Browsing “DiYVR”

DiYVR is a spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun.

Our local version of Broken Pencil magazine’s Canzine Festival of Zines and Underground Culture is this coming Sunday, November 13, from 1:00pm to 7:00pm at the Ukrainian Hall in Strathcona.

Zines and indie publishing are at the heart of Canzine West, but guests will also have the opportunity to hear a reading from Kevin Chong’s new book Beauty Plus Pity, make their own zine in an hour with Geist’s Eve Corbel,
learn about the state of artist book publishing from Keith Higgins and Kathy Slade of Publication Studio and watch local authors battle in a live version of Broken Pencil’s annual contest, Indie Writers Deathmatch.

The only local event of its kind, Canzine West showcases a variety of independent publishers—from small-circ magazine and small-press publishers to artists, illustrators and zine makers—providing a cross-section of
this vibrant and diverse cultural community.

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover?Email me!

Oh man, I so did not accomplish the ambitious goals I had for my own participation in this challenge. I was going to hem some jeans I’ve had for a few months. I was going to sew on a bunch of fallen-off buttons. I was going to silk screen a dozen outgrown baby onesies. Instead, I worked like a dog toward a work deadline and did absolutely nada.

(Later this week, though, I will totally be sewing crocheted spots onto a thrifted onesie to be part of my kid’s Hallowe’en costume. So I’m calling myself a winner, whether you think I’m cheating or not. Whatever.)

I’m pleased to report, though, that other Vancouverites were far more industrious than I was. If you missed my tweeted requests for descriptions and photos, tell all in the comments! (And follow me for next month’s challenge, eh?) Behold:

@unicorn_meat told me: I altered all of mine and husbands jeans! We both wore flair but now wear skinnies! Go me!!

@dianasof completely blew my mind: I turned a pair of pinstriped dress pants into a pencil skirt for my Doctor Who costume. I also made a 3D TARDIS felt purse. I couldn’t embed the photos rotated properly, but here they are: costume, purse.

Honourable mention goes to @emmalawson for her from-scratch TARDIS costume (it is a sure way to my heart to show me your Doctor Who crafts, FYI) and to @ChristaGiles for spending an hour stretching out an accidentally fulled lace scarf instead of throwing it out.

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

Remember back when I wrote about the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild, and how I was so inspired by the creative energy of the group that I joined despite the fact that I’m not really a quilter? Well, Saturday I attended a day-long retreat in Lions Bay, and now I’m more of a quilter.

What with the DiYVR Challenges, and my general thinking about crafting and making, I’ve been fascinated by how much is to be gained by not merely doing oneself, but doing together.

At the quilting retreat, I learned more from the friends around me than I would have learned in a formal class, mostly because I got to ask only the questions I needed answered, and then I got to mess around and learn from my mistakes and from others’ experience.

Like, I learned about chain piecing, when you sew squares to border fabric without cutting the border fabric first. So efficient!

Almost every Friday night, I attend the knitting/crochet night at Urban Yarns in Point Grey. We often set challenges for ourselves to undertake on our own, together. Often, everyone will choose the same project to make at the same time. Recently, though, we’ve been talking about crochet, and not everyone in the group knows how but they want to learn. So we concocted a group project to get us all crocheting together, on our own. We each pitched in to buy a skein of yarn, and each week the all the skeins are passed to a different person in the group. That week, the yarn keeper makes granny squares with the yarn, and on the following Friday night, they pass it on to the next participant. Eventually, we’ll sew the squares into baby blankets we’ll donate.

It’s hard to express how satisfying it is to learn from my peers, and to participate in a large project made more doable by cooperating.

There are tons of groups all over town that do similar things. I’ve written here about the Vancouver Hack Space, and there are other hack spaces in town, too. The Vancouver Tool Library holds workshops.

So tell me, Vancouver – Which groups do you learn your DIY skills from? Are there things you want to learn in a group, but don’t know where or how to find one? Let’s have a comments-fest, and hook each other up.

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover?Email me!

