretty and decorative, like this rose, or you can make something useful like these duct tape tie (father’s day is getting close!).

OMG. They have a duct tape prom outfit contest every year! They announce the winners of this year on July 9th but you can go look at all the entries and they are FANTASTIC! The girl pictured above knit her dress out of hand spun duct tape ‘yarn’. I bow down to her.

I love how more and more people are sharing their pattern making recipes and the smaller pattern shops that are popping up. The two that come to mind are Colette Patterns, which has some really lovely creations and Decades of Style that has some great vintagey reproductions. I just bought the Decades of Style Diamond dress pattern, I love the zippered front and butt pockets.

Ooops, I just overwhelmed myself thinking about all the summer dresses that I need to get done!

Any other good indie clothing pattern companies that you know of?

I have a few suggestions.

FontSpace has a good selection of free sewing/knitting/stitching style fonts.

Abstract Fonts has a selection of fonts, most for sale. Crossstitch by Gerald Gallo is really cute but pricey at 95$ for 13 fonts

TopStitch is a great font that I found for free here but other sites were selling it for 10-20 bucks.

Check out this cool optical font called Dioptical by Em42! Neat-o!

You can create your own font using FontStruct, a free font creator web site! If you do share it with us!

There is a new book out called The New Terrarium by Tovah Martin (check out her web site for a list of her upcoming public appearances).

In it she gives practical advice about which plants to choose for a variety of terrariums types and people are raving about the photography in the book.

CRAFT had a good recent article on terrariums.

And here are a few online how to’s on how to build your own terrarium.
Inhabitat – This article has good step by step instructions.

Art Makers has a briefer article but also some lovely examples of stained glass terrariums.

Storm the Castle has some good terrarium projects too.

In the bloggy world West Coast Crafty and Craftypod had what looks like the terrarium making day to end all terrarium making days! Check out this post on West Coast Crafty to see what they made!!

CubeeCraft, pronounced kyoob-ee – craft), provides free paper toy templates for download (and for 8.5×11 paper too!).

There are tons of cute ones and I’m liking this Obama one. Isn’t it nice to think of our president like a super hero, not an infallible one, but at least one who is smart enough to make a good difference in the world. Download and make one for your kids today!

And I CAN NOT WAIT for this the new series that should be coming out sometime this month. The ALICE IN CUBELAND series! *faints*