{how to build your own photo booth}

Before I forget, and the whole birthday whirlwind is long past, here's a little tutorial we put together on building your own photo booth in the back garden. I looked and looked and couldn't find any instructions online, so we made it up as we went along. 

It cost us $4.86 -- most of the materials are normal household things that could be repurposed (and then returned to their old uses afterwards). You need absolutely no sewing or woodworking skills to do this, just the ability to hammer a nail and tie a knot. 

Here's what you'll need:

• one twin-size duvet cover or flat sheet (ours is the IKEA Vitaminer Vimpel)
• at least four clothes pegs
• string and scissors
• hammer and nails
• two long thin pieces of wood, at least 7ft tall (ours are from Lowes, 8ft, $2.43 each)
• a fence 

First, make sure you know the dimensions of your duvet cover or sheet. Either check the info, or measure both the width and height. Ours was 65" by 85".

We laid each of the wooden planks on the ground, measured 85" along, and marked that spot.



On both planks, we hammered a small nail into the wood at the 85" mark, in the centre. This nail goes on the backside of the photo booth, and not visible (except to your neighbours and their golden retriever!)



We placed one of our wooden planks where we wanted it along the fence, (remembering to have the nail we'd just hammered in facing away from us) and measured along 65", and marked where the second plank needed to be. We checked we liked the positioning...

...and then nailed both planks to the fence. Mmm... gives a new meaning to biting your nails!

This is what it looked like with both planks in place. (And with Justin checking his wingspan)

We knotted one end of the roll of string around one of the 85" high nails on the back of a plank...

...and wrapped the string around the outside of the plank (we figured this would allow our duvet cover to cover the planks, somewhat, when hung). We pulled the string taut, and knotted it around the second nail.

Then, we hung the duvet cover -- bending the fabric over the top of the string, and pegging it in place. We only had four pegs, and luckily that turned out to be enough!

At this point, we discovered that we'd built a giant sail. Whenever a gust of wind hit it, the whole thing flapped and blew. Perfect, if we'd been wanting to turn our fence into a raft. (Michael, Walt, Jin and Sawyer would have been proud). Not so perfect if we wanted decent photos.

The solution: one more piece of string, stretched across the front between the planks, about 2/3 of the way up. Our white string was barely noticeable in front of a white part of the duvet cover, and kept things neatly in place.

Justin grabbed Bella, and we had a few little test shots the night before the party to test out the lighting. I'd recommend thinking about where the sun will be at the time of your party, and planning where to put your photo booth accordingly. I chose to set ours up so that people wouldn't have to look directly into the setting sun when having their photos taken, which resulted in plenty of smiles, rather than pained squints. For the actual party, I upped the exposure compensation on the camera slightly to account for the extra shadows and make our whites sparkly.

With a little table nearby for the props we made (another member of our IKEA family, covered with a tablecloth), and a sign encouraging people to help themselves, it was all ready to go. Ten minutes work for under $5, and we were very happy with the results!

P.S. A round of applause for Justin, the handyman and physical labour for this project, who was happy to pose in his pajamas after a long day of work! The creative director behind the camera was not quite so brave...

{ikea hack: forty-nine cent tea towel bags}

How excited would you be if I told you that you can make a drawstring bag from a 49 cent tea towel? 

Well, double it! Yes, hold onto your Swedish meatballs, because I'm about to show you how to make not one but two bags from a TEKLA tea towel. 

Materials: (makes two)

1 TEKLA tea towel

2 lengths of string, twine or ribbon, each 20" long

Natural-coloured thread

P.S. If you can't get to an IKEA, or your cupboards are overrun with tea towels already, this pattern will work for most towels -- the finished size will just vary based on the proportions.

First, fold your tea towel in half lengthwise, so that the red stripe runs along the unfolded edge. Pin along both long edges, and across the tea towel on both sides of the middle.

Cut across the middle, in between the two lines of pins. This separates the tea towel into two, one for each bag.

You should now have two rectangles, each pinned on three sides. The unpinned edges will be the tops.
(The rest of the instructions are given for one bag -- simply repeat to make the second!)

Sew along all three pinned edges, leaving a 2" gap at the top edge of one of the long sides. This will allow you to add a drawstring top. Backstitch at the beginning and end.

Now, to add the drawstring. Take a length of string (approximately 20") and place it along the top edge of your bag.

Fold over the top edge and pin it, trapping the string in place. With the TEKLA towel, there is a seam along the top of the tea towel, so it looks neatest to fold over the seam -- no more, no less. With other tea towels, fold over 3/4" of fabric.

Continue pinning all the way around, until you reach the edge where you left a 2" gap. This will be where your string pokes out and allows you to open and shut the bag. Sew along the folded-over edge, backstitching at the beginning and end.

Trim the bottom corners, cutting them diagonally.

Turn the bag inside out, and fill!

We love to use ours for storing sets of Tilly's toys, for holding wool for my latest knitting project, for keeping fruit and snacks safe when we go out, for storing supplies from pompoms to rubber stamps, and for keeping fresh veggies in the fridge. Yes, drawstring bags are taking over our house!

And, after getting so much practice with the TEKLA towels, I had a go with one of the vintage linen beauties. This large tea towel, with a map of Bermuda, seemed perfect to accompany Justin on his next business trip to keep worn clothes in, and, perhaps, to let him dream of more relaxing places!

(Rather than cutting it in half, I simply folded it widthwise and then followed the instruction above, to make a larger bag.)

As always, if you give this a try, please stop back and let us know how it went!