A couple of years ago, local authors Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore wowed the arts and crafts worlds with their book, Yarn Bombing, from local publisher Arsenal Pulp Press.

This month, Leanne is promoting her second book: Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery. Like its predecessor, it’s an impressive tome filled with full-colour photography, profiles and patterns. It’s the kind of non-fiction book I love the best – it’s gorgeous, informative and inspiring.

Even better, embroidery fits right into our October DiYVR Challenge to mend, alter or embellish! Just saying. Arsenal Pulp even has a free pattern (PDF) from the book available, should you feel inspired.

I caught up with Leanne over email, and even if you don’t know a cross stitch from a French knot, her answers will make you want to know more. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

Back in June I wrote about Chris and Kyla and their first backyard vegetable garden. I caught up with Chris over the weekend, and the photos of their bounty tell the story better than thousands of words. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

We’ve started a series of do-it-yourself challenges! Did you miss the first one? That’s okay. I’m determined to make sure there’s always a DIY thing going on, and you’re welcome to join in at any time. The idea is that a city that does stuff together is a happy city. Join the Flickr group to ask questions, seek advice, or share your tips and tricks. Take photos before and after and share those with the group, too! I’ll round up each challenge here on VIA.

The second challenge is of a sartorial nature.

Mend, Alter or Embellish!

Darn that sock, patch those jeans, sew those buttons back on. If your wardrobe needs no repair, hem those pants, take in that shirt, or make that old jacket into a vest. Or, if alterations are a bit too daunting, embellish an article of clothing – anything more involved than sticking a pin-back button on it will do. You can embroider, bedazzle, puffy paint, whatever!

If you need a hand getting started, I highly recommend asking for help in the comments or on Flickr. I’ve learned a ton of stuff watching YouTube videos, too. Like, did you know it’s not actually all that complicated or time-consuming to hem jeans? For real.

To sum up: We’re spiffing up our wardrobe, here. All by ourselves. Together.

The deadline is Monday, 24th October. When you finish, remember to upload your photos and share your notes in the Flickr group so I can be sure to include your brilliant work in the round-up I’ll post on the 25th!

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

Well kids, it’s been just over a month since I threw down the gauntlet and asked you to join me in tackling a long-put-off home-improvement project.

Did you do it? Tell us about it in the comments! Share pics and notes in the Flickr group!

I’m pleased to say I did meet the challenge. And in that vein of do-it-yourself that’s best done with others, my partner Greg helped a whole heck of a lot.

For the last eight months, I saved formula canisters with the plan to follow my friend Lee’s tutorial on how to mount them on the wall for some nifty, repurposed crafts storage. Though I’d intended to follow Lee’s duct-tape plan, once Greg got in on the game he deviated from Lee’s method, screwing some of the canisters directly into the wall and sticking all of them together with hot glue. He did it way faster than I would have, but I got my nifty storage, so I am happy.

For my part, it took me forever to decide which yarn to put in the small installation. Suffice it to say I didn’t have my act together enough to fill what I like to call the large array in time for this challenge. Still, I’m so glad we got this done. In my ongoing effort to tame my crafts stuff and get my home office in order, this is a big leap forward.

Given that this was our first challenge, I wasn’t too surprised to only hear from one other person who tackled it. Since local artist Rachael Ashe plans to do a similar yarn-tree installation in her home, I figure we can credit her office amelioration as a big-ole home-improvement win.

Next week I’ll throw down the next DiYVR challenge. Get ready for the adventure!

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!Don’t forget! We have till September 19th to complete the first ever DiYVR Challenge!

Urban farming is becoming more and more a part of food culture in Vancouver, and beehives are popping up alongside backyard and community plots. What with the important role bees play in gardening – that would be pollination, for the uninitiated – this makes perfect sense. Of course, beekeeping isn’t exactly as accessible to a first timer as planting a row of peas.

Enter Melissa Cartwright and Backyard Buzz. Working with her elementary-school classmates and the Inner City Farms project that has them transforming backyards around Vancouver into small-scale organic farms, Melissa installed beehives in a couple of the yards. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